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Writers & Readers Documentary Comic Book #53
Hemingway for Beginners
Book by Selkirk, Errol
Paperback
First published March 1, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 17, 2019
On the book: A sympathetic synopsis of one man's life, with as much biographical data as could be crammed into 156 illustrated pages. This is my second book in the "For Beginners" series, the first being on Charles Darwin. Where author Jonathan Miller focused on Darwin's professional accomplishments and legacy, Errol Selkirk's 'Hemingway' is more of a true biography. This reads like a meticulously researched 300 page draft that was grudgingly edited for people with short attention spans.
On the man: There are no simple adjectives that would encompass the entirety of Hemingway's existence. He was a braggart and a bullshit artist, even when embellishments and exagerations were unnecessary. As a husband, he was a self-described son-of-a-bitch. As a writer he could, at times, be brilliant. As for suicides, I feel more anguish for the loss of Sylvia Plath or Virginia Woolf than I do for Ernest Hemingway, maybe because Hemingway's demons were of his own making. His exploits were legendary, but so were his vices. Selkirk does a fine job of chronicling both and letting you draw your own conclusions.
On the man: There are no simple adjectives that would encompass the entirety of Hemingway's existence. He was a braggart and a bullshit artist, even when embellishments and exagerations were unnecessary. As a husband, he was a self-described son-of-a-bitch. As a writer he could, at times, be brilliant. As for suicides, I feel more anguish for the loss of Sylvia Plath or Virginia Woolf than I do for Ernest Hemingway, maybe because Hemingway's demons were of his own making. His exploits were legendary, but so were his vices. Selkirk does a fine job of chronicling both and letting you draw your own conclusions.
November 30, 2014
I've just spent most of the day reading this book, and Hemingway for Beginners is precisely that: as succinct and concise a wrap-up of Papa Hemingway's whole life as you'll find in 155 pages, complete with line illustrations.
This is an acceptable resource for the college undergrad who is desperately cramming, or for anyone else who wants to go light on a Hemingway bio. The glorious and sordid stories of Papa's sad life unfold one by one here, although if you're not already quite familiar with Hemingway's literary works and style and how they shook the world, you're going to have to invest some substantial time actually reading his original tales. But then, if you care at all about literature, then you ought to do that anyway, so. . .
Hemingway was a complex man and a deeply flawed one. This book hints at his profoundly troubled soul. The answers to those more complicated questions can be found elsewhere, but not in this book. Still, if you want to begin to quickly learn a lot about Hemingway in one day, this is not a bad place to begin.
This is an acceptable resource for the college undergrad who is desperately cramming, or for anyone else who wants to go light on a Hemingway bio. The glorious and sordid stories of Papa's sad life unfold one by one here, although if you're not already quite familiar with Hemingway's literary works and style and how they shook the world, you're going to have to invest some substantial time actually reading his original tales. But then, if you care at all about literature, then you ought to do that anyway, so. . .
Hemingway was a complex man and a deeply flawed one. This book hints at his profoundly troubled soul. The answers to those more complicated questions can be found elsewhere, but not in this book. Still, if you want to begin to quickly learn a lot about Hemingway in one day, this is not a bad place to begin.
September 27, 2017
This book is part of a series that includes "Zen for Beginners," "Plato for Beginners," and "Babies for Beginners." As such, I expected a formulaic, watered down format and style. However, author Errol Selkirk has infused this terse bio with gritty insights and succulent quotes by and about the great man.
He gets a few details wrong--for example, Hemingway wrote "Across the River and Into the Trees," and not "Across the River and Through the Trees"--but he gets the arc of Hemingway's life right, the rise to fame and glory and fall to paranoia and suicide. Selkirk postulates that it was life, not death, that Hemingway feared.
"Hemingway for Beginners" was first published in 1994 and so pre-dates the boom in graphic novels. I think it would have benefited from that format. Nonetheless, this book transcends the "Beginners" mold into which it has been poured.
He gets a few details wrong--for example, Hemingway wrote "Across the River and Into the Trees," and not "Across the River and Through the Trees"--but he gets the arc of Hemingway's life right, the rise to fame and glory and fall to paranoia and suicide. Selkirk postulates that it was life, not death, that Hemingway feared.
"Hemingway for Beginners" was first published in 1994 and so pre-dates the boom in graphic novels. I think it would have benefited from that format. Nonetheless, this book transcends the "Beginners" mold into which it has been poured.
September 17, 2021
This volume calls itself a documentary comic book. The writing is accessible, the illustrations well done. Invest a couple of hours in it and you get a good overview of man and writer. The writer was excellent (at times), the man, not so, it seems. The book aims to be penetrating yet sympathetic, and I feel succeeds in this.
January 19, 2013
Nice quick insight into his life.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews