This is volumes 4 and 5 in Michael Reynolds Five Volume Biography of my favorite writer, Ernest Hemingway. This is one of those rare long books, where I take my time and read every word. I have to be in the right frame of mind to read it so it took me quite a while.

This book covers the time from the late 1920s until Ernest Hemingway's death in 1961.

The man lived such a fascinating life that movies have been made about single years out of his life. At the end of his 60 years, he was working on the book that is my favorite of all - A Moveable Feast. I loved this book so much that I took it to Paris with me when I went there many years ago. He didn't feel like it was ready to be published before he died, so it was published posthumously.

I spent last night explaining to Mr. Hooves how they made a full length movie out of Mr. Hemingway's adventures in Italy when he was a teenager. It's a good movie, called, In Love and War.

I think I will let Mr. Reynolds say it as he says it best at the end of his book. This is a quote from him:

"His is a classic American story: the young man who transforms himself following his ambition, succeeds beyond his dreams, finally burns out trying to be true to the person he has become....His ambition, intensity, creative drive, sense of duty, belief in hard work, and faith in the strenuous life carried him to the pinnacle of his profession, provided him wide recognition and considerable wealth, before destroying him when he could no longer meet their demands."

He lived many lifetimes in his short, mostly happy life. He was a good man, a smart man and a complicated man.

He offered to physically fight his critics writing them letters that made me nod and smile. Yup, papa, I agree with you there.

anyone who is interested in Ernest Hemingway. I recommend reading the whole thing. It is a fair look at his life, not through rose colored glasses, but fair and mostly non-judgmental at the end. It is hard to know who to blame for what happened in the end. End of life things can be very sad and angry at the same time.

the way the author incorporates the happenings in the contemporary world to what was happening in Hemingway's world. It helps me to understand him much better.

the portrayal of his fourth wife, Mary, but it seems to ring true.

read more of Hemingway's work. I was put off by some of the titles before (The Green Hills of Africa) but this book explained how there are similarities there to my favorite book of Hemingway's.

like I am starting to get it, many years after finding my favorite book. I am starting to get the author of it.

did a lot of research and pretty much devoted his adult life to studying Hemingway.

if you want to understand the most complex author of the 20th Century, this should be your starting point. I still love Ernest Hemingway for writing, "A Moveable Feast," but I feel like I understand him and the times he lived in much better now.

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Created May 11, 2014 at 3:33pm • Submit your own review...