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Something new for we Hemingway fans

Revisado: 12-17-20

After I had read and studied and plumbed virtually all of Ernest Hemingway’s work, I sought to learn more about his life – what made the person who made the people I’ve come to intimately know on the page? Over the years this has led me to read everything from all five volumes of Michael Reynold’s exhaustive and masterful biography to Lillian Ross’s slender and strange “portrait” of Hemingway, which had originally appeared in The New Yorker.

ERNEST’S WAY, written by Hemingway’s great-granddaughter, Cristin Hemingway Jaynes, and performed by Sara Schekells, does something none of these other works have done: it gives us between-the-lines insights and glimpses of the innumerable places this legendary traveller had not only been to and experienced, but utilized in his writing. A good number of these places have already been commented on in the biographies, yet in Hemingway Jaynes’s singular work, much more is presented than the “where” of the locale, and in so doing we come away with an understanding of not just what these places were when Hemingway visited, frequented, and often immortalized, but what they were beforehand, in situ. Just as it would be reasonable to shelve this work in the Biography section, it should also take its place as a travel guide, and not just any kind, but an insider’s travel guide replete with detailed information on how to get there and see the places for ourselves, even when they’re no longer what they once or long had been. This double-edged feat is accomplished deftly by Hemingway Jaynes, a surefooted guide whose prose clearly reflects her familial bonafides; her abundant talent lies in packing a lot in some deceptively simple spaces. (And even if, as I write this, a trip to these myriad environs is not, at present, possible, ERNEST’S WAY is a welcome means to tide us over, all told via the engaging voice of Ms. Schekells.)

Having had the good fortune to spend hours and hours at Hemingway’s house in Key West, his Finca in Cuba, even once sneaking into and climbing the many stairs of his and Hadley’s first apartment in Paris, I’ve learned through ERNEST’S WAY that these famous and infamous locales are often just the tip of Papa’s iceberg, 7/8ths of which are only waiting for us to eventually experience firsthand, perhaps just as he once had himself.

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Superb

Revisado: 12-02-20

It may seem like hype to say an actor has brought a story to life, but that’s just what Anton Lesser’s performance does. This is a treasure!

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