Hunting with Hemingway - Softcover

Hemingway, Hilary; Lindsay, Jeffrey P.

3.77

112 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1573228796 ISBN 13: 9781573228794

Publisher: Riverhead Books, 2001

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The niece of Ernest Hemingway presents the transcribed accounts of the Hemingway brothers' daring and sometimes reckless safari adventures, as well as her reactions and coming-to-terms with the suicide of her father Leicester. Reprint.

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Review:

Hilary Hemingway's father, Leicester Hemingway, committed suicide in 1982, 21 years after his famous older brother, Ernest. In 1997, Hilary's mother died and left her a mysterious audiocassette of Leicester telling hunting stories at the family home in Miami Beach. Are the stories true? Interjections by Leicester's wife and a good friend suggest they are well-polished yarns, designed to deflect Ernest idolaters like the unnamed English professor whose nervous laugh and awkward questions punctuate the recording. Does it matter if they're true? "These stories are really good," says Hilary's 7-year-old daughter. "I even like them and I really hate hunting." Indeed, Leicester's suspenseful tales of stalking crocodiles, ostriches, and tigers with his adored big brother evoke the glamorous Hemingway world of men pitted against beasts as a test of courage and grace under pressure. Listening to the recording on her daughter's purple Barney tape player, the author rediscovers "the big, laughing man" who taught her "to enjoy whatever life might throw at me"; she then comes to terms with his suicide in the face of a debilitating illness. Skillfully interweaving her father's voice with her own reflections in her meditative text, the author reminds us that the Hemingway legacy is not just one of swaggering machismo, but of love for family and pleasure in the physical world. --Wendy Smith

About the Author:

Hilary Hemingway is an award-winning screenwriter and a writer for The Miami Herald, Interview, and Harper's Bazaar. She produces evening news for FOX Television and serves as the Executive Director of the International Hemingway Festival.

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