True at First Light

Hemingway has found a spot on the shelves of readers yearning to read the journals of an exquisite writer. His accounts of this safari with his wife, his attentive bond with the local tribes, and the pure enchantment of the hunt have kept this reader from putting the book down. He has out done himself on bringing his dedicated readers and those who favor a good adventure novel together for a novel to cap of a legacy. Both groups and anyone wanting a good book to sit down with at their hunting camp, or just a book to throw yourself into the cold nights coming this winter, would appreciate True at First Light

Back in 1985 when I was an idealistic young English teacher and writer, I was assigned by a large city newspaper to go down to Key West and interview Pat Hemingway's return after 40 years to his father's Key West home. I gladly took the assignment - I not only had read all the published books, but had also visited the Kennedy Library and read the unpublished manuscripts like this unfinished novel in question and for instance the original first chapter of "Sun Also Rises", etc. And so I cornered Patrick Hemingway in one of the rooms of the old Key West house and couldn't help but to ask this question: "Why are the heirs to the Hemingway estate so intent on publishing partial novels, personal letters, third rate short stories, etc. that EH himself had obviously deemed not worthy of readership and in fact denied their publication through his will?" After asking the one question I'm sure Patrick had always feared, I was positive he would abruptly end the interview. I held my breath. But he looked me in the eyes and said, "I have long contemplated that answer myself. Let me put it to you this way: Is mediocre Hemingway better than NO Hemingway at all? Think about it."And so I did. And it is my opinion that Patrick Hemingway is right - it is nice to see these unfinished works in bound form that we can place in our libraries and study. But one must approach these cautiously.... _Garden of Eden_, _First Light_, _Islands_, _Dangerous Summer_, etc. are NOT novels, but merely a writer's exercises - their "dress rehearsals" - and certainly not the polished, timed pro stuff on which they stake their reputations. It's safe to say that Papa is now turning over in his grave - no, doing cartwheels - over these unfinished manuscripts... Likewise with the fat volumes of old journalism.... And the boys - Pat, Jack and Gregory - are as much to blame as Scribner's - everyone gets a pay-day when this stuff is marched out. The canon expands. With the book market being soft, a publisher needs a "hook" and what better hook is a "rediscovered" manuscript? Cha-ching, baby! But it is cheating and perhaps not serving Papa's memory or legacy in such a great way. Again, when one gets in an ethical corner, Patrick's words in 1985 clears one conscience, does it not? As a writer, I like to see an unfinished manuscript - it encourages me - it's easy to dissect - I like to see the chaulklines being snapped, the dialogue in raw form, the story lines needing a fixing. But I will not call it a NOVEL and heaven forbid not puss-out and call _First Light_ "A FICTIONAL MEMOIR". Give me a break... How awful...Having said all of the above, the "story" was to me, a hunter from way back, very much revealing and exciting, but I can't for the life of me imagine it entertaining or informing a non-hunter. To me, the magic is in the handling of the rifles, the dedicated pursuit of Mary's lion, the placement of shots, the worry that Pa

I'm still about forty pages from the end, but I love this book! I marvel at the Hemingway style, still alive, still vibrant. There's not much plot here, but for the best writers, plot is almost an afterthought anyway. It of course demands contrast to The Green Hills of Africa and yet At First Light may be better. Because Hemingway wrote At First Light much later than Green Hills, one is presented in this book not just with the artful descriptions of Africa, its game and its dying safari trade, but also with a first person glance back on a full, rich life which of course Hemingway borrowed from liberally for his writing. It's this interplay between what happens in the present of the novel, and what had happened in the author's past that I found so refreshing. Paris in the 20s and Cuba much later and the American west in between; bullfighting and deep sea fishing; drinking beer, gin, Campari and other beverages alcoholic; and the author's compatriots in the writing trade - Orwell, Fitzgerald - it's all here. The regrets and the long agos and even the triumphs and the whats-to-bes - they're all here. From Papa to you.Enjoy.

Sure the work was incomplete and this patched up version tends to ramble and doesn't have a real strong narrative drive. So what? As with virtually all Hemingway, it is a rewarding and fascinating read. The prose is brutal and beautiful and wise and sad and strange and funny as hell sometimes and sometimes definitely not politically correct by today's standards. It will disturb in a new way and reveal fresh rewards to the reader every trip through. The book ends with Hemingway and his wife making plans to visit the Congo by plane. There is great poignancy in knowing that this was the trip (documented in Hemingway's article The Christmas Gift, available in By-Line Ernest Hemingway) where the two plane crashes took place that caused the serious internal injuries which are said to have begun the downward spiral in Hemingway's physical and mental health. What was written in the Saturday Review about Mark Twain's autobiography (also a patched up posthumously published work) I think applies to this book just as strongly: "It is worth reading because the man is in it."

How delightful to read something from the master again. I love some of the new stuff out this year, THE TRIUMPH AND THE GLORY comes to mind, as does A MAN IN FULL, or Norman Mailer's retrospective, but what can rival Ernest Hemingway ? Buy yourself a copy and enjoy!