Hemingway's Boat: Everything He Loved In Life, And Lost, 1934-1961

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Format:: Hardback
Pages:: 544
Publisher:: Vintage
Publication Date:: 12 January 2012
Category:: Biography: Literary
ISBN:: 9781847921932

Description

A man who let who let his own insides get eaten out by the diseases of fame had dreamed new books on this boat. He'd taught his sons to reel in something that feels like Moby Dick on this boat. He'd accidentally shot himself in both legs on this boat. He'd fallen drunk from the flying bridge on this boat. He'd written achy, generous, uplifting, poetic letters on this boat. He'd propositioned women on this boat. He'd hunted German subs on this boat. He'd saved guests and family members from shark attack on this boat. He'd acted like a bully on this boat. She'd been intimately his, and he hers, for twenty-seven years - his final twenty-seven years. She'd lasted through three wives, the Nobel Prize, and all his ruin. He'd owned her, fished her, worked her and rode her. She wasn't a figment or a dream or a literary theory or somebody's psychosexual interpretation - she was actual. Even in his most accomplished period, Hemingway carried within him the seeds of his tragic decline and throughout this period, he had one constant - his beloved boat, Pilar. Paul Hendrickson has delved into the life of Hemingway and done the seemingly impossible: present him to us in a whole new light. With poetic sensibility, tireless research, and dazzling writing, Hendrickson focuses on the period from 1934 to 1961, from the pinnacle of Hemingway's fame to his suicide. Hendrickson shows the close connection between Hemingway's life and the words that would wind up on the pages of his books. "Hemingway's Boat" is an unforgettable and unique contribution to our understanding of a great American writer.

Reader Reviews

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This book is billed as a reconsideration of Ernest Hemingway that, presumably, will make the reader think better of a man who is most often portrayed as a boorish bully and also, perhaps a closeted homosexual. It covers the years 1934 to his death by suicide in 1961 and uses his beloved boat, <I> Pilar</I> as a metaphor for the last half of his life.Paul Hendrickson has done extensive research not only into Hemingway and his family, but also into many of the tangential persons who crossed path with the author during his life. He writes lyrically in a stream of consciousness manner about the demons that haunted not only Hemingway himself, but also his family, particularly his youngest son, Gregory, known in the family as Gigi and the sections about his son and several other people who who the author befriended. These parts of the book are a joy to read.However, if the author's goal was to make the reader think better of Ernest Hemingway, he has not succeeded - at least not with this reader. Hemingway certainly was capable of great kindnesses, but they all seemed to be with people who could be regarded as his social and intellectual unequals. With other writers, his wives and his family, he is still the arrogant & mean-spirited bully of my imagination - always having to put in the hateful & spiteful remark, tearing down other people in order to sustain his own ego. Perhaps that is why he still fascinates 50 years after he ended his own life. It's hard to turn ones eyes away from a train wreck.

4.00 out of 5

etxgardener

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