Reviewed by: Hemingway en los San Fermines by Miguel Izu Iñaki Sagarna Hemingway en los San Fermines. By Miguel Izu. Ediciones Eunate, 2019. 309 pp. Paperback. $22.00. The first Navarrese biographer of Ernest Hemingway and San Fermin was José María Iribarren, who wrote the book Hemingway y los San Fermines (1970). Half a century later, and as a tribute to the former biographer (19), Miguel Izu offers a polyphonic story with the same theme. In addition to providing the vagaries of Hemingway in Pamplona, the book delves into different stories propagated about the Nobel winner in the Spanish city. According to the author, the book sets history straight fighting against the many of Hemingway legends that have displaced the truth on benefit of tourism and politics (19). While the book aims for a general public (19), it is a must read if you want to study Hemingway and Spain. It covers most of the interviews and references of Hemingway and Pamplona in the Spanish and the American press. Moreover, it goes beyond Hemingway offering information of the “others,” the secondary actors who had some sort of relationship with Ernest Hemingway in the capital of Navarre. But, who is Miguel Izu? Born in 1960, he holds a doctoral degree on Law. A former local politician and assiduous columnist in the local media, he is now a civil servant at the Navarrese government. He is also a writer. Although Izu published his first novel in 2014, he has penned many essays before. Among them there are two compilation of articles published in local papers focusing on sex and San Fermines. Sexo en los San Fermines y otros mitos festivos (2007) and Crisis en sanfermines y otros temas festivos (2015). Hemingway did not fail to appear on those essays, anticipating ideas that are present within this current offering. Hemingway y los San Fermines is not a compilation of articles, but it is born out of a series of articles in Diario de Noticias de Navarra. Hemingway en los Sanfermines adopts a three-part structure. An introduction to Hemingway’s life and San Fermín in the 1920s, the ten stays of Hemingway at Pamplona, and Hemingwayan legends. In part one, Izu opens with an interesting theme, whether the San Fermines were globally known in the 1920s. Even though Izu admits the role of The Sun Also Rises (1926) in the internationalization of the fiesta, he argues that Hemingway came over to Iruña because San Fermines were becoming famous by themselves (39), underplaying Hemingway’s aura of the discoverer of the fiesta. Izu supports his arguments using late 19th and early 20th century British travel works as well [End Page 114] as French and American press clips. For example, the article written for the NANA agency by Julia Hoyt, the New York actress that visited San Fermín with Ignacio Zuloaga and Juan Belmonte in 1924, proving Hemingway and his cuadrilla were not the only foreigners. The second chapter “Hemingway en París” (41–49) follows with a brief biographical introduction of Hemingway, explaining his initiation to bullfighting through the influence of Gertrude Stein and the two painters Luis Quintanilla and Mike Strater. Part two (49–194) depicts in detail all of the experiences of Hemingway in Pamplona. From the year of the discovery in 1923 to his last and most notorious stay in 1959, when Hemingway really became a public persona. In part three, “El legado y la leyenda de Hemingway en Pamplona” (195–258), which is the key part of the book, Izu tries to deconstruct the myths created around Hemingway. After discussing the memorialization of Hemingway since 1967 with the construction of the first out of the current four sculptures in Pamplona, Izu confirms in “Hemingway y el turismo” (205–11) that Francoism profited from Hemingway’s image around the 1950s to increase tourism. Even though he rejects a systematic use of Hemingway’s figure, the author remarks its use by Francoism. Hemingway was portrayed as a friend of Spain, a friend who loved wine and bullfighting. This image has produced a stereotype that still prevails in Spain, the snobbish, womanizer Hemingway. Despite being Hemingway...