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Strange Tribe: A Family Memoir

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His mother was a schizophrenic. His father a bipolar cross dresser who eventually had a partial sex change. His grandfather a great writer who committed suicide (not to mention a greatgrandfather and great uncle who did the same).

That is just part of the troubled legacy that John Hemingway, grandson of Ernest Hemingway, dealt with growing up. Throughout his childhood, John Hemingway was shuffled between his mother and father, his step-mother and various relatives. Despite the fact that many would assume the grandson of Ernest Hemingway would live a privileged life, he most definitely didn't.

But this book isn't necessarily about John and his dealings with his famous family's problems. Rather the early focus of the book is on the relationship of Ernest and his son, Gregory, John's father.

We learn that Ernest, who wanted a daughter, was angry when Gregory was born, because he wasn't a girl. We also learn that Gregory eventually became a cross dresser, and once was caught trying on his step-mother's nylons by Ernest. Whether Ernest's desire for a daughter influenced this or not, no one can be certain. What is certain is that Greg would become Ernest's most troubled child.

John initially examines the fact that both his father and grandfather had a fascination with androgeny, although Ernest hid his better. While his novel, "The Garden of Eden" focuses on the issue, it was published postumously and you have to wonder if Ernest intended it that way.

It's fairly fascinating stuff, but even more fascinating is the recounting of the relationship Ernest and Gregory had which would eventually color John's relationship with his father.

John provides details, sometimes in the form of letters written by Ernest and Gregory to one another, about how the two struggled with their relationship. Often the problems centered on money, but even in those letters the troubled nature of their relationship clearly went beyond financial issues.

The latter part of the book focuses on Gregory and his struggles with cross dressing and his bipolar condition, a condition that led him to be arrested on several occassions. We also have a first-hand look at Gregory and John's relationship with one another and how it affected John both as a child and adult.

And we learn that in a family with a history of tragedy, Gregory eventually becomes another link in the tragic chain. During a manic episode following his sex change surgery, he is arrested and eventually dies in jail from an apparent heart attack.

John Hemingway's examination of the troubled father-son relationships in his family is interesting and compelling. And if this book is any sign of his writing talent, I'm looking forward to his future work.

I'm not certain, but I think there now may be more books written about Hemingway than he actually wrote. And among those books about him, this is a "must have" for your bookshelf.

Grandson of Ernest Hemingway, the author delves into the disturbing effects this major author's macho persona had on the author's father and thus inevitably on himself. Ernest Hemingway committed suicide. The author's father, Ernest's youngest son Gregory, struggled with gender identification his whole life, and died in the Women's Correctional Facility of the Miami Dade County Jail in 2001. The author was spared the worst of the traumas of his grandfather and father. But for the longest time, he lived a rootless, vagabond life exacerbated by concerns about his helplessly irresponsible and unpredictable father and trying to fill in gaps in his life his father had suppressed or ignored in his own life. John Hemingway does not emerge from the cloying shadows cast over him by his father and grandfather until the birth of a son with his wife Ornella in Italy in the Fall 2006, so he ends the memoir. The reader is not assured, however, that his turmoils are behind him for good.

Hemingway's tale is told mostly in illustrative vignettes, not an in-depth or intricate narrative searching for the roots of the gender abnormalities of the characters. The style is honest, genuine, and engaging. Hemingway does not strive for the luridness, sensationalism, confessional slant of so many contemporary memoirs. Undoubtedly, the memoir was purgative in some respects for him. But he wrote it as much to present his unique contribution on the Hemingway legend and its reverberations in succeeding generations of his family.

I was lucky enough to see an advance copy of this memoir, and I can't say enough about it. I've read several books about Ernest and the Hemingway clan, and John Hemingway's book adds new and (until now) untold dimensions to the saga. STRANGE TRIBE is an intimate and poignant story written with a skillful, understated grace. Ernest would be proud!

The thesis of the book is that mental problems that plagued the father (surfacing only by his death) begat more overt mental problems of his youngest son, Greg.

The title is taken from Ernest's comment when he discovers Greg as a young boy trying on a pair of nylons. The legendarily macho Ernest is not shocked nor punitive. He merely comments that they are part of a strange tribe suggesting that he recognizes inherited family problems surfacing in his young son.

The author, Greg's son, John, notes some gender bending episodes of his macho grandfather, but is more persuasive in documenting Ernest's bouts of depression and his coldness, and sporadic (but not infrequent) hostility towards Greg.

The book describes the life that mental problems mixed with alcohol force two generations to lead. Parents shirk responsibility moving kids around from one unstable situation to another. John's visit to his father in Montana reminded me of the young Christopher Lawford's visit to his father, Peter, which describes in Symptoms of Withdrawal : A Memoir of Snapshots and Redemption. In both cases, the child is more mature than the addicted parent and vulnerable because of a need to please a father figure who can never be reached.

The book has universal things to say about mental illness. While the focus is on this famous family, this sort of drama is present throughout society.

A wonderful insight into the insecurities and neurosis of Gregory, his father Ernest and most of the family in dealing with issues. John does not get away totally unscaved as his shortcomings are also revealed here. Later into the book I felt very clear that the author needed to get a firm grasp of how things were ( and would continue to be) and move forward towards leaving the past behind, stop blaming his father and free himself of all of the closet skeletons he has been living with all these many years. A good read

John Hemingway's honesty and courage in facing hard truths many might chose to live in denial of are the things that make this book so important for anyone who has experienced serious disorders in themselves or loved ones.

The book is about a family, an afflicted family where some members have great gifts but too many were crippled by things that were not understood in the time they lived in. Had either Ernest or Gregory Hemingway ever received both the correct diagnosis and appropriate treatment (the requisite drugs were not even available when Ernest suffered from what in retrospect was clearly alcoholism and a bipolar disorder, and had Gregory been in the care of the appropriate physician one would believe his end may have been very different).

Things may have been different for Ernest, Gregory and others in the family who killed themselves, different and better, had there been a different medical regime available to them. It's one of the points one comes away with in reading this fine book - - a belief that things did not have to happen this way in the "strange tribe" of Hemingways. The suffering of the afflicted and survivors could have been lessened - - there is hope for families today who face these illnesses and similar afflictions in their own tribes. Family members can emerge as strong as the author.

What distinguishes this family from other families is fame. That's it. That's all. It is clear in John's book that this fame did not serve to alleviate the problems and may have well made things worse for them.

In writing this note, I am sorry that most who find this book will be drawn to the last name of the writer and the fact that it deals in part with the author's famous grandfather, for this book is a very valuable volume for anyone who has suffered from any disorder or lived with a loved one who is so afflicted.

That John Hemingway is obviously healthy enough, grounded enough, and caring enough to have the courage to honestly address the things in his book is remarkable. He reveals things to the reader about himself and his family, obviously hoping in the process that he is reaching out to someone who might benefit from the information, and in the process he created a gift to families that have troubles. And we live in a world today where many families have troubles. Though the troubles may differ from those experienced in the Hemingway tribe, the consequences can be so similar as to be identical.

John Hemingway had a great victory in life. In that family, just surviving is a victory, and he not only survived but flourished. His life is a victory, his book is a victory, and a new very different kind of Hemingway writer emerges in these pages, an important voice I suspect we shall hear more from.

Ray Mouton

An insightful and honest portrayal of the troubled life of Ernest Hemingway's youngest son Gregory. John describes his relationship with his bipolar, cross dressing father and how, in many respects John's relationship with Gregory mirrored that of Ernest with his son. Like his father before him, Greg suffered from mental problems. The numerous sessions of electroshock treatment left him in a more tragic state of mind. With numerous broken relationships, and his inability to care from himself, Greg died alone in a Miami prison with no support, and a million dollars in the bank.
John blames Gregory's 'money hungry' last wife for his father's tragic decline. In many respects, John was also responsible for abandoning his father and using him, as an 'ATM machine'. He would attempt to come into contact with his father only when desperate and the need for cash arose.
As john declares in his book, the Hemingway name is not cursed. The tragedy of the name has more to do with the circle of faulty relationships and broken marriages; a circle that John appears to have broken in his life.

As a big Hemingway fan, I looked forward to gaining some new perspective into the man and the legend. This book shares proof that every family has unique challenges and that children often struggle in the shadow of very successful family members. One does not have to look far to see the impacts of mental illness and how it shapes our lives. Overall, a unique perspective from a Hemingway family member who lived life the best he could, given some very challenging circumstances.

Strange Tribe: A Family Memoir, by John Hemingway. Very good book. Arrived promptly in good condition.

I purchased "Strange Tribe" over Christmas last year while vacationing in Key West, appropriately ~ Hemingway's old haunt. Growing up in Key West many years ago, I cannot resist anything on this Island and its residents, past and present. I truly couldn't put this book down, and was literally sorry to see it finish. This is a well written memoir, by Ernest's Grandson (John Hemingway), pondering some of the demons haunting his fascinating family. Run don't walk to get this book!

Tedi
Colorado