Customer Reviews

Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I didn't care much for Hemingway (yes, yes, I know he's the greatest writer of the twentieth century, or so everyone tells me)--so why would I pick up this book, you might ask? The man and his work never interested me much--UNTIL I read Michael Palin's new travel adventure! It took the ex-Monty Pythoner's love of Hemingway to get me interested in him. I picked this book up because I'd loved Palin's previous travel books, especially 'Around the World in Eighty Days.' Palin's off again on a journey with a specific theme--to follow in the footsteps of Ernest Hemingway on his world travels throughout his life, from Oak Park in Illinois, to Spain and France and Africa, to Key West, Florida, with dozens of stops and Hemingway anecdotes, history, and literary appreciation along the way. Palin's a HUGE Hemingway fan (if you like this, check out Palin's novel 'Hemingway's Chair') and his love for the man and his work are absolutely infectious. Gorgeous colour photos by Palin's usual colleague Basil Pao make this an attractive gift book. In short, while I shrugged at Hemingway the writer in college lit classes, it took Palin to introduce me to Hemingway the MAN...and my appreciation for him has grown considerably. Sometimes it just takes a great literature teacher to awaken your interest in a writer...but I never thought one of my teachers would be a Python!

Yes, this is a travel guide book. You should buy it if you are lucky enough to retire with some money. Enough to stay at the Ritz of Paris (this Palace Hotel bar was "liberated" by Hemingway and the US army), to go big-fishing at Key-West, starting from the suburbs of Chicago where Hemingway was born. Anecdots about Shakespeare & Company bookshop on the Seine river bank were quite instructive about Hemingway bad temper. It was a pleasure to read Whitman's point of view about Hemingway vanity. This book is the kind of book you would love to write. It's a pilgrimage's diary. Something annoyed me, however. Why Michael Palin is so proud to be pictured as the center of each Hemingway sanctuary? .... Well, forget this and buy the book. It stands up as a standard in itself.

Michael Palin takes us to Hemmingway's haunts across Italy, Spain, Paris, Africa, Key West, Cuba as well as Illinois, Michigan and the American West. Along the way, he searches out people who knew Hemmingway, places he ate, drank, slept and wrote and adventures such as the running of the bulls at Pamplona, big game hunting in Africa and fishing in the Gulf Stream. Palin's observations and comments, woven together with quotes from Hemmingway's books and letters made this a travel book with something extra, especially for the Hemmingway fan. The photographs were very nice and really added a lot. I really enjoyed reading and looking at this book and would happily accompany Michael Palin anywhere!

If you are going to engage in some armchair travel, you could do no better than to have Michael Palin as your guide. I love all of his books, possibly even more than the accompanying TV shows. The only reason this one gets four stars from me, instead of five, is by comparison- I thought the conceit of following Hemmingway's life's path was less engaging than some of his more challenging itineraries (but add the extra star back on if you're a Hemmingway fan). Like others who have reviewed here, I was compelled by reading this book to seek out some of Hemmingway's work, and I think I was able to appreciate it better knowing something about the man. (But I'll admit, given the choice of reading him or reading Palin, I'll take the Python any day of the week.)

This book is the companion to the BBC series which visited many of the places Hemingway wrote about and lived. This television series was done to commemorate Hemingway's 100th birthday. I had been uninterested in Hemingway prior to reading this book. Palin's engaging style changed that for me. Palin has a passion for Hemingway that is infectious. I was prompted to read The Sun Also Rises, The Dangerous Summer and Death in the Afternoon by Palin's telling of Hemingway's passion for bullfighting. I also visited Pamplona for the 2000 San Fermin festival, one year after the one described in the book.

This book would be an excellent travel narrative even without the Hemingway connection. There are, besides the chapter about bullfighting and Pamplona, entertaining accounts of duck hunting near Venice, Key West nightlife, sportfishing in Havana, and taxidermy in Idaho. Palin's writing style is like having an old friend telling you an interesting story. The photography is excellent as well. Highly recommended.

Michael Palin writes one of the ultimate coffee table books for the Hemingway afficionado. When Palin says how he admired Hemingway when he was a boy growing up in Sheffield, England, this introductory homage is itself nearly worth the price of the book. We follow Palin as he travels to and writes about each of the pivotal places and people in Hemingway's life (including Illinois, Michigan, Paris, Spain, Key West, Cuba and Idaho). The passages are accompanied by photographs from Basil Pao, Palin's longtime collaborator

Palin describes what events happened in each place that make it significant to the Hemingway fan, but he also describes how each place is still interesting today: the running of the bulls in Pamplona, for instance, or the Hemingway look alike contest in Key West. In that sense, this is also a great travel book. It's clearly written with admiration for the author, but never cloyingly so. Palin's prose is measured, and he works in some of his celebrated humor. This book would make a great gift for the Hemingway fan in your life.

I haven't read much of Hemingway but this book makes for a good read. Well illustrated throughout you get some flavour of his life, and what his old haunts are like now (some have changed for the worst unfortunately). It covers large chunks of Europe, the Caribbean fringes and Africa. It's given me a lot of unusual travel ideas for myself.

It's also given me a great desire to read Hemingway (he's popular stateside but not so much here.)

One note of caution though for USAns... some of it involves Cuba, so they can't visit all the sites. :(

I am not a Hemmingway fan - the idea of a macho yet self-destructive soul holds no appeal for me. Likewise, I find his prose turgid and bland, unlike his contemporary, Steinbeck. However, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Michael Palin brings his charm, understated wit, and consummate travelogue-writing skill to the book, and Basil Pao brings fantastic photography and art direction.

Hemmingway's life and travels provide an overarching theme to the book that brings us from place to place. Since most travelogues use geographical locations to provide the arc, the eclectic globe-trotting in this book is refreshing, while at the same time logical. Likewise, within each chapter we see a variety of locales that won't necessarily make a standard travelogue, because Hemmingway lived in these places and discovered a number of out-of-the-way sites that give a better feel for the actual culture of the cities and countries we're visiting.

I've personally visited four of the places in the book - Montana, Chicago, Key West, and Paris. That I wish to return to those places and experience the parts I missed, as chronicled in the book, is a testament to Palin and Pao's skills. Presumably a fan of Hemmingway would get even more out of this book than I did, but you obviously don't have to be a Hemmingway afficionado to appreciate and enjoy this book.

I really like Michael Palin's travel documentaries, both the BBC TV programs and the books based on the programs. He has a knack for finding interesting people and places, and he presents it all with wit and charm and a personal engagement that is beguiling. The books are beautiful with lots of great color pictures, most taken by photographer Basil Pao.

This book is based on the BBC TV program where Mr. Palin traveled to all of the places where Ernest Hemingway had lived and traveled. One can't really say the program "follows Hemingway's footsteps" because some sequences are presented out of order, but it's all there:

Chicago and northern Illinois (Hemingway's youth)
Italy (WW I and duck hunting)
Paris (Hemingway's start as an author)
Spain (running with the bulls, bullfighting)
Key West (fishing, boxing)
Africa (hunting, airplane crash injuries)
Cuba (fishing, Hemingway's home for 20 years)
Montana and Idaho (dude ranches, Hemingway's death)

Each chapter that describes a place almost invariably leaves the reader smiling and thinking that it would be interesting to visit that place oneself.

Incidentally, my high opinion of this book (and the associated TV program) has nothing to do with any interest in Hemingway's authorship. I read "The Old Man and the Sea" when I was in high school, and have not read anything by Hemingway since. Still, I find his life interesting, and I think that Michael Palin has made a great travelogue by visiting the various places and telling about Hemingway's life.

I can especially recommend the audio version of this book, which is read by Michael Palin himself. He does a great job of delivering the dialog of the various people, all with their different accents.

Of course, the audio version of the book does not include the beautiful photographs, so the very best strategy might be to get both, and listen to the audio version while commuting and then look at the pictures when you get home.

Rennie Petersen

This is a very interesting book with loads of great photographs and insights into Hemingway's life. I enjoyed how Michael took us off the beaten track and into some of the intimate details of the writer's life. It's nicely broken up into his early life, then Europe with Italy, Paris and Spanin, then Africa, and Key West, Cuba, and finally Idaho where Hemingway ended it all after bouts of depression. I would estimate that Michael's partner, Basil Pao, is mostly responsible for the wonderful photos and book layout I found the Hemingway look-alike contest in Key West at Capt. Tony's Saloon a kick - so many of the contestants look so much like Hemingway. If I saw them walking around the shops and bars, I would probably think that Hemingway had come back from the other side, much like we have Elvis' sightings quite often. This is a book that you can appreciate even if you are not into bullfights, big game shooting, and fishing on the open seas. It's just beautifully done with lots of color and plenty of informative narrative. Michael is a traveler parexcellence.