Hemingway's France: Images of the Lost Generation , and: Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure , and: A Hemingway Odyssey: Special Places in His Life (review)

Abstract

BOOK REVIEWS · 113 This superb handbookfor understanding Hemingwayin our owntime is followed by an extremely useful illustrated chronology that parallels events in Hemingway's own life with concurrent historical events and publication dates ofother significantliterature. It concludes with KelliA. Larson's"Bibliographical Essay: Lies, Damned Lies, and HemingwayCriticism," a carefully researched overview ofthe development ofHemingway studies and a compilation ofsuchhelpfulresources astheHemingwayCollection atthe John F. Kennedy Library, The Hemingway Review, Internet websites, and bibliographies and checklists, as well as evaluations ofuseful biographies and a frank discussion ofthe limitations ofthe heavilyeditedposthumous publications. Followingthe essayis Larson's extendedbibliographyofallimportantbooklength works about Hemingway. As we approach Hemingwayin the newmillennium, LindaWagner-Martin 'sbookis aninvaluabletooltoboththegeneralreaderandtheHemingway scholar: indeed,ignoringthisbooktodaywouldrendermuch ofHemingway disappointinglyinaccessibleto the contemporaryreader. —AbbyH. P.Werlock (ret.), St. Olafs College Hemingway's France: Images oftheLost Generation. ByWinston Conrad. Emeryville, CA: Woodford, Press, 2000. 160 pp. Cloth $34.95. MichaelPalin'sHemingwayAdventure. ByMichael Palin. Photographs byBasil Pao. NewYork: St. Martin's Press, 1999. 256 pp. Cloth $29.95 A Hemingway Odyssey: SpecialPlaces in HisLife. ByH. Lea Lawrence. Nashville, TN: Cumberland House Publishing, 1999. 208 pp. Paper $12.95. ForChristmas1992, after attendingtheFifth International HemingwayConference in Pamplona, Spainthe previous July, Ibought myhusband a copyof TheSunAlsoRises, inscribingmygiftwith Hemingway'swords: "Forwe have 114 ¦ THE HEMINGWAY REVIEW been there in the books and out ofthe books—andwhere we go ifwe are any good, there you can go as we have been." Because so many of us "have been there in the books," we develop a passion to go there "out of the books" as well. In Paris, for instance, we stand on the Pont de la Tournelle and look at the Seine and Notre Dame and feel like Ernest and Hadley in A Moveable Feast,takingin"ourriverandour cityandthe islandofourcity" (55). In Pamplona , we see our first bullfight and are surprised to find ourselves so deeply moved bythe experience. Some Hemingway aficionados take this obsession further and writebooks oftheir own about these experiences.Winston Conrad , Michael Palin, and H. Lea Lawrence are three of the most recent, and their books are all surprisinglyquite different. Winston Conrad's Hemingway's France is more than the glossy picture bookit at first appears to be. Although Hemingway specialists mayfind little new here, the text is a substantive attempt to describe the milieu that Hemingway experienced in France. Thus the book places Hemingway in the context ofliterary and artistic history and devotes much space to other notables ofHemingway's era in France. Conrad organizes his text chronologically and geographically, so Chapter One, "The Literary Scene in Paris," focuses on the attraction of Paris after World War I for numerous "artists, musicians and writers" (15) as well as for the young Ernest Hemingway. Joyce, Stein, Pound, Eliot, and Fitzgerald, among many others, were all part ofthat stimulating, headyworld. Chapter Two,"ParisYesterday and Today," continues in a similarvein and also describes the wave of middle class American tourism fueled by the incredible dollar-to-franc exchange rate. Of course, Ernest and his wife Hadleybenefitted with theirAmerican dollars as well. "Cafés, Restaurants, and Nightlife," Chapter Three, provides an extensive list ofcafés and restaurants that Hemingwayvisited, places which frequently also provided texture to his writing. Many ofthese places still exist. Where name changes have occurred, Conrad gives current names, information that at first appears to be very helpful for the pilgrim who yearns to follow in Hemingway's footsteps. A closer look, however, reveals that some of this information is confusing at best. For instance, after describing the Brasserie Lipp onthe Boulevard St. Germain, Conradwrites"Just down the street is Le Pré aux Clercs, the first restaurant the Hemingways frequented after they arrived in Paris, in late 1921. Around the corner is Brasserie l'Escorialles, known in the 1920s as the Café Michaud" (53). On a recent trip to Paris, I BOOK REVIEWS · 115 tried, unsuccessfully, to find Le Pré aux Clercs by starting at Lipp's on the Boulevard St. Germain and going "just down the street" in both directions. Frustrated, I figured the place must have gone out ofbusiness. "Around the corner" in regard to the former Michaud's didn't help either. What corner? Luckily, though, I had also written down Hemingway's own description inA Moveable Feast. Ernest...