True at First Light [Import] [Unbound]

Ernest Hemingway (Author)

Product Details

• Unbound
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company (July 2002)
• ISBN-10: 0743241762
• ISBN-13: 978-0743241762
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (69 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Ernest Hemingway ranks as the most famous of twentieth-century American writers; like Mark Twain, Hemingway is one of those rare authors most people know about, whether they have read him or not. The difference is that Twain, with his white suit, ubiquitous cigar, and easy wit, survives in the public imagination as a basically, lovable figure, while the deeply imprinted image of Hemingway as rugged and macho has been much less universally admired, for all his fame. Hemingway has been regarded less as a writer dedicated to his craft than as a man of action who happened to be afflicted with genius. When he won the Nobel Prize in 1954, Time magazine reported the news under Heroes rather than Books and went on to describe the author as "a globe-trotting expert on bullfights, booze, women, wars, big game hunting, deep sea fishing, and courage." Hemingway did in fact address all those subjects in his books, and he acquired his expertise through well-reported acts of participation as well as of observation; by going to all the wars of his time, hunting and fishing for great beasts, marrying four times, occasionally getting into fistfights, drinking too much, and becoming, in the end, a worldwide celebrity recognizable for his signature beard and challenging physical pursuits.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well, I'll be damned ... it's really good!, August 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: True at First Light: A Fictional Memoir (Hardcover)

As a longtime Hemingway fan, I approached this unfinished work with both hesitation and skepticism: like "The Garden of Eden," the whole idea of this book seems wrong -- it smacks of disturbing the dead. If Hemingway had wanted this published, he would have finished it, right? The poor guy was in deep artistic decline when he wrote it, right?

Well, after reading this "fictional memoir," I'm no longer quite sure.

Perhaps I read too much of the lukewarm, pre-publication hype -- my expectations were very low. But upon reading it, "True At First Light" struck me as astonishingly strong. I didn't find it very rambling, or half-baked as some have charged. Nor did it seem racist: It is certainly a book of it's time -- the mid-50's -- but its treatment of Africa and Africans seems eminently respectful and somewhat sad. He compares the faded glory of these post-Colonial peoples to that of the Native Americans in the wake of the settling of the U.S. -- a mortally wounded people, struggling to preserve a history and tradition mostly destroyed by European warriors, profiteers and missionaries.

The writing is clearly an early draft -- but what a fine early draft it is! There are flashes of brilliance that only the greatest living writers could hope to match in their most "finished" works. And I personally like the less-guarded qualities of late Hemingway. His early work is clearly more innovative, and carries more historical and cultural importance. But that's not really the point, I'd argue.

For too long, Hemingway has been either lionized or condemned as a larger-than-life celebrity icon -- and of course, in many ways that's what he was. But let's not forget that under all the dated, off-putting bombast, he was also a skilled and sensitive artist -- and this work is well worth the time and close attention of anyone who loves that oft-forgotten, oft-obscured soul: Hemingway, the writer.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Nice to hear from Papa again, but..., January 28, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: True at First Light: A Fictional Memoir (Hardcover)

You should have seen how excited I was to hear that a new Ernest Hemingway book was being released posthumously. Many people before me have summarized the content of this book, so to make a long story short, True At First Life is a cut down version of the journal he kept while on safari in Africa in 1952-53. Although the book is worth reading for biographical content, it often is very disjointed at times. This is most pronounced in the first five chapters of the book. This book was edited by his son, Patrick Hemingway. I would like to believe that Papa himself would have provided us with a more cohesive tale had he been alive to edit the book himself. In any case, the book suffers from a lack of climax. For instance, there is threat of invasion from a warring tribe in the first five chapters that is never realized. Even the killing of Mary's (his 4th wife) lion lacks punch. The only thing that made me want to continue reading this book was the great Hemingway style that shines through despite choppy editing and anticlimactic sequences. As a big Hemingway fan, I felt that this book was worth reading just to hear him speak to us again in his simple, direct style of writing. As a novel, it suffers from a lack of substance, plot, and progression. This however, will never detract from the beauty of his earlier works such as The Sun Also Rises and Farewell to Arms.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I Bought it off a Homeless Guy for a Dollar, July 24, 2000

By 

rebecca swanson - See all my reviews

This review is from: True at First Light: A Fictional Memoir (Hardcover)

... and it's worth its weight in shillingi. Kudos to E. Hemingway and his son, Patrick, for being such a (semi-posthumously) talented pair. If you haven't read much (or any) Hemingway, this book makes for a beautiful foray into his works. True at First Light is a gorgeous, tantalizing description of his time as a game warden, with phrasing so rich and narrative so taut, one can barely refrain from booking a one-way flight to Kenya. Hemingway deftly transforms what one American reader may consider the somewhat mundane business of hunting, washing and drinking into an extraordinarily attractive life; the allure is in the escape from this complicated and hectic society. Perhaps his connection with the reader is best explained in Hemingway's own words: "Everything had been taken out of my control and I welcomed, as always, the lack of responsibility and the splendid inactivity with no obligation to kill, pursue, protect, intrigue, defend or participate and I welcomed the chance to read."