Hemingway Lives!
Why Reading Ernest Hemingway Matters Today
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- USD 9.99
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- USD 9.99
Descripción editorial
"Because I love Italy and write novels about it, I am fascinated by Clancy Sigal's compelling take on Hemingway's Italian-set fiction such as his great Farewell to Arms and short stories like 'Che Ti Dice La Patria' and 'In Another Country.'" —Sarah Dunant
"A gem! A lively, much-needed defense of Hemingway in this Fitzgerald-besotted days, a great read…" —Elaine Showalter
"The best take on Hemingway and women I’ve ever read." —Barbara Probst Solomon
"I treasure Hemingway Lives! ... I've been carrying it everywhere ... It's brilliant. I keep losing my place then doubling back because I really don't want it to end and I dread the loneliness of that oncoming shot." —Stewart Stern, screenwriter of Rebel Without a Cause
"Sigal ... writes with pizzazz and sensitivity." —from Booklist's starred review of A Woman of Uncertain Character
"There hasn't been anything like it since Grapes of Wrath." —from the San Francisco Chroniclereview of Sigal's Going Away
With the release of a flurry of feature and TV films about his life and work, and the publication of new books looking at his correspondence, his boat and even his favorite cocktails, Ernest Hemingway is once again center stage of contemporary culture. There’s something about Papa that makes any retirement to the wings only fleeting.
Now, in this concise and sparkling account of the life and work of America’s most storied writer, Clancy Sigal, himself a National Book Award runner-up, presents a persuasive case for the relevance of Ernest Hemingway to readers today.
Sigal breaks new ground in celebrating Hemingway’s passionate and unapologetic political partisanship, his stunningly concise, no-frills writing style, and an attitude to sex and sexuality much more nuanced than he is traditionally credited with. Simply for the pleasure provided by a consummate story teller, Hemingway is as much a must-read author as ever.
Though Hemingway Lives! will provide plenty that’s new for those already familiar with Papa’s oeuvre, including substantial forays into his political commitments, the women in his life, and the astonishing range of his short stories, it assumes no prior knowledge of his work. Those venturing into Hemingway’s writing for the first time will find in Sigal an inspirational and erudite guide.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Screenwriter and author Clancy Sigal explores Ernest Hemingway's life, work, and place in the always evolving modern literary canon. He discusses the author's appreciation for Teddy Roosevelt's brand of rugged masculinity while growing up "in a house brimming with female energy" and his hostility towards his progressive mother. Sigal defends Hemingway against charges of misogyny, noting some of his compelling female characters like Margot Macomber, "a woman under assault in a culture of male chauvinism" and the "defiantly promiscuous" Lady Brett Ashley. His treatment of his four wives, however, tells a different story. Sigal explores Hemingway's influencers including Pete Wellington at Kansas City Star and Gertrude Stein as well as his major themes like the disillusionment of war and the natural world as a place of healing and sudden violence. He discusses the autobiographical nature of A Farewell to Arms, recalling the author's time as a Red Cross ambulance driver as well as the 24 short stories featuring Nick Adams, Hemingway's most faithful proxy. Sigal is critical of The Old Man and the Sea, calling it "soft and sentimental", while praising the less popular To Have and Have Not as an example of the author "evolving toward serious social criticism." This book is a celebration of Hemingway's oeuvre by a lifelong devoted admirer and a valuable piece of interpretive criticism.
