;)
Book Review - 'Hemingway in Love'
Saturday, June 11, 2016 at 11:17PM BOOK REVIEW
‘Hemingway in Love’ By A.E. Hotchner
172 pages – St. Martin’s Press
Reviewed by: Jeb Ladouceur
I am not one of those who feels that Ernest Hemingway’s writing is all that exquisite … I’m more interested in the part and parcel of the man’s existence, than in the style of his prose per se. Accordingly, the slender volume, ‘Hemingway in Love,’ with its concise recounting of this most interesting fellow commonly and affectionately known as ‘Papa,’ is my dish of tea.
As most Hemingway aficionados will likely do when they read A.E. Hotchner’s masterfully written account of his friend Ernest’s marriages (and ‘Hem’s’ disastrous love of two women simultaneously) I absorbed this book in one session. In fact, I even found myself at one point eager to finish so that I could start it all over again (I re-read it the following evening, by the way).
It’s no news that Ernest Hemingway was married four times … that his one true love appears to have been his first wife, Hadley … that Hadley’s successors were Pauline, Martha, and Mary … and that the most romantically exciting relationship of the four clearly was his liaison with the wealthy seductress, Pauline Pfeiffer.
But even after a lifetime of reading everything I could lay my hands on by and about the ‘great’ Hemingway, I found much in Hotchner’s book that I hadn’t known. For instance, at one point Ernest describes himself to his friend ‘Hotch’ as a young husband who, upon meeting the determined Pauline, “…was as stupid as a bird dog who goes out with anyone with a gun.” We see how Hotchner quotes this perfect metaphor to paint the swarthy author/sportsman, who finds himself the unsuspecting target of a different kind of hunter … this one wrapped in a high-fashion outfit right out of the pages of ‘Vogue.’
If there is any literary criticism to be leveled at this intriguing memoir, it is that the book jumps unevenly between Hemingway’s serial marriages and his related sojourns over three continents. Unlike ‘The Paris Wife,’ Paula McLain’s superbly penetrating step-by-step analysis of Ernest’s marriage to Pauline Pfeiffer, ‘Hemingway in Love’ is a bit short on detail. Nowhere does Hotchner point out, for instance, that Hadley was eight years Ernest’s senior … and Pauline four years so … whereas, McLain finds substance in that, and says so. Similarly, Hotchner fails to mention Hadley’s unpardonably once losing a number of major Hemingway manuscripts (including carbon copies). OMG!
If Ernest was vacillating in his marital devotion, he certainly never seemed to backslide in his love of self … or of his writings. If Hadley Hemingway (nee Richardson) couldn’t see the end coming after the incident of the manuscripts lost on a train from Paris to Switzerland, she probably wasn’t paying attention. Hotchner ought to have included the now legendary incident.
That said, it should be noted that ‘Hemingway in Love’ depends on Hotchner’s notes and electronic tapes … his letters from Ernest … and his own recollections, as the source materials for this volume. It’s likely that what might seem oversight on Hotch’s part to some, is simply an event that Hemingway considered unimportant … or at least, unrelated to the subject at hand: namely, Ernest’s true love.
But I wouldn’t bet on it.
At any rate, this is a thoroughly enjoyable book on several levels. It is terse … it is romantically compelling without being smutty … and it shines a rather unique literary spotlight on one of the more fascinating personalities of the twentieth century.
________________________________________________________________________
Award-winning writer, Jeb Ladouceur is the author of eleven novels, and his theater and book reviews appear in several major L.I. publications. His newest book, THE GHOSTWRITERS, explores the bizarre relationship between the late Harper Lee and Truman Capote. It maintains that each wrote the other’s most famous work. Ladouceur’s revealing website is www.JebsBooks.com
Reader Comments (1)