The Dangerous Summer

Have you ever pulled a big, bitter pickle fron a barrel and enjoyed it? Munched fresh garlic gloves and savored them despite the pain? Downed Bloody Marys with 3 times the ordinary dose of pepper, and with tabasco sauce thrown in? If you said yes to all 3, chances are you will greatly enjoy this book. By the end of his life, it is now clear, Hemingway had developed a loose, jocund, even cheery reportorial writing style as a sort of second mode. He first really loosened up his sentences and paragraphs in this manner in the major novel For Whom the Bell Tolls, then went back to tautness (modified) in Across the River, Old Man and the Sea (straight old stuff), and The Moveable Feast (new high marks in the original style). But this, like the recently published Under Kilamanjaro, is a development of the second mode. Way too many scholarly bios and criticism, early after EH's death and to date, have just called the later writing a slackening and a self-charicature, as if the most careful writer of modern English took a 15 year vacation. A lot of this kind of talk was and remains resentment, of course, against the stature of the writing and the man's public clowning. But to come to this close to final product with such misconceptions is a big mistake. EH once personified Nostalgia as a beautiful woman, and if the opener here doesn't move you -- EH returning to his beloved Spain after years away -- you ought to check your birth record and be sure you were born on this good earth. After the drive in, EH seemingly opens up the second relaxed mode big time, fun and adventures on the road chasing down a mano a mano between the 2 biggest bullfight rivals of the day. There are gags and funny business and personal trivia, even, that the earlier writer avoided, for sure, but boy, don't get suckered into those traps. The old man with the pen is menacing as ever, and in a whole new way. Just when you're set up like a bowling pin he takes you with a sucker punch -- an absolutely deadpan observation about Dominquin's statue of himself in his own house, the way a spooky wind rises at dusk in a vagrant bullring, spelling menace. The jolts are as real, however different, from what hits you in In Our Time. And they have a heavy gravity and patina of sadness that only an old fellow can deliver. Indeed, the effects can be quite emotionally draining in their potent truth. The estate kept putting out these edited versions, buying the scholars' line, poor Miss Mary not wanting to impair "the reputation." Well, ladies and gentlemen, its intact. Dear Scribners or whoever you are now, please publish the whole ball of wax or let Kent State do it, the long manuscript that EH told his friends was after "Proustian effects." This book, a calculated risk to "the reputation," pays off quite well and stands up easily to repeated reading. EH's inborn talents were in the acuity of his eye and his ear (he had to learn writing the hard way) and if the finale found him

During the 1959 bullfighting season, Hemingway travels with one of the matadors and his team throughout Spain. Hemingway's other book on bullfighting, "Death In the Afternoon" is more well-known and perhaps more informative, strictly speaking, but it is dry in comparison to "The Dangerous Summer," which has the pace of an adventure novel or a thriller. And in that respect it seems to capture the excitement of bullfighting better than "Death in the Afternoon." (I say "seems to" because I've never been to a bullfight.) I also loved the descriptions of Spain that Hemingway offers as they travel around the country.

This is a wonderful travel book. I read it and now I want to go to Spain and travel in a motorcar and eat in cafes and view bullfights. American sports only attain a large following if the participants do something with a ball. Bullfighting is clearly different because if you participate you can die. Like boxing, those who choose to fight bulls do so with their own free will. Hemingway gives us descriptions of the country, some of the culture, and most of all the temporada and the corrida. His language is clear, crisp and bright.

Fortunately I had read Death in the Afternoon before absorbing this last encore. By the end, I was attached at the soul to both matadors, (Cain and Abel!?). I wish I could read the other 50,000 words edited from this work. Papa described everything that was behind the fragile curtain of honor, bravado, showmanship, and the pageantry of bullfighting. Like many musicians or athletes of our time, we cannot observe from behind the scenes all the work, travel and lack of sleep that these people go through, therefore we cannot fully appreciate the bullfighters of the "Lost Generation". I recommend this book to anyone who wants to experience this true American literary icon and Spanish culture and History. It is interesting to see the way Spain has changed over the years. This book is full of magic and it describes the drive and mild competitiveness that all men and women should have inside in order to suceed in today's harsh world. The introduction of James A. Michener is beautifully written by someone who knew Spain. The terms are helpful to any who is not familiar with basic bullfighting. This is one of Papa's most under-appreciated least-recognized works, but that's ok with me.

I should have read this chronicle of bullfighting before my college semester spent in Madrid. I did not read it and instead, I sat in the bleachers of the arena completely disgusted, wishing for the first time in my life that I was at an American football game instead. I was so ignorant that I almost felt tempted to run down and let the pathetic black creature loose, like some rebel animal rights person in a research lab. Back then, I did not understand the history, tradition, glory and sentimentality that belongs to bullfighting. I was ignorant and should not have gone to the bullfight without reading this chronicle by Hemingway first. Now, I some day plan to return and to watch another bullfight. I know now I will see a completely different sport; and not really a sport but a performance. I once thought bullfighting was a battle between man and beast. After reading The Dangerous Summer I know it is a choreographed performance of skill, wisdom, experience and bravery. I urge anyone who plans to go to a bullfight, to read this first. Do not judge this Spanish tradition until you first understand what it is about.