Valenti's casebook helped me understand "Old Man and the Sea" by explaining the authors life and environment at the time of the books conception. With detailed research, maps and images I could better grasp what the author was writing about. To me this book made all the difference in the world in my understanding what I read and made Hemingway far less intemidating. This book doesn't try to cheat by telling you a "Cliff Notes" summary of the story, but is an actual accessory to better understanding the novel, written by an expert in the field.

It is astonishing that this book is so little known. Here is a memoir which records Hemingway's insights on writing as given to his only pupil, a young writer/hobo who shows up one day at Hemingway's Key West house hoping for a few words of advice. "He left me with that damned marvelous feeling you can have only once in a lifetime if you are a young man who wants to become a writer and you have just met the man you admire as the greatest writer alive and you know instinctively that he is already your friend." Impulsively Hemingway hires the twenty-two-year-old "tramp" to guard his new boat, the Pilar. Samuelson carefully records Hemingway's thoughts on writing (including a "mandatory" reading list for the young, aspiring writer). Not only does the book illuminate Hemingway, his life, his fishing, his family and his work, but it also tells the story of a fascinating individual who spent a year with him.

This book could very well be the best of Hemingway.

A Moveable Feast was published after Hemingway's death and many feel that he would never have wanted it published. I'm very glad they did. It is a memoir of Hemingway's time in Paris during the 1920's. During that time he and his first wife, Hadley, lived on $5.00 a day.

I first heard of this book in the movie, City of Angels (Nicholas Cage, Meg Ryan). In it, Cage reads a quote from it to Ryan. The quote interested me and I bought the book. I was amazed.

The characters in this book are extroridnary including everyone from Ezra Pound to Aleister Crowley. He narrates stories including F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda that are so acidic they almost hurt to read.

Hemingway was at his best when he wrote this book. It is a memoir of an aging man looking back on a very happy time in his life. Its a great place to start for Hemingway beginners and a touching read for Hemingway veterans.

Anyone who enjoys twentieth-century Western literature will dig A Moveable Feast. It's simply inevitable. Hemingway knew and hung out with pretty much all the major American literary players of the early twentieth century - James Joyce, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound. It gives some background behind all those books you've read, and it gives real human faces to their authors (as opposed to just entries in encyclopedias). And there's something infinitely cool about the fact that at some point, all of these people were poor, struggling to get by, destined to become great, and all knew and talked to each other. They're all brought to life on these pages by Hemingway's infectious enthusiasm, making this autobiography as good as any novel.

In a sense, this book is the effective culmination of where the author had been going towards the end. In his later books, such as Across the River and Into the Trees (also very highly recommended by me), Hemingway showed a sort of quiet, elegiac nostalgia for the past. His characters increasingly lived in the past, reliving old memories until the line between past and present became blurred in their minds. (Recall how Santiago kept reminiscing about his youth, or how Richard Cantwell kept coming back to his wars.) Well, that's most likely because Hemingway himself was longing for the days when "we were very poor and very happy." Now he finally stops masking his feelings by putting them into fictional characters and writes in the genuine first person. And the emotional weight of his longing, finally met completely head-on, is what makes A Moveable Feast such a great, visceral read.

Of course, what helps is the number of interesting characters he interacted with - and his very witty caricatures of some of them. The beat-down of Gertrude Stein is absolutely hilarious, and doubly so for anyone who, like me, cares little for her asinine "works." Hemingway isn't afraid to deride anyone who he thinks was phony or pretentious (and there are many such people), and this makes for great entertainment. But others are treated with more respect. Take, for instance, F. Scott Fitzgerald. The editorial review says that Hemingway's portrait of him was "acidic." Nothing of the kind. True, Hemingway points out his embarrassing character flaws like his poor handling of spirituous beverages and his conduct while intoxicated, but he always makes sure to reiterate that Fitzgerald was a brilliant writer. He praises The Great Gatsby to the skies, and he bitterly laments the fact that Fitzgerald didn't entirely fulfill his enormous potential. Moreover, he calls Fitzgerald a great friend, at one point even his only friend. Now, his opinion of Fitzgerald's wife Zelda is completely different, and _that's_ where the "acidic" part really comes in. Clearly he felt that she was unworthy of Fitzgerald, that she dragged him away from his writing, and that she was a loon, and he blames her for what happened to her husband.

Then, at the ending, after all the jokes and anecdotes and observations, something very extraordinary happens. Hemingway tells a final story about how he and his first wife travelled into the mountains and skied at a resort. And here, all the book's wistfulness and melancholy suddenly disappears to reveal an undercurrent of very bitter longing, as Hemingway drops several extremely biting comments about idle rich people who addle the brains of young writers with their excessive praise, and some absolutely brutal remarks about various lying "friends" who think nothing of breaking up couples, stealing wives or leading away husbands. And then he concludes with his remark about being very poor and very happy, and only then, in the book's last sentence, do we realize the full extent of just how much this time meant to him. And when we do realize it, the way he ended his life should come as no surprise to any of us.

"A Moveable Feast" is a wonderous quick read that manages to transport the reader back to the bohemian Paris of the 1920s like a magical time machine. Hemingway's personal, casual and intimate accounts of such figures as Ford Maddox Ford, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Alistair Crowley and Gertrude Stein make the reader feel as though the reader has become great old friends with each of these romantic figures as well as with dear old grumpy Ernest himself. I read this book in preparation for a trip to Paris and when I got there, I almost expected to see Mssr. Hemingway at his favorite table at the Closerie de Lilas with a drink, his notebook and two blue pencils still writing observations about passers-by. Reading this marvelous little book is like taking a vacation back in time and as such brings renewal to a modern world weary soul.

(As a footnote, the Closerie de Lilas is still there but it is now one of the nicest restaurants in Paris and the sort of place Mssr. Hemingway would not have dreamed about stepping into; no matter how much money he had won on the horses. Read the book, you'll know what I mean)

English professors spend their careers teaching students not to confuse the author with the characters in the book. Shakespeare is not Hamlet, and Cervantes is not Don Quixote, or so they say.

But Hemingway's readers have a better idea, and Robert F. Burgess is one of Hemingway's best readers. Burgess knows that when Hemingway's fans read "The Sun Also Rises," they like to imagine how Hemingway himself drank in Paris and how he ran with the bulls in Pamplona.

Robert F. Burgess has written a book for those who read Hemingway as preparation for their own European adventures. Burgess knows that, for full appreciation of Hemingway's novels, one would do well to skip that college English class and make the grand tour. If you are planning to trace Hemingway's steps through Paris and Pamplona, then Burgess has prepared your itinerary.

Burgess knows that Hemingway's readers are not content with postcard views of the Eiffel Tower--they want to know precisely where Hemingway slept, ate, and walked. Burgess' book is encyclopedic in its detail, but it reads like a novel as Burgess introduces people he has met during his travels.

Wisely, Burgess has recognized that Hemingway has spawned a cult following as well as a critical reception. Hemingway's fans visit the author's bars and other haunts with the fervor of Bible scholars on a tour of the Holy Land. When they make their literary pilgrimage, Hemingway's readers want gospel truth--nothing apocryphal.

Burgess is such a stickler for authenticity that his book reminds one of how Hemingway began his writing career in Paris. Before he was famous, Hemingway looked out over the rooftops of Paris and decided that he should learn how to write one true sentence. Hemingway then wrote a few true sentences based upon straightforward observation of Paris street scenes.

In response to Hemingway's one true sentence, Robert F. Burgess has written one true book. He has documented the sites in Paris and Pamplona that Hemingway observed and described. Hemingway took pride in describing places precisely, and Burgess has gone to similar pains to trace Hemingway's legacy accurately.

Burgess' book is a thorough testament to the verisimilitude of Hemingway's fiction.

This book, Hemingway's Paris & Pamplona - Then and Now, is an exciting and nostalgic read. It's fun. Robert Burgess weaves an interesting history of Hemingway's personal and literary experiences in France and Spain using The Sun Also Rises as a basis, while also exploring and portraying these places today. The reader gets the trip for the price of the book. Inside, Burgess' own recollections of Hemingway, historical facts, literary references, friends' statements, and his detailed investigation of the sites reveal the world that Papa and his characters knew. From the Pyrenees to Pamplona to Paris, the author captures the essence of Hemingway's turf, accurately describing it then and now. The specifics are splendid, as real and imaginary people are brought to life. For Mr. Burgess, researching and compiling this book must have been a memorable trip back in time, as he re-explored places from his own past. The enthusiasm shows. For anyone interested in Hemingway, Spain, Paris, or Mr. Burgess' extrordinary travels, I could have reviewed this book in two words: BUY IT.....
By Jimmy Hall/ Georgia

This book is an outstanding way to get acquainted with Hemingway's works and life. I have never read any of his books (I have seen several of the movie versions though)and know very little about Hemingway's life, so when it was recommended by a friend, I thought it might be like coming in on a football game at halftime. However, it turned out to be a very readable, enjoyable and accessible look into this great American writer's years in France and Spain and the friends and acquaintances that influenced his life and his writing. The author did an outstanding job of showing the real life connections between his life there and the characters and places he used in his first novel "The Sun Also Rises". In reading it I was able to see in my minds eye the street cafés of Paris and feel the excitement of the famous running of the bulls in the streets of Pamplona. I especially enjoyed the author's return visit to those places to see them as they are today. His descriptions of the changes that have occurred in the intervening years are what brought this book together nicely. I think now I'll go read "The Sun Also Rises" and see how Hemingway saw it all.

Hemingway's short stories were always a bit more finely crafted than his novels. The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway allows the reader to examine and even partake in the development of Hemingway as a writer; from his early Nick Adams stories, a few of which went on to become The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell To Arms, To Have And Have Not; to the mature Hemingway who wrote about his experiences as a reporter during the Spanish Civil War and later in Europe between the wars. This work contains some of the finest shorts of American literature. (Read The Short Happy Life Of Francis Macomber; The Snows of Kilimanjaro; A Clean Well Lighted Place; Big Two-Hearted River (parts I & II); Hills Like White Elephants--too many good ones to mention them all.) There are some poor stories as well but even these are well constructed. In short, the definitive volume of Hemingway--better than any single novel or other collection. A must have.... (I'm holding mine in my hand as I type with the other--) Little known fact: The Finca Vigia Edition contains an editorial change in the story A Clean Well Lighted Place--a moved line of dialogue--which was made by a silly editor after Hemingway's death and which renders the text incorrect with respect to his orignal published manuscript. In fact there are no correct versions of this short story presently in print. The accurate version, though, may be found in the Library of Congress.

Hemingway's writing is a grand example of stylistic dichotomy: His prose is as austere and utilitarian as a barn, yet his stories, unique and instantly recognizable as his own, pound with energy, drama, and almost excessive bravado. He wastes no time on literary pretension and gets right down to business; writing, drinking, and living life to the fullest are inextricably entwined, and nothing matters more than a well-worded and well-placed line of dialogue.

Hemingway's subject matter is easy to summarize: he writes about the things he actively enjoys. His short stories cover safaris, hunting, fishing, the outdoors ("Big Two-Hearted River"), boating, horse racing ("My Old Man"), bullfighting ("The Undefeated"), boxing ("Fifty Grand"), war, lowlife crime ("The Killers"), even a couple of fairy tales. Basically, Hemingway can turn anything adventurous and daring into reading material for the armchair weekend warrior. With a few exceptions, the stories take place either in the plains of Africa, throughout war-torn European countries, or in and around Michigan.

While some of the stories profess nothing more than pure narration, the recreational activities of the characters usually serve as a backdrop against which they face private conflicts or ethical dilemmas. Realism is emphasized, and only "Cat in the Rain" can be said to have a conventional happy ending, albeit one that glosses over the heroine's real problems. Hemingway is more interested in the seedy side of life, portraying people on the fringes of society: vagabonds, smugglers, expatriates. An important distinction about his war stories is that he tends to write not about soldiers, but about fighters -- individualistic rebels who are compelled by the strength of their political convictions and revel in the camaraderie on and off the battlefield, often with a bottle of fine wine.

The two stories that bookend this collection are indicative of the diversity of Hemingway's thematic repertoire. The title character of "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" exposes his cowardice to his wife and loses the real trophy -- her love -- to their safari guide, even while regaining his dignity in a final effort that is too little, too late. Hemingway appears to reflect himself in "The Strange Country," in which an acclaimed cosmopolitan writer takes a cross-country road trip with a much younger girl in a series of vignettes that contrasts the comfort of American domesticity with the imminent dangers of pre-World War II Europe. This is the ultimate expression of Hemingway's restlessness: The world was too small to contain him; life was too slow to keep up with him.

Hemingway is one of the finest writers this country has every produced. In these politically correct times, he was fallen into disfavor, and that is a crying shame. His terse, lean lines are so easy to mock today, but what people forget is that he created that style, molded it and trimmed it down from the long-winded, more European style of writing that was so popular before his advent. As a short story writer, he is the master. Not a wasted word, and every word carved in its perfect place. When a Hemingway character plunges their arm into a cold stream, the reader can feel the ice cold numbing the fingers. His short story, "The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber" turned me onto reading as a teenager. So much came from him, and so much still comes from him. Raymond Carver, James Ellroy, Elmore Leonard and many others all walk a clear path that he cut through thick brush.

Steve Van Zandt finally left his sideman and producer role and stepped out as a frontman to release this superb album in 1982. Of course he was and is a member of the E Street Band and one of Springsteen's oldest friends, but after the break up of an early Springsteen band, Steel Mill, and before rejoining Bruce at the end of the Born To Run sessions, Mr. Van Zandt went on the road as part of an oldies package tour backing up a variety of sixties soul group. The combination of early to mid 60's soul music and rock has always been a big element in Bruce's music and the Jersey Music scene that produced him, Steven, Southside Johnny and others. The training Steven received on those package tours serves him well on Men Without Women. The album has a wall of sound production feel to it and songs like "Forever", "Save Me" and "Angel Eyes" would not seem out of place in Phil Spector's catalog. There are soaring horns, stinging guitar riffs and tortured vocals all over the album. Mr. Van Zandt does not stray too far from the E Street family as members of the band appear to lend support as does the Boss himself. Bruce is uncredited on the album, but you can plainly hear him singing back up on "Until the Good Is Gone." With it's lyrics about the relationships between men & woman and the trials and tribulations between adults, the album is like a more rhythm & bluesier older brother of Born To Run. These songs may be about what happens to the Magic Rat, Barefoot Girl, Terry & Wendy and the others when they grow up and get into mature relationships. After this record, Mr. Van Zandt used his subsequent albums as a voice for his political stances. But on this record, he just lays it it on line, singing about the things men and women do.

As a fan of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, it was not hard for me to enjoy this album. As a former Juke and E-Streeter, Miami Steve sets the rock world ablaze with this solo venture. This is as soulful and rockin' as anything Daryl Hall could try to sing. Piercing guitars, and dead-pan Stax-like horns, this album has plenty of hidden gems. Under the Gun and Angel Eyes are my favorites. Listen closely for Bruce's background vocals. Released in 1982, this album got lost in the shuffle of the New Wave craze. A few cuts are heard in the Sopranos as background music....in Bada Bing no less! Without being overly derivitive, Miami Steve makes his own interpretation of Sam Cooke, the Drifters, and black soul music. For a more world beat sound, try the out of print album Freedom-No Compromise.

If Van Zandt really knows how good this is, why won't he put that band back together for so more???

This stuff, along with Hearts of Stone, are amongst the most under appreciated of all rock....

Steve: fuggetabout the Sopronos and give us MORE!

Hemingway, at his best, was a master of the short story form and a reasonably good, though not outstanding, novelist. At his death he left a number of unfinished manuscripts, material in various stages of development that he was working on and, in some cases, struggling with. Knowing this, I hesitated to pick this book up for a long time, not wanting to read the master's own discards and figuring he knew what was good enough for publication and what was not and that what he left, at his death, was manifestly not.

Reading ISLANDS IN THE STREAM some years back, I felt confirmed in this belief for that was a clumsy and self-absorbed effort and I think he must have known that. Later, I had a similar experience when I tried TRUE AT FIRST LIGHT, the most recent posthumous addition to his opus. More recently, however, I was bored for lack of fresh reading material and so picked up THE GARDEN OF EDEN to read on a plane trip.

Although this one was unfinished at his death and ends in such a fashion as to drive that sad point home, it is nevertheless outstanding Hemingway. Aside from a few lapses here and there and the usual Hemingway tendency toward an almost juvenile self-absorption, this one positively hums with the power of the old Hemingway prose. As sharp and subtle as his best short fiction and as fresh and dynamic as his best novel, THE SUN ALSO RISES, this book unfolds, in crisply vivid detail, the struggle of a youthful writer to hang onto his sense of self-worth and devotion to his work in the face of his passionate love for a difficult and spoiled woman.

Yet it's plain why Hemingway may have agonized over this one and held it back from publication, for the man it reveals is not the public persona he cultivated for most of his life. The protagonist in this tale, an avatar of the author (as in most of his works), is here a passive and unassertive sort who is unable to deal effectively with the woman he has married. Instead he succumbs to one of her whims after another though he feels they will somehow unman him, allowing her to change him outwardly while losing himself in the satisfaction of his writing, the only thing, besides his wife, we are led to believe he really loves. And yet when his wife brings another woman into their lives to create a menage a trois, the hero does not rebel though he finds himself more and more a plaything of the two women. Is he flattered by their attention and sexual interest, though his wife takes delight in being able to control and manipulate him to her will? And is she jealous of the one thing he has outside of her, his writng, and is that the motive that drives her to turn him into a creature she can wholly control?

Hemingway's best works were rooted in his own life experiences and, indeed, as he plumbed those, his well went regrettably dry in his later years, something he sensed and agonized over at the end. Yet this tale is fresh and alive in ways that many of his other later works were not. The one really regrettable thing about it was that he never finished it so there are still some rough parts, where his control slips and he says what he should be implying (by his own famous dictum) and the end tails off into an insipid and half-baked moment of insight leaving the reader feeling cheated.

Hemingway, had he focused on this one and finished it in his lifetime, would not have let it stand this way. But it's plain why he did not for this was not the man he wanted others to see. Still, this one is finely wrought and true, for the most part, to the old Hemingway "voice" and talent. I'm not sorry I finally broke down and read it.

This book is truly fantastic and I recommend it to anyone. It always amazes me what Hemingway does for his audience. He allows his reader to be completely involved and enthralled with his works. We are in France and Spain, we see what Catherine looks like, we can taste the food that they eat, and feel the cool breeze of the ocean. I always become hypnotized after reading Hemingway. The "Garden of Eden" is like "The Sun Also Rises" in pure Hemingway style, however the content is extremely sensual. It will take you on a journey that you will truly never forget and will want to revisit time and time again. Bravo papa!

A posthumous work, possibly Hemingway's finest achievment. This tender love story about a torrid triangular relationship is unlike any of his better known books. A surprisingly modern novel in which the famously 'macho' author gets in touch with his feminine side, it caused quite a stir in literary circles when first published in 1986. Not least for its erotic hedonistic content.
Set in the early 1920s, young lovers David Bourne, a writer, and his beautiful wife Catherine are enjoying an idyllic honeymoon on the French Mediterranean coast ... until David decides it's time to get back to work again on his next book. Fun-loving Catherine, a bit of a rebellious wildchild at heart, soon begins to resent her husband's writerly solitude. When he shuts himself away alone in his study to work (unfortunately, it's what us writers have to do!) she starts to go recklessly out of control. Catherine's suppressed bisexual feelings begin to surface, as does her self-destructive nature and worsening mental condition. As Catherine starts to explore her sexuality, she involves David in a dangerous erotic game with another young woman she herself is attracted to and is willing to share with her man.
David is a more sensitive male protagonist than the archetypal strong, silent main characters of Hemingway's other fiction; without a war, maybe this is why. Catherine, who is living on the edge of madness, is a lot like that other damaged Catherine (Barkley) in A Farewell To Arms. The romantic Provence setting is enchanting and makes you want to visit the tiny seaport village of le Grau du Roi; I did, actually, but found it disappointingly touristy (as most famous places in fiction are apt to be nowadays) and is no longer the quiet, sleepy, undiscovered Eden depicted in the novel. Hemingway himself honeymooned there with his second wife Pauline and the events in the story are based loosely on his memories of this Mediterranean trip.
The Garden of Eden was a labour of love for Hemingway, a novel he worked on on-and-off over the last 15 years of his life between other books that were published such as The Old Man and the Sea. Some critics who have read the entire unfinished manuscript at the John F Kennedy Library were unhappy with the way it was whittled down in shape to a third of its original size for the final published version. Others, like myself, who haven't yet viewed the manuscript, think Scribners editor Tom Jenks did a wonderful job cutting and condensing to make it such a beautiful book. That 'one true sentence' Hemingway strove so hard to write has never been so apparent as in this deceptively simple sparse prose. Easy to read is hard to write, trust me, and I'm in constant awe of what Hemingway has managed to achieve with this, his greatest work, I feel.
Lastly, did you know that the unedited manuscript also followed the story of another young couple, whose lives intertwined with David and Catherine? Nick Sheldon, a painter, and his wife Barbara, who were living in a small rented flat in Paris; they were modelled on Hemingway and his first wife Hadley. These other two central characters probably got the chop because their storyline wasn't developed enough - or perhaps the story didn't work as well with them in it. Who knows? Maybe one day Scribners will publish the original manuscript in its entirety. I hope so, but doubt it. Just be thankful for what we do have.

Hemingway was reticent about his craft; he feared that talking about it would destroy it, or even worse, be a substitute for it. Yet, woven throughout his novels and other writings are numerous observations about writers and the art of writing. In "Ernest Hemingway On Writing", Larry Phillips has culled several hundred excerpts from Hemingway's books, interviews, and personal correspondences that touch upon some aspect of writing. They range in length from a mere sentence fragment to several paragraphs. As Phillips explains in the introduction, "This book contains Hemingway's reflections on the nature of the writer and on the elements of the writer's life, including specific helpful advice to writers on the craft of writing, work habits, and discipline. The Hemmingway personality comes through in general wisdom, wit, humor, and insight..."

Some of these reflections are insightful, some are humorous, and some show us Hemingway at his best. But this is not to say that the collection works as a whole. While I like the idea behind book, and feel it has definite value, there are a good number of excerpts that do not seem to have any of the above qualities, so I question why they were included. They seem like filler. Nonetheless, I'll list a few of the reflections that I liked, as they show something of Hemingway's many moods and styles.

In a letter to Charles Scribner, Hemingway reveals a tortured ambivalence about writing: "Charlie there is no future in anything. I hope you agree. That is why I like it at a war. Every day and every night there is a strong possibility that you will get killed and not have to write. I have to write to be happy... But it is a hell of a disease to be born with. I like to do it. Which is even worse. That makes it from a disease into a vice. Then I want to do it better than anybody has ever done it which makes it into an obsession."

Among the reflections are many little truisms about writing: "...it has never gotten any easier to do and you can't expect it to if you keep trying for something better than you can do." There are also sardonic remarks: "The good parts of a book may be only something a writer is lucky enough to overhear or it may be the wreck of his whole damn life--and one is as good as the other." Some of Hemingway's remarks seem genuinely helpful, as when he describes what he does when he is "stuck". He would say to himself "Do no worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know." Then, he explains "If I start to write elaborately, or like someone introducing or presenting something, I found that I could cut that scrollwork or ornament out and throw it away and start with the first true simple declarative sentence I had written." Finally, when asked "How much should you write a day?", he proffered this advice: "The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day when you are writing a novel you will never get stuck. That is the most valuable thing I can tell you so try to remember it."

The collection definitely contains some gems; if you are a Hemingway fan you will likely enjoy it. However, if you are looking for sage advice from the master, you are apt to be disappointed, for once you remove the quips and the anecdotes, there is not a great deal left.

Hemingway was enthusiastic about his craft. The editor of this selection chose hundreds of quotes from Hemingway's works that deal with writing. They are excellent choices. This could be a worthwhile textbook for a writer developing his own craft, or for an interested reader studying Hemingway. It is regrettable that the paper is little better, if at all, than newsprint. It is virtually impossible to annotate in pencil. I suspect this book will self-destruct in a year like an old newspaper.

Larry Phillips' compilation of the comments Hemingway made on the process of writing contains a wealth of material for writers at every level. I had the good fortune to read the book in its original hard-cover version when it was published in the mid-1980s. At that point, I had been a newspaper and magazine writer and editor for about a decade, and I found several key ideas I was able to incorporate into my own work. I'd long ago loaned out my copy of the hard-cover book when the paperback version came out this summer, so I happily purchased a copy and reread the book. It seems as fresh today as it did nearly 15 years ago. There are still lots of specific tips and techniques writers can acquire. One of my favorites is Hemingway's recommendation that a writer not continue writing until he or she runs dry, but rather stop at a point when the next sentence or paragraph or chapter is known. That way, the writer can pick up later where he or she left off, without the trauma of facing a blank page or a blank screen, wondering what's next. I've tried it over the years, and it works. Beyond those specifics, however, I find it interesting to read how Hemingway viewed his life as a writer. Regardless of how you feel about Hemingway as a person or even as a writer, you might recognize that the man spent a lot of time thinking about what it meant to be a writer and how a writer should develop his or her craft. That alone is worth the price of admission.

This novel certainly deserves its billing as a "classic." The action takes place during the Spanish Civil War (of the 1930's), and the story follows a group of guerilla loyalists, who are fighting against Franco's fascist forces in the name of the Republic.

The entire novel only covers a span of three days, so the reader truly gets a sense of the time passing. Because of this, it feels as if the events are actually occurring as one is reading. Each moment is important, and there are few discontinuities in the story. Also, the novel is written in an interesting format where the climax doesn't occur until the final pages-this adds quite a bit of suspense. What really makes this book so excellent is the delicate combination of action and lull, and love and hate, which Hemingway builds into the story. There is a very beautiful (if only slightly unrealistic) love story carefully interwoven with murder, conspiracy, and disaster.

It is impossible not to deeply care for each individual in the story because there are few characters, and they are all extremely well developed. The reader can find a piece of somebody that he/she knows in every character. Hemingway also deals effectively with emotion. It is always easy to understand exactly what each person is feeling. With Robert Jordan, specifically, Hemingway uses a unique series of monologue-type passages so that the reader really can "get inside" Jordan's head. Somehow, Hemingway manages to do this while keeping out that uneasiness one gets when reading a play monologue. The novel has an anti-war feel to it, but it still contains several enthralling battle scenes. If only the love story were a bit more believable, this book could be truly fantastic. "For Whom The Bell Tolls" is definitely a worthwhile read right from the opening quote by John Donne all the way to the very last page.

This novel is considered by most to be one of the great novels of the 20th Century, and its author to be one of the greatest authors of all time; there are undoubtedly reasons for this. Yet, Hemmingway is also considered to be a "love him" or "hate him" type. I tend toward the former, though he isn't one of my personal favorites.

The plot of this novel is relatively straightforward. American Robert Jordan, a member of the International Brigades fighting with the Republicans against the Fascists during the Spanish Civil War, is given the task of blowing up a bridge to prevent the Fascists from bringing up reinforcements to repel a Republican offensive. But while the plot is uncomplicated, the depth and breadth of Hemmingway's story telling are not. There are layers and layers of emotion, passion, and personal pain. You are transported to the mountains of Spain with Jordan and a band of Spanish guerilla fighters. The characters are so incredibly real, that you feel as though you could find their names in a history book. For those who have never read Hemmingway, I'd say give it a try.

This book is about an American, Robert Jordan, who joins the Republican Army (communists) to fight the nationalists during the civil war in Spain in the 1930's. He joins a guerilla-group which is given the mission to blow up a bridge to obstruct the fascists' offensive. Although he has a bad feeling about the whole situation he persists.
I found the character ¨pilar¨ the most interesting, fulfilling a key role of telling the background story (her experience in the war sofar) as well as being the one who keeps the whole group together (her insights give the American, Robert Jordan, some information about Pablo, the member of the group who can't be trusted).
Although it has bothered a lot of people (read the other reviews), for me the translated Spanish words and little sentences really added something to the atmosphere of the book as well as to a better depiction of the characters.

If the first section on Bimini (the Island on the Stream [the gulf stream for those who still do not understand]) was package by itself it would have received 5 stars. Unfortunatley the latter 2 stories bring the overall rating down somewhat. That too could have been fixed through a little more editing. But regardless I would recommend buying this book to read the first section alone. It gives the depth and feel of what a child or adult on the stream experienced. I must admit when I first read this story I was horrified that the little island Bimini would get more fanfare from this. I had many memorable trips there but it's been years since. But at anytime I can pick up this book read the Bimini section and remember Brown's hotel dock, the Complete Angler, the beauty of the Ocean, the feel of the tradewinds, and the thrill of the fishing. The story of Tom Hudson life on the island almost gives one a jolt of envy that it wasn't them until the following developments that Hemingway is known for. What else can you say? If you enjoy Hemingway, the Sea, and Fishing buy it.

Of the Hemingway books I've read or tried to read, Islands in the Stream is my favorite thus far. All the great and not-so-great elements of his legendary style are here, from the deadpan prose to the men who try too hard to be men, but they all fit together very well in this case. The exotic island setting is perfect for Hemingway's trademark everyday-life-is-an-adventure motif, which for once is wholly convincing.

Thomas Hudson, a hard drinking, twice divorced, expatriate American artist, is an all too obvious self-portrait. But his low-key reactions to most of life's ups and downs, the inner demons he mostly keeps a lid on, and his begrudging love of life in spite of it all can surely appeal to the romantic adventurer in all of us. The three sections of the novel, bound only loosely together, follow Thomas from an average day in paradise to a tragicomic reunion with the lost love of his life to a Nazi-hunting adventure off the coast of Cuba. Along the way, there are tragic twists delivered without any sappiness whatsoever, as only Hemingway could do, not to mention a life-or-death fishing scene that rivals "The Old Man and the Sea."

I can't imagine why this is being marketed as a love story, as that aspect of the novel is probably its weakest point, although his (very few) women characters are at least marginally more developed and convincing than usual. It's really more a story of escape and coping with the lack of love, and it's one of the best I've ever read of that subgenre. Yes, as others have pointed out, it's a bit uneven and the first section holds up better than the other two; and yes, the editing is imperfect and surely not exactly the way Hemingway would have wanted it. But the whole book is worth reading all the same. Given Hemingway's condition toward the end of his life, we're lucky to have it.

_Islands in the Stream_ is my favorite novel by Ernest Hemingway. Like most of his works, the prose is relatively sparse but very readable and very entertaining. It is also one of his most definitive novels in terms of revealing his true thoughts on the subject of life, death, and tragedy. Some of this may not be obvious at the onset of the book; the most important events establishing the theme of this novel do not occur until later, culminating in a surprising and disturbing ending. Of course I will not reveal this ending, so I will give you a brief rundown of the initial setting and cast: The novel takes place on the Bimini Islands off the coast of Florida. The main character is a hard-drinking, hard-partying, womanizing landscape painter, the ideal Hemingway character. Also in typical Hemingway fashion, his seemingly idyllic and glamorous existence is marred by heartbreak and tragedy. There is action and suspense when the protagonist embarks on his WW-II era, anti-nazi submarine hunting missions off the coast of Cuba. But the ending is the definitive part of this work. It has much to say about Hemingway's spiritual beliefs, which is rare because much of his mysterious prose is very reserved in this regard. I highly recommend this book to both Hemingway fans and fans of literature in general.