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The Heming Way: How to Unleash the Booze-Inhaling, Animal-Slaughtering, War-Glorifying, Hairy-Chested Retro-Sexual Legend Within, Just Like Papa!
Marty Beckerman's hilarious guide for the modern man to booze, battle, and bull-fight his way to becoming more like HemingwayMore than fifty years have passed since the death of Ernest Hemingway, history's ultimate man, and young males today—obsessed with Facebook, Twitter, and Playstation—know nothing about his legendary brand of rugged, alcoholic masculinity. They cannot skin a fish, dominate a battlefield, or transform majestic creatures of the Southern Hemisphere into piano keyboards.The Heming Way demonstrates how modern eunuchs—brainwashed by PETA and Alcoholics Anonymous—can learn from Papa's unparalleled drunken, unshaven, meat-devouring, wife-divorcing, and gloriously self-destructive.Advice How to kill enough animals to render a species endangered—just like Papa!Getting your friends to think drinking a daiquiri is manly . . . just by drinking one nine yourselfAchieving sufficiently high testosterone levels to never have to worry about the chance of having a daughter instead of a sonAnd much more!Profane, insightful, hilarious and loaded with more than 150 photos, facts and insights about Papa, The Heming Way is a difficult path, and not for the weak, but truth is manlier than fiction.
224 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 27, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
July 6, 2011
The Heming Way by Marty Beckerman is a testosterone-injected parody of a self-help book with some literary analysis thrown in. It’s a very short, illustrated book - because real men have little time for reading in between African safaris and drunken womanizing.
The full title of the book is, The Heming Way: How to Unleash the Booze-Inhaling, Animal-Slaughtering, War-Glorifying, Hairy-Chested, Retro-Sexual Legend Within... Just Like Papa!, which appropriately sets expectations that those seeking political correctness and a banal biography of the writer need to keep on looking. This is not it.
For those looking for a fun read, this book is hysterical. The sharp, intelligent one-liners littered throughout the pages had me laughing out loud. The observations are amusing and occasionally brilliant, but not so much so that a level-headed reader will be persuaded by the misogynistic diatribe. Still, beneath it all is a real message: Modern society has made men weak and dependent.
It’s true enough that if society collapsed and we were all left to hunt and forage for food; build a shelter and just not die, most men wouldn’t survive. We don’t have the skills for this sort of thing.
Being manly these days simply means you like sports, drink beer and rule the barbeque grill on weekends. You can hang a picture and maybe build some prefab furniture from Ikea, but only after studying the instructions and putting it together wrong two times first. “Working hard” implies that you sat at a computer all day. It’s not a Hemingway sort of man, and that’s what Beckerman highlights, siting sources for his references.
Hemingway had demons – lots of them. He tried to confront them by needlessly risking his life or tried to quiet them with excessive drink and infidelity. His inability to find peace led him through one of the most self-destructive lifestyles ever documented, and while it is an interesting life he led, it is also a tragic one. It is not one to be imitated or revered and the book makes this evident, too.
The Heming Way is an over-the-top, laugh-out-loud, boisterous romp of how to be a man's man with the colorful history of Hemingway’s accomplishments and failures as its basis. It’s a truly enjoyable read, but it’s not a manual for anything other than how to poke fun at being a man, or not being a man, as the case may be. I highly recommend it.
The full title of the book is, The Heming Way: How to Unleash the Booze-Inhaling, Animal-Slaughtering, War-Glorifying, Hairy-Chested, Retro-Sexual Legend Within... Just Like Papa!, which appropriately sets expectations that those seeking political correctness and a banal biography of the writer need to keep on looking. This is not it.
For those looking for a fun read, this book is hysterical. The sharp, intelligent one-liners littered throughout the pages had me laughing out loud. The observations are amusing and occasionally brilliant, but not so much so that a level-headed reader will be persuaded by the misogynistic diatribe. Still, beneath it all is a real message: Modern society has made men weak and dependent.
It’s true enough that if society collapsed and we were all left to hunt and forage for food; build a shelter and just not die, most men wouldn’t survive. We don’t have the skills for this sort of thing.
Being manly these days simply means you like sports, drink beer and rule the barbeque grill on weekends. You can hang a picture and maybe build some prefab furniture from Ikea, but only after studying the instructions and putting it together wrong two times first. “Working hard” implies that you sat at a computer all day. It’s not a Hemingway sort of man, and that’s what Beckerman highlights, siting sources for his references.
Hemingway had demons – lots of them. He tried to confront them by needlessly risking his life or tried to quiet them with excessive drink and infidelity. His inability to find peace led him through one of the most self-destructive lifestyles ever documented, and while it is an interesting life he led, it is also a tragic one. It is not one to be imitated or revered and the book makes this evident, too.
The Heming Way is an over-the-top, laugh-out-loud, boisterous romp of how to be a man's man with the colorful history of Hemingway’s accomplishments and failures as its basis. It’s a truly enjoyable read, but it’s not a manual for anything other than how to poke fun at being a man, or not being a man, as the case may be. I highly recommend it.
December 31, 2012
Funniest book I have read in a long, long time. Who doesn't truly love Hemmingway, and his lean, spare, heartrending prose? Then you grow up and read his personal correspondence and find out that your literary hero was actually a racist, misogynist, drunkard - plus arguably a coward and a liar to boot. Hard to reconcile the emotional inner conflict, right? I know! But this tongue-in-cheek little book cleverly lays out why you (and me) are clearly inferior to Papa, and allows us to hate him and love him AT THE EXACT SAME TIME! What could be truer than that?
There's a lot to love here. A disdain for the world of smart phone apps and sub-prime mortgage loans, a yearning for the time when masculinity was measured by (1) rare animals killed, preferably by large bore firearms and/or bare hands, (2) number of great American novels written, and (3) martinis and/or scotches consumed before lunch. Hemmingway would smash your I-phone with a rungu (It's a Masai stick used to kill lions, because I know you were thinking to yourself, "What's a rungu, and is there an app for that?")
In short, if you love satire, 20th century American literature, hunting, drinking, chasing women, war, more drinking, and the occasional great novel (all things that make America great!) you should own this satirical little jewel. In my house this book has pride of place. No, not next to my bed. That's where I keep my rungu. In the loo, where all great literature belongs.
There's a lot to love here. A disdain for the world of smart phone apps and sub-prime mortgage loans, a yearning for the time when masculinity was measured by (1) rare animals killed, preferably by large bore firearms and/or bare hands, (2) number of great American novels written, and (3) martinis and/or scotches consumed before lunch. Hemmingway would smash your I-phone with a rungu (It's a Masai stick used to kill lions, because I know you were thinking to yourself, "What's a rungu, and is there an app for that?")
In short, if you love satire, 20th century American literature, hunting, drinking, chasing women, war, more drinking, and the occasional great novel (all things that make America great!) you should own this satirical little jewel. In my house this book has pride of place. No, not next to my bed. That's where I keep my rungu. In the loo, where all great literature belongs.
June 22, 2011
First of all, any book that consistently makes fun of Jonathan Safran Foer is A-OK in my book. And it's much better than that even.
"The Heming Way" is an amazingly arranged compendium of Papa quotes wonderfully organized into chapters on all the important things in life: drinking, women, shooting things, growing beards. I never tired of reading Hemingway's thoughts on drinking and killing animals. They're absolutely hilarious. And, Marty's done an amazing job of digging these quotatious curios up and arranging them into a cracking read.
Perhaps the book is a little brief, but then again...that might be considered a credit for 2011 readers. I read in under an hour!
"The Heming Way" oddly enough even helped me understand Hemingway better. And I'm a guy who has read pretty much all of his works. It perhaps even helped me understand why he killed himself. And, it made me laugh a shit ton.
Favorite line: In the end, Hemingway was his own final trophy.
"The Heming Way" is an amazingly arranged compendium of Papa quotes wonderfully organized into chapters on all the important things in life: drinking, women, shooting things, growing beards. I never tired of reading Hemingway's thoughts on drinking and killing animals. They're absolutely hilarious. And, Marty's done an amazing job of digging these quotatious curios up and arranging them into a cracking read.
Perhaps the book is a little brief, but then again...that might be considered a credit for 2011 readers. I read in under an hour!
"The Heming Way" oddly enough even helped me understand Hemingway better. And I'm a guy who has read pretty much all of his works. It perhaps even helped me understand why he killed himself. And, it made me laugh a shit ton.
Favorite line: In the end, Hemingway was his own final trophy.
August 17, 2017
I was hoping for something light hearted, but this comedic examination often abandons humor in favor of abuse.
September 3, 2022
A nice read and with education tucked in the sarcasm.
May 7, 2025
Laugh-out-loud hilarious, if a little cruel, but mostly hilarious. I guffawed many many times.
September 26, 2011
Fifty years have passed since the death of Ernest Hemingway, history’s ultimate man, and young males today—obsessed with Facebook, Twitter, and Nintendo—know nothing about his legendary brand of rugged, alcoholic masculinity. They cannot skin a fish, dominate a battlefield, or transform majestic creatures of the Southern Hemisphere into piano keyboards. With chapters such as “For Whom the Beer Flows,” “Death in the Afternoon... Lunch is Served,” and “The Old Man and the See You in Hell,” Marty Beckerman demonstrates how modern eunuchs—brainwashed by PETA and Alcoholics Anonymous—can learn from Papa's unparalleled example: drunken, unshaven, meat-devouring, wife-divorcing, and gloriously self-destructive. The Heming Way is a difficult path, and not for the weak, but truth is manlier than fiction.
The Heming Way is a quick but uproarious read filled with screamingly funny one-liners. It is a tongue-in-cheek ode to the man who exemplifies everything that a man ought to be. Essentially the exact opposite of the sort of book you'd see on Oprah -- completely un-PC and well documented.
The Heming Way should be required reading for teenage boys passing into manhood.
The Heming Way is a quick but uproarious read filled with screamingly funny one-liners. It is a tongue-in-cheek ode to the man who exemplifies everything that a man ought to be. Essentially the exact opposite of the sort of book you'd see on Oprah -- completely un-PC and well documented.
The Heming Way should be required reading for teenage boys passing into manhood.
December 30, 2013
Definitely has its funny moments. After the first few chapters though, most of the jokes get repetitive and predictable. I get it; Hemingway committed suicide, but why does that need to be the punchline of every chapter. Certainly do not read it expecting highbrow humor. High school locker room might be a more apt description. It is, of course, a parody/satire of Hemingway's life. That being said, it is often hard to tell what is supposed to be taken as fact or fiction. On the positive, it certainly has it's share of interesting facts, if not astute insights. As someone well-read on Hemingway, I was familiar with much of the information. On the whole, however, not a bad read. It probably shouldn't be your first source of Hemingway history.
October 14, 2013
Tongue set firmly in cheek, Marty Beckerman writes about the uber-masculine myth of Hemingway while bemoaning our sissified, technology-driven culture, encouraging a return to a more masculine Of course, this requires overlooking (i.e., mentioning it dismissively for comic effect) his alcoholism, womanizing, overcompensation, struggles with depression, and ultimate suicide. It's a fun, if somewhat obvious, send-up of Hemingway and self-help books. I couldn't help myself from laughing out loud at times.
March 10, 2013
This is a really funny book. A man's got to take a lot of punishment to write a really funny book.
Seriously, though, a strong parody of self-help books in general and a great send-up of the Hemingway mythology.
It's a little slight and can only be appreciated by fans of the man himself. And a lot of the jokes, to the uninitiated, could come off as horribly misogynistic. If you're in on the joke, though, it's definitely worth an afternoon. Preferably paired with a pina colada.
Seriously, though, a strong parody of self-help books in general and a great send-up of the Hemingway mythology.
It's a little slight and can only be appreciated by fans of the man himself. And a lot of the jokes, to the uninitiated, could come off as horribly misogynistic. If you're in on the joke, though, it's definitely worth an afternoon. Preferably paired with a pina colada.
June 8, 2014
An amusing look at the Hemingway legend in a satirical, mock-serious style similar to that of Stephen Colbert. I found myself laughing out loud quite often. (Example: on Hemingway lecturing Fitzgerald about drinking: "When you need lessons in temperance from Ernest Hemingway, you have a *serious* problem.") I was also impressed with the number of quotes from Hemingway. In many cases, the uber-manly quotes didn't need much commentary to be funny in their own right.
October 1, 2015
Marty is awesome. A totally worthwhile lampoon for lovers and haters of Hem alike. Using Papa's words against him, you are faced with the contradictions inherent in a self-involved alcoholic celebrity mentality! A man's man's man's man revealed in a new light.
June 12, 2011
A quick and amusing read (and informative, assuming you're one of those caring/feeling/new age-y guys).
August 16, 2015
Wonderful. A must read for any man suffering from the emotional, mental (and physical?) castration of modern society.
August 15, 2011
I don't mind saying it again, this is a "Man" manual for the 21st century. The author speaks of matters important to men like eating meat, drinking liquor and hunting game. :-)
June 26, 2012
Absolutely hilarious. A little flippant about the suicide aspect maybe, but a smart, intelligently-written parody nonetheless.
November 29, 2012
Absolutely hilarious! Genius.
February 25, 2013
Oh Marty! Very funny. Bursts of laughter, roars of cheer.
January 24, 2013
The blackest of black humor. But funny.
June 7, 2013
A very humorous "man bible" as lived by the legend himself.
April 18, 2013
Laugh out loud hilarious. A must-read for any Hemingway aficionado.
June 25, 2013
Funny. showed some insight rarely seen of Hemingway. pretty funny read.
July 25, 2013
Just read a biography. this book read like a bio by buzzfeed.
March 22, 2014
Kinda funny
July 12, 2011
Daft - but funny.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews