Iubirile lui Hemingway povestite de el însuși

by A.E. Hotchner, Alexandru Macovescu (trad.)

De-a lungul timpului, și mai ales în ultima parte a vieții, Hemingway i-a dezvăluit prietenului de încredere cu care mergea la vânătoare, la coride și la pescuit amănunte despre evenimentele care i-au marcat existența, dând la iveală o ipostază mai puțin cunoscută a marelui scriitor. Din cartea lui A.E. Hotchner aflăm despre viața romantică de la Paris, despre relația care i-a distrus prima căsnicie și despre tragedia de a fi iubit două femei în același timp, despre legăturile lui cu marii artiști și scriitori ai vremii, despre prietenia cu Scott Fitzgerald, despre întâlnirea cu frumoasa Josephine Baker, dar și despre cele două accidente aviatice cărora le-a supraviețuit ca prin minune.
O carte despre aventură, greșeli, regrete și pierderea adevăratei iubiri; întrebarea care nu i-a dat pace în săptămânile dinaintea morții era: „Cum ştie un tânăr care se îndrăgostește pentru prima oară că aceasta va fi singura mare iubire a vieţii lui?“

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Memoir, History, Biography Memoir, Audiobook, Book Club

180 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2015

About the author

Aaron Edward Hotchner was an American editor, novelist, playwright, and biographer. He wrote many television screenplays as well as a biography of Ernest Hemingway. He co-founded with Paul Newman the charity food company Newman's Own.

Reviews

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Again and again I am drawn to these books covering the remarkable authors and artists of this time period. Hemingway in his own words, made him a bit more human yet it was still hard to feel compassion for this man, who was a brilliant writer but a disastrous husband and friend. Loved the pictures at the beginning of each chapter showing Hemingway at different stages in his life. Of course all the usual suspects make an appearance here, Dos Passos, Fitzgerald, the Murphys, Picasso but just as bit players. This mostly concentrated on his marriages, what went wrong, what he regretted. His friendship with the author was a long standing one, they shared many adventures together, many talks. Hemingway's deterioration at the end of his life was sad, how so brilliant a personality burned itself out.

Enjoyed reading this although I don't think much new was offered. It is however, concentrated in one place instead of over several biographies etc. The writing is fluid which made this a very easy book to read.

Recommended for those who love this time period and are curious about the man.

ARC from NetGalley.

[Lawyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hemingway in Love: His Own Story, A Shot of Tequila to be Taken with Ample Salt

Well, well, well. This is a beautiful little literary memoir written by A.E. Hotchner. Mr. Hotchner's a nice fellow. He helped Paul Newman start the Newman's Own food brand, the proceeds of which are donated to charity. He also, along with Newman, established the Hole in the Wall Camp for kids ages seven through fifteen with cancer and rare blood diseases from which they are unlikely to recover. Admission is free. Anyone involved in projects like that under his belt is all right in my book.

I can almost excuse him for writing this book about Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway took a much younger Hotchner under his wing around 1948. Obviously, Hotchner never suffered one of Hem's infamous tongue lashings as most of his friends did throughout Hemingway's life. Of course Hemingway had a use for Hotchner. Hotchner was involved in bringing a number of Hemingway stories to the screen, small and large.

To be continued after having slept on it. My blood pressure having subsided to a relatively normal rate. While I attribute no scurrilous motive to Mr. Hotchner, having read numerous academic biographies of Mr. Hemingway, I do believe Mr. Hotchner has been thoroughly duped by a man who considered truth to be a relative concept, one that served his purpose moment to moment. Believe me, more to follow...

So, it is a new day. I have had a solid night's sleep. A visit to the medicine cabinet should have my blood pressure on an even keel. I'll do my utmost to be objective. After all, I am a great admirer of the writing of Ernest Hemingway. Let's examine this little memoir.

As I write this, I'm listening to an interview with A.E. Hotchner. He is ninty-five years old now. Sharp as a tack. He obviously loved Hemingway. He thought Papa was the ideal nickname for the man for he viewed Hemingway as a father figure. Hotchner admits he did no research for this book. He vetted no facts. He wanted the reader to discover the personality of the man he came to know over the course of a thirteen year friendship.

Hotchner was an employee of Cosmpopolitan Magazine prior to the Helen Gurley Brown days. Before the Cosmo Girl days. When it was still a literary magazine. Hotchner was sent to recruit Hemingway to write an article on "The Future of Literature." Hotchner traveled to Cuba, sent a note to Hemingway introducing himself. He was surprised to receive a phone call from Hem, inviting him for a drink at the Floridita Bar. Although Hotchner did not realize it, it was the beginning of what became a fast friendship.

Hotchner last saw Hemingway at Saint Mary's Hospital in Rochester, Minnesota, three weeks before Hemingway committed suicide. Hemingway was in the depths of depression and out and out paranoia. He believed he was under surveillance by the FBI, that his bank account was being audited, that the Federal government was after him for back taxes. He believed his nurse, Susan was a federal informant. It was Hemingway's second admission to the hospital. It was Hemingway's second course of shock treatments. The treatments had no effect on his delusions.

What is contained in this brief memoir largely consists of segments excised from Hotchner's biography Papa Hemingway published in 1965 because of references to people still alive, especially Hemingway's fourth wife, Mary Walsh Hemingway, and his third wife, Martha Gellhorn, and, yes, Hadley Richardson Mowrer, who received the news of Hemingway's suicide while on vacation with her husband Paul Mowrer to whom she had been married since 1931 .

Hemingway poignantly tells Hotchner that his only true love was his first wife, Hadley Richardson, whom he lost to Pauline Pfeiffer. While Hemingway paints Hadley as his Eve, he depicts Pauline as his Lillith. He finds little fault with himself. Pauline was a seductress who inserted herself into the Hemingway family, becoming a friend to Pauline, all the while looking for a suitable husband, her target being Ernest. My, my, my.

It would be one thing if Hemingway's story of his love for Hadley haunting him for the rest of his life came at the end of it when Hotchner was visiting him in St. Mary's Hospital. But it did not. Hemingway related his story to Hotchner in the mid-1950s following his two airplane crashes while on safari in Africa with fourth wife Mary.

Hemingway's story, actually recorded by Hotchner on tape relates to times before Hotchner ever knew the man, the women, or the people Hemingway called his friends. The memoir relates none of the betrayals of friendship. It still contains Hemingway's blatant insistence that he was in the Italian army during World War One, although he was a Red Cross Volunteer. Hem portrays Scott Fitzgerald as one of his closest friends, even bestowing his lucky rabbit's foot on Scott when Fitzgerald had hospitalized Zelda in an asylum. In truth, Hemingway despised Zelda as much as she did him. Zelda called him a fake the first time she met him.

All of the 1920's expatriate crowd in Paris appear in this memoir. All with Hemingway's unique spin. Where his untruths are not actually told they exist by omission. Yes. For Hemingway, truth was a relative concept. While you may read this memoir and find an absolute air of heartbreak and poignancy within its pages, Hemingway lived a life of conscious choices. As biographer Robert R. Mellow so aptly titled his book regarding this man, it was Hemingway: A Life Without Consequences

You may wonder, considering the contents of this review, why a rating of four stars? Because A.E. Hotchner is a wonderful writer, whether he was duped or not. It is a portrait of friendship, beautifully captured. Perhaps, in friendship, it is sometimes easier to look the other way. Hemingway taught Hotchner much. That Hotchner viewed Hemingway a father figure is without question.

The punchline? Hemingway was right about one thing.

"Decades later, in response to a Freedom of Information petition, the F.B.I. released its Hemingway file. It revealed that beginning in the 1940s J. Edgar Hoover had placed Ernest under surveillance because he was suspicious of Ernest’s activities in Cuba. Over the following years, agents filed reports on him and tapped his phones. The surveillance continued all through his confinement at St. Mary’s Hospital. It is likely that the phone outside his room was tapped after all." Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds. A.E. Hotchner, July 1, 2011, The New York Times

[Esil · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars. Sometimes you read a book and at some level you know there's a lot wrong with it, but somehow it's still captivating. That's how I experienced reading Hemingway in Love. A.E. Hotchner, who was a friend of Hemingway's, writes about a few conversations he had with EH over the last few years of EH's life in which he expressed regret over the time in his life when he left his first wife Hadley for his second wife Pauline, which he recounts while married to his fourth wife Mary. There -- that last sentence should tell you what's wrong with this picture. Hotchner is clearly a bit too star struck -- still all these years later. EH's regret doesn't really serve to elicit much sympathy. And Hotchner's narrative jumps around in time a bit chaotically -- if I understand correctly he's written this book in his 90s. And yet I felt myself drawn into this little world. Probably because it contains so much more than the story of EH's regret. Hotchner describes in detail the circumstances of his conversations with EH -- encounters in Africa, Havana, Paris and Key West. He recounts in detail so much of what EH told him -- fitting in stories about other famous people in EH's life around that time -- Fitzgerald for example who admonished EH for being drawn to Pauline. And poignantly, he tells us about the Hemingway he dealt with in the year or two before EH committed suicide -- his paranoia, depression, admission to psychiatric facilities and electroshock therapy. It didn't make me like EH very much, but it made for interesting reading. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 3 out of 5]

R.I.P .A. E. Hotchner, (1917-2020), biographer and friend of Ernest Hemingway, who helped shape this positive spin on Hem's relationship with his first wife Hadley, whom we all pretty much agree was wronged by Hem. Here Hotch midwives Hem's apology and "love letter" to Hadley.

This older interview by Terri Gross with Hotchner was aired February 18, 2020

https://www.npr.org/2020/02/18/806991...

Original review, 5/29/18: Well, I dunno. This particular reading rabbit-hole began recently with re-reading The Old Man and the Sea, The Sun Also Rises, and a book about the making of Sun by Leslie Blume, Everybody Behaving Badly, which is obviously true from both Sun and the “true story” Blume claims informed the making of Sun. Blume references a couple books by A. E. Hotchner, a friend of Hem’s and also his biography, Papa, which I read at one point adoringly, and loved. It’s not really objective, it’s a friend’s book, but it was informative to me at the time.

I also at one point read this Hemingway story, Hemingway in Love, also written by friend Hotch, which is honest about the last weeks of Hemingway’s life—the severe depression, the paranoia—leading to Hem's 1961 suicide in Ketchum, Idaho and also shares the stories Hemingway had shared personally with him about Paris, the writing of Sun, and about Hadley, Hem’s first wife that he had dumped for rich heiress Pauline Pfeiffer. The interviews this book is based on were part of the Papa project, but the publisher of that book felt that the story of Hadley and Hem's undying love for her would be disrespectful to Hemingway’s fifth and final wife, Mary, so they waited until she was gone to share it.

This book focuses on Hemingway’s confession for leaving Hadley for Pauline and his assertion that Hadley was nevertheless the love of his life. Hem is here regretful, remorseful, though it is a tale told between men—conversations between Hem and Hotch—and it also somewhat ungenerously blames Pauline for being a “femme fatale” and for her aggressive pursuit of the then-married Hemingway. I know most biographies view Pauline in this fashion, and I'd generally agree, but Hem also made choices, and he also eventually left Pauline through an affair, Hem sending Pauline pictures of the young woman from various places they had stayed.

We get Hem's story of how “lonely” Hem was during the 100-day challenge Hadley had given him to separate himself from Pauline, after which she would release him if he still wanted that, but in the process we get too little real regret from Hem, he forgets his mission of remorse from time to time in the telling, and he can't seem to resist telling about hanging around with Josephine Baker during this "lonely" time, and we learn more than we want to about such things as Hem’s impotence in his initial marriage with Pauline (cured by a visit to a church, he sez, okay!), and how Hem had rejected F. Scott Fitzgerald’s advice to end the affair with Pauline.

In one of the last conversations with Hem recounted here, Fitzgerald—his own wife institutionalized, his own life wrecked by alcoholism—says to Hem, “what a fine pair of losers we have become,” and this is shared sympathetically by Hotch, but I feel less sorry for him than in my previous reading of this book. He really did screw up his life, as did Fitz. Hotch sharing the news of actual FBI files documenting Hoover’s wiretapping and tailing Hemingway are interesting, a kind of vindication for some of what we had always assumed was paranoia, I guess.

But calling the book Hemingway in Love seems like a kind of whitewashing, in spite of the shared regret. Hadley, who reportedly meets Hemingway and conveniently forgives him and says she still loves him in the last time they ever met, according to Hemingway, well, this could have happened, sure, but it doesn’t make me sympathize with Hem. Hey, she forgave him, so we should, too, men are men, things happen, get over it? Well, I’m no saint; I’m not trying to suggest I am better than Hem in this short reflection. I’m just sharing my sense of Hem as confessor. I’d give him two stars out of five on the confession scale, really.

But if the book doesn’t make me sympathize with Hem as a person, nor does the book make me hate him as a writer or want to stop reading him. Hotch’s book is meant to precede a (re)-reading of A Moveable Feast, Hemingway’s last words on Paris and Hadley, published after Hemingway’s death, which I might now reread. And as I have said, read his masterpiece The Old Man and the Sea and tell me he is a terrible writer. You can’t do it.

[Edita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don’t need it anymore, I told him, had all the good luck I can handle.
*

“Pecas,” he said in a soft, barely audible voice, “tell me this: How does a young man know when he falls in love for the very first time, how can he know that it will be the only true love of his life? How can he possibly know? How can he know?”
*
“Hadley and I were lucky. The stars were perfectly aligned for us. Hadley believed in me and that was more than enough to overcome the pain of all the rejection slips. Those stories—it was hard as hell to write ’em but harder to have them rejected. When you get a printed form attached to a story you wrote and worked on very hard and believed in, the printed rejection slip is hard to take on an empty stomach. Dear Sir, we regret to tell you that your submission does not meet our editorial needs. Well fuck ’em! I regret to tell you that your rejection slip does not meet my editorial needs! “Hadley would notice the mutilated rejection slips and tell me not to be discouraged, that she loved my stories and that someday somebody would publish them and they would be a big success and my picture would be in bookstore windows, smiling and holding a pipe. “She would put her hands on the sides of my face and pull me toward her and hold me and make me feel we had something no one else had and that it would carry us wherever we wanted to go.”

[ZaRi]

در ابتدای عاشقی،نوعی جنون و دیوانگی تو را گرفتار خود می کند.مانند زلزله تو را می لرزاند و سپس آرامی شود.زمانی که آرام گرفتی،باید تصمیم بگیری؛باید تصمیم بگیری که آیا واقعن ریشه های شما چنان به هم گره خورده است که نتوانید با هم نبودن را تصور کنید؟

[Daniel Villines · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting little semi-autobiography that was told to Hotchner by Hemingway following Hemingway’s near-fatal airplane crashes in Africa in 1954. The book centers upon the transition from Hemingway’s first wife, Hadley, to his second wife Pauline. As such, there’s a lot of victimization involved with Hadley and a lot of assertive husband stealing on the part of Pauline. The overall impression is that Hadley was the consummate victim, Hemingway never know what hit him, and Pauline obtained exactly what she wanted from the start.

There are a number of reasons why this narrative should not be wholly believed, the most significant being that Hemingway is the one telling his version of the story to his sympathetic friend, Hotchner, who writes it down. As it is told, the entire experience comes across a bit too pollyannaish towards everyone involved, especially Hemingway. All the sharp edges have been removed and all three participants move towards an acceptance of their fate.

The best parts of this book live outside its main subject. The reader is treated to Hemingway’s self-described experiences during a time that coincided with the publication of The Sun Also Rises. Hemingway provides details about the TSAR crowd, their travels and conversations, and the crowd’s estrangement with Hemingway following the novel’s publication. Other interesting insights are provided regarding the inspiration for a few of his short stories. And then there’s Hemingway being Hemingway with his nonstop drinking, his travels around Europe, and his life in Key West.

In total, everything other than the narrative of Hemingway trading one wife for the next makes this an insightful read. Those that enjoy contemplating the greater Hemingway puzzle will find this book to be filled with more than a few relevant pieces.

[Petra · Rating 1 out of 5]

A quick read but with no substance.
Hotchner filled the pages with name-dropping, his hob-nobbing with Hemingway and Hemingway's supposed stories of how Hadley was the one who got away.
Throughout, this sounds like someone trying to cash in on the chance opportunity of having met Hemingway and spending time (which Hemingway seemed to pay the costs of) with him.
Lots of name dropping and no one able to say anything in their defence. Not a fan.

[Serene Lim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can't say that I feel sorry for Hemingway. He comes across as one of those men who only lament the loss of 'true love' when they've successfully driven it away. When they had it solid and clenched in their fist, they cast it aside for the shiny and gossamer. In their old, fat, sickly and alcoholic days, they bottom out over it.

-bitter rant over-

The book is good. I was hooked right from the epigraph.

[Linda Lipko · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure exactly why I continue to read about Ernest Hemingway. He truly was a despicable man. Always searching, never resting. Restlessly jumping from one woman to another. Always, always having another in wait before he left the current one.

This is written by his friend of 13 years, who it seems was enthralled by the man named Hemingway. The book begins at a time in Ernest's life when he was suicidal and severely depressed. Hotchner found him in a psychiatric ward. This would be the final time of conversations and would conclude a saga that started a long time ago. It now became finished as Hemingway committed suicide three weeks after leaving the hospital.

This primarily focuses on Hemingway's first marriage to a young woman named Elizabeth Hadley Richardson. She was shy; he was vivaciously extroverted. Married in 1921, they lived in Paris while Ernest found his footing as a great American author. At that time, there were many other writers living in Paris, and they formed quite an amazing group that included Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and Ezra Pound.

While in Paris living on the fringes of they rich and famous, they were poor, Ernest thrived in this group of hedonistic authors. His first of three sons, nicknamed Bumby, was born there.

Candidly, Hemingway told Hochfield of his gamble of loving two women at once. Never looking at this from the women's perspective and what they endured, Hemingway lamented about how sad it was that he could not keep both women and that Hadley had enough, and made an ultimatum, giving Hemingway 100 days for them to remain apart. He was told he had to choose after abstinence from both.

Boldly carrying on an affair with friend of Hadley and paramour of Ernest, Pauline Pfeiffer, came from wealth. Wearing fancy clothes and spending frivolously, Ernest was exceedingly drawn to her. Longing for both, poor Ernest portrayed himself as quite a victim of the difficulty of loving two lovely ladies....They had two sons, Patrick and Gregory.

Scott Fitzgerald could not understand Hemingway's selfishness and noted to him that loving two meant taking the risk of losing both.

Hadley grew weary of the drama and before the end of the 100 days, told Ernest she wanted a divorce. His marriage to Pauline was not a long-term event.
Ernest, through the end of his life, often stated that he made a huge mistake in betraying Hadley. Claiming Hadley was the love of his life, he selfishly could not understand why she remarried.

In Paris, years later, after two more wives, he ran into Hadley. Happily married, she was not to be swayed or impressed by Ernest's lamentations.

[Judy Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

A special thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A. E. Hotchner (Aaron Edward) American editor, novelist, playwright, biographer, and friend (Hotch), delivers an intimate inside look, “behind the scenes” of his close friend’s relationship, life, and photos-- HEMINGWAY IN LOVE: His Own Story, a love triangle between the famous much loved author, Ernest Hemingway—(Hadley and Pauline); his loves, his near death experiences, his regrets, and dreams.

Having met Ernest Hemingway some fifty years ago, in 1948, Hotchner became close friends until Hemingway’s death in 1961. In addition, Hotchner is also known for Papa Hemingway, his 1966 biography of Hemingway, whose work he had also adapted for plays and television.

From Paris, Venice, African Safaris, Key West, The Ritz, St Mary’s Hospital, the famous Hundred Day sentence, to his death in Idaho.

Hemingway had experienced a near-death experience in the second of the plane crashes, which upended him-- he was determined to tell Hotcher of a painful period in his life he had never discussed -- he wanted to unburden himself.

While Hemingway relived the harrowing experience –the agony of the period in Paris when he was writing The Sun Also Rises, while in love with two women simultaneously, an experience that would haunt him to his grave.

“Hadley was simple, old-fashioned, receptive, plain, virtuous; Pauline up to the second chic, stylish, aggressive, cunning, nontraditional.” Total opposites. He was in charge of Hadley; whereas, Pauline in charge of him.

Scott Fitzgerald had warned him he would eventually lose both women. However, because two women loved him-- Pauline had money, servants, fancy apartments, boats, houses, and the fact he was tired of poverty at times, he was flattered by the attention of two women. However, was unaware of the dangers of his actions, until it was too late. He lost the one woman he would always love and cherish.

Hotchner reflects back to his private conversations with his friend “Papa”, while withholding some of these conversations years earlier, out of respect for Mary. He reiterates the account is not a buried memory dredged up; however, the story he recounted over the course of their travels, entrusted to him with a purpose. He has finally released it to the world. He shares their stories and adventures from France, Italy, Cuba, Florida Keys, and Spain. Ernest’s zest for life was infectious.

The book opens in 1961, it is the second time Hemingway was a patient in the psychiatric section under the care of doctors from the nearby Mayo Clinic at St. Mary’s Hospital in Rochester. For six weeks he had not been able to receive visitors or make phone calls.

Back then electric shock was brutally administered, the electric current projected into the patient’s brain without benefit of an anesthetic, a piece of wood clenched between his teeth as he writhed in torturous pain. The Mayo doctors had diagnosed Ernest as suffering from a depressive persecutory condition and had prescribed the ECTs, in an attempt to diminish it.

Mary was Ernest's fourth wife at the time. They had celebrated Ernest’s 60th birthday, which was his last good year. The next upcoming year his paranoia deepened convinced his car and house were being bugged by the FBI and that the IRS were auditing his bank accounts. Mary was distraught. (Some of this information later came to light after his death, which was indeed true). Hotchner witnessed over the next upcoming year, abrupt and puzzling changes in Ernest’s demeanor.

Hemingway questioned what everyone was giving him at age sixty-one. The only thing someone of his age cares about is being healthy, working at his calling, eating and drinking with people he cares about, good sex, traveling to places he loves. He is being denied all of this. Why should he stick around? They were all after him, from the hall phone to the Nurse Susan…all reporting to the FBI.

Out of Hemingway’s four wives, Hadley Richardson, his first wife, is the one he fondly recalls in the book. While they were married, he began an affair with femme fatale, model, Pauline. A total opposite from his wife, Pauline befriended Hadley and interjected herself into their lives. Hadley gave him the famous 100 days to make his decision between the two women.

However, Hadley threw in the towel with a divorce before the hundred days. Aggressive and persistent, Pauline continued to pursue Hemingway, until Hadley asked for a divorce. By this time, Ernest gave in, as Pauline used her wealthy financial status and cunning ways, to seal the deal. With the birth of their children, he was driven further away. There is not much mention of third wife, Martha, except a way to escape Pauline.

The book also accounts and shares photography of Hemingway’s safari to Africa, where he was almost killed in two successive plane crashes that left him in pain or ill health for much of his remaining life. Hemingway maintained permanent residences in Key West, Florida, (1930s) and Cuba (1940s and 1950s), and in 1959, he bought a house in Ketchum, Idaho, where he committed suicide in the summer of 1961.

Ernest, a complex man was pulled between the two women at the time; however, his regrets were leaving the one real love of his life, as readers hear of intimate details of the two women, as well as adventures, travel, and conversations between the two friends over drinks recalling earlier days. From his literature, traumas, his declining health, to his other famous friends such as Scott Fitzgerald and Gary Cooper.

For those Key West fans, you will enjoy pulling up a bar stool, the stories over drinks at the famous Sloppy Joes, where Hemingway was a former co-owner (silent partner) with Joe Russell, with a reserved table. From hunts, friends, art, literature, fishing, skiing, horseback riding, gaming, boating, culture, travel, the Fitzgerald’s, the Murphy’s, booze, good food, sex, loves and women.

“All things truly wicked start from an innocence.”—Ernest Hemingway

Hotchner, a natural storyteller, delivers an admirable account of his friend's thoughts. Hemingway and literature fans will appreciate the inside look at this gifted novelist; the highs and lows, of a complex man, and the raging storms; his loves, both personally and professionally.

JDCMustReadBooks

[Amnh · Rating 5 out of 5]

ينضم إلى رفّ الكتب التي تعاد قراءتها أكثر من مرّه. ♥️

[Faye · Rating 4 out of 5]

i think we all collectively agree that hemingway was shit and there was no way he could justify his actions towards what he did to hadley.

nevertheless, this was an enjoyable read for me. hotchner’s writing was truly enticing to me. i wanted to devour this whole book in one night. alas, i had to prioritise what matters first.

it was so interesting getting to peek inside hemingway and hotchner’s friendship along with hemingway’s constant turbulence in his love life. hadley truly did deserved better and i could never understand hemingway’s desire of wanting and loving two women at the same time (which i 100% think pauline is a major homewrecker having read this account). was hadley not enough? was the life he had with hadley, the family that they built, was that not satisfaction enough that he needed someone new?

these are the questions that i repeatedly ask as i progressed through the book. but reading of hemingway’s deteriorating mental health truly hit the sympathetic nerve in me. sure his love life is messed up and that may have contributed to the decaying of his mental health but reading hemingway talk of suicidal intentions and his depression sends me a melancholic wave that i never thought it would. so if you are interested in giving this memoir a go, please bear in mind such trigger warnings (talks of mental health, suicidal ideations, cheating etc.).

[Andie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A. E. Hotchner wrote a fairly fawning biography of Ernest Hemingway shortly after the author committed suicide in 1961. However, apparently he left out (or highly edited) Hemingway's thoughts on the break-up of his first marriage to Hadley Richardson and his subsequent marriage to Pauline Pfeiffer. So last year, at the age of 95, Hotchner gathered up all his notes and put together this slim volume ostensibly to set the record straight now that all the parties who could be offended are conveniently dead.

Much of Hemingway's regret over the collapse of his first marriage has been discussed in his posthumously published memoir of his life in Paris, A Movable Feast, so there is really very little new ground here to tread. Mostly this is Hemingway, crippled by writer's block and depression,lamenting on the errors in his life and what might have been. I'm not at all sure this book was necessary, but maybe Hotchner needed the money.

[Γιώργος Πράτανος · Rating 3 out of 5]

Θα το συνιστούσα σε λάτρεις του κορυφαίου αμερικανού συγγραφέα (μαζί με τον Στάινμπεκ και τον Σκοτ Φιτζτζέραλντ καθόρισαν τη σύγχρονη αμερικανική λογοτεχνία). Η προσωπική ζωή του συγγραφέα καθορίζεται εν πολλοίς από τον έρωτα, το αλκοόλ, τα φαντάσματα. Ένα πνεύμα ελεύθερο που κατάφερε να ισορροπήσει ανάμεσα στη δημιουργικότητα και την εμπειρία -συνήθως οι δημιουργοί δύσκολα βιώνουν πρωτόγνωρες καταστάσεις.
Γραμμένο συναισθηματικά, αποστασιοποιημένο εκεί που απαιτείται, ο συγγραφέας και φίλος του Χέμινγουεϊ μοιράζεται εκείνες τις πληροφορίες που δίνουν μια νέα διάσταση στην κατανόηση των γραπτών του σπουδαίου δημιουργού.

[Mihail Victus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Parcă i s-ar fi potrivit mai bine titlul original: Hemingway in Love / Hemingway îndrăgostit. Simplu și direct, așa cum e și stilul acestei scurte memorii despre Papa, din perspectiva cuiva care l-a cunoscut foarte bine, mai ales în acei ultimi ani de "nebunie".

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

This wasn't long enough to paint the picture that A.E. Hotchner attempted...I also have zero sympathy for Ernest within this story arc.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Περίμενα το βιβλίο «Ερωτευμένος Χέμινγουεϊ- Η δική του εξιστόρηση», το οποίο στην Ελλάδα κυκλοφορεί από τις εκδόσεις Παπαδόπουλος, με μεγάλη προσμονή καθώς αναφέρεται σε έναν λατρεμένο μου συγγραφέα.
Το χρονικό πλαίσιο στο οποίο κινείται η αφήγηση του βιβλίου είναι η επικρατούσα πατριαρχεία της τότε εποχής και αυτό οφείλει ο αναγνώστης να το αναγνωρίσει, ώστε να του είναι κατανοητές οι ιστορικές και πολιτισμικές συνθήκες στις οποίες εξελίσσεται η πλοκή. Άλλωστε, όταν μιλάμε για συναισθήματα οφείλουμε να καταλαβαίνουμε την προσωπική χροιά του χαρακτήρα τους. Κι αυτό το βιβλίο μιλάει για συναισθήματα, αυτά που είχε ο σπουδαίος λογοτέχνης Χέμινγουεϊ για την πρώτη του σύζυγο, την Χάντλεϊ.

Ο συγγραφέας Aaron Edward Hotchner –ο οποίος έχει γράψει το διάσημο «Papa Hemingway»- συνδέθηκε, από το 1948, με μια βαθιά φιλία με τον Χέμινγουεϊ. Ο ίδιος ισχυρίζεται πως η σχέση του με τον νομπελίστα συγγραφέα θύμιζε σχέση πατέρα-γιου. Αποφάσισε λοιπόν να καταγράψει τις μαγνητοφωνημένες συνομιλίες τους από μία συγκεκριμένη περίοδο της ζωής τους, τότε που ο Χέμινγουεϊ νοσηλευόταν στο ψυχιατρείο με διαγνωσμένη κατάθλιψη. Μας παραδίδει την ίδια τη διήγηση του συγγραφέας σε ένα μικρό και ευκολοδιάβαστο βιβλίο, με γρήγορη ροή και σημαντικό περιεχόμενο.

Η ιστορία έχει ως πυρήνα της τη διάλυση του γάμου του Χέμινγουεϊ με την πρώτη του γυναίκα και τη σχέση του με τη δεύτερη σύζυγο του, Πολίν. Ο Hotchner ακούει με κατανόηση τον φίλο του και προσπαθεί να μεταφέρει αυτούσιο τον παλμό της αφήγησης του. Προσωπικά δεν μπόρεσα να γοητευτώ από το ερωτικό δίλημμα του Χέμινγουεϊ, ο οποίος βρισκόταν σε αδιέξοδο όντας ερωτευμένος –ταυτόχρονα- με δύο γυναίκες ωστόσο, το συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο αποτελεί μια εξαιρετική καταγραφή της κοινωνική ζωής της τότε εποχής και κυρίως μια σπουδή στα κλασσικά λογοτεχνικά μυαλά που οι περισσότεροι διαβάζουμε και θαυμάζουμε.

Λάτρεψα την άποψη του Χέμινγουεϊ για τον «Υπέροχο Γκάτσμπυ» και τις ερωτικές συμβουλές που έδινε ο Σκοτ Φιτζέραλντ στον συγγραφέα. Έμαθα τις επιστημονικές μεθόδους που επικρατούσαν τότε –όπως την εγκληματική πλέον ηλεκτροσπασμοθεραπεία- καθώς και το πρόσωπο που αποτέλεσε την έμπνευση για το αριστουργηματικό «Ο Γέρος και η θάλασσα». Εκτός από τις προσωπικές πληροφορίες ο Hotchner μοιάζει να προσπαθεί να εξετάσει και να καταγράψει ποια γυναίκα ήταν η μοναδική αγάπη, ο αιώνιος έρωτας του συγγραφέα. Νομίζω πως η απάντηση δίνεται μέσα από τα λόγια του ίδιου του Χέμινγουεϊ.

Ένα αξιόλογο βιβλίο, το οποίο σίγουρα θα είναι μια υπέροχη συντροφιά για τους λάτρεις της κλασσικής λογοτεχνίας και για όσους δεν έχουν πρόβλημα να αποδομήσουν τους λογοτέχνες από την συγγραφική τους ταυτότητα. Ενδεχομένως θα μπορούσε να αποτελέσει και εργαλείο σε κάποιο αντίστοιχο ερευνητικό/ακαδημαϊκό πεδίο.

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ernest Hemingway might not have been a good person, but he was a fascinating one. Hotchner’s writing reminds me a bit of his, which doesn’t surprise me; every American writer since Hemingway has been influenced by him in one way or another.
Hemingway seemed to ruin his own life—sabotaging his first marriage, then his second; writing about his friends; refusing to listen to his friends when they called him on his crap—but that doesn’t make his descent into depression any less heartbreaking. His paranoia, toward the end of his life, that the phones were wiretapped by the FBI and that his nurse in the asylum was reporting to them, turned out to not be paranoia after all; fifty years after his suicide, “the FBI released its Hemingway file. It revealed that beginning in the 1940s J. Edgar Hoover had paced Ernest under surveillance because he was suspicious of Ernest’s activities in Cuba. Over the following years, agents filed reports on him and tapped his phones. The surveillance continued all through his confinement at St. Mary’s Hospital.”

[Daria Mateescu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was fascinated by this book. Not sure if this happened because of my initial low expectations (after I discovered it is not his journal, but the words of his friend), but this book overdelivered. It took me on glorious trips in favorious cities (with a lot of time spent in Paris, my love), in a totally different decade, where they spent their days hanging out with other famous artists (don't want to give out any spoilers). And nothing, but nothing was boring. Not to mention Hemingway is the real Die Hard character, he's been in so many accidents and terrible circumstances that you start to understand his character. I discovered the man behind the book, doomed to live for many years with regrets, just to end up in a psychiatric hospital, haunted by his paranoia. His love life didn't disappoint as well, it was an emotional rollercoaster, although I struggled to find peace with his actions. I hope he did. And now I can't wait to read more from this tourmented soul, Ernest Hemingway.

[Fiza Pathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Hemingway In Love' was a very interesting book. I never knew that Hemingway's first divorce was the reason why he never felt fulfilled for the rest of his life. In this book, the reader discovers a very vulnerable Hemingway. We see how his short stories & books were penned keeping in mind real life scenes from his own life. We also see that most of his short stories were penned from real life incidents with his first wife Hadley. A very startling & good read. 'Hemingway In Love' gets 4 stars from me.

[Andreea Chiuaru · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nu sunt adepta cărților lungi fără un scop, însă cartea asta pare un capitol din ce ar fi putut să fie. Adevărul e că am citit-o pentru că m-am îndrăgostit de acel Hemingway descris de Paula McLain și mă așteptam la cu totul altceva. În orice caz, cred că un titlu mai potrivit ar fi fost „Sfârșitul lui Hemingway”. E atât de slab documentată încât îmi vine greu să cred că e inclusă în categoria de biografii.

[sAmAnE · Rating 4 out of 5]

.
داستان عاشقی همینگوی به مقاطعی از زندگی عشقی او اشاره دارد و اتفاقاتی که در آن دوران پر فراز و نشیب با آن رو به‌رو بوده است. نویسندۀ این اثر از دوستان نزدیک ارنست بوده و خودش را امانتدار رازهای او می داند و از این زاویه صمیمیت و البته به دور از تعصب، برگ هایی از زندگی همینگوی را با قلم خود به رشته تحریر در آورده و اسراری را فاش ساخته که ارنست تا زمان حیاتش پرده از آن نگشوده بود.
#دوران_عاشقی_همینگوی
#ای_ای_هاچنر
#ترجمه #مهرنوش_امیری

[Ioana Corina Sava · Rating 4 out of 5]

Urmează să scriu o recenzie pe site-ul meu.

[Valentina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tremendo el chismecito literario de este libro.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is something about the writers of Hemingway's time that fascinates me - I love reading the various perspectives and accounts.

[Tratchka · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review was originally posted on my blog at: http://www.ygreadallover.wordpress.com

*I received this book as a digital ARC from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press in exchange for an honest review*

In June, 1961, A.E. Hotchner visited Ernest Hemingway in a psychiatric ward at St. Mary's Hospital. A few weeks later, Hemingway would be released home and within a week of his release, would take his own life. In this memoir, Hotchner reminisces about his 14 year friendship with Hemingway and the intimate details of his friend's life that were entrusted to him in that time period. Hemingway shared these details with Hotchner not in confidence, but in the hope that they would be shared with the world if he did not have the opportunity to do so himself.

Throughout their friendship, Papa Hemingway shared not only details of his adventures, safaris, and world travels, but the full story of his marriage to Hadley Richardson, and its eminent destruction and aftermath. It's these details that A.E. Hotchner shares in Hemingway in Love. They are stories and details that have been waiting decades to be revealed, and provide new dimension to Hemingway, his life, and his works.

Anyone who knows me will gladly tell you that I can rarely be found with my nose stuck in non-fiction of any kind. For me, reading is an escape, and more times than not, I have a hard time forgetting myself in a biography or memoir. I requested this book from NetGalley because I've recently read Paula McLain's The Paris Wife and Erika Robuck's Hemingway's Girl and found myself intrigued by and dying to know more about Ernest Hemingway.

This was the first non-fiction and/or first-hand account I've read about him and I was pleased to find that much of the book read like a novel. This book had a lot going for it that made me really enjoy it. It was wonderfully written in a way that made you feel as though you were sitting at a bar with Papa Hemingway himself, listening to him tell you his story. As a side benefit, it had a photograph of Hemingway at the beginning of every chapter, which really allowed the reader to visualize the "characters" as though they were reading a novel. It was surprisingly easy to get wrapped up in and forget myself in the story of Ernest, Hadley (Richardson) and Pauline Hemingway.

Because of Hotchner's ability to envelop his readers in the details of his story, I formed an entirely new perspective on Hemingway in the process of reading this book. Because of what I'd read and heard, I viewed Hemingway as a larger-than-life womanizer with tendencies towards egomania and an indulgence in a lavish lifestyle when it was afforded to him. What I learned here wasn't that I was necessarily wrong, but it gave insight into the motivations behind Mr. Hemingway's behavior. Was he a womanizer, yes. That's an indelible fact no matter how you look at it. However, what I hadn't realized, was that although he was married four times, and often indulged in affairs with other women while married, he never fell out of love with his first wife. The passion and regret in his words when he spoke to A.E. Hotchner about Hadley was absolutely gut-wrenching. In one interaction with Hotchner, Hemingway recalls a conversation he had with Hadley while skiing that essentially sums up his feelings for her until the day he died:

Hemingway: "I love you Kitten"
Hadley: " Will you love me forever?"


Hemingway: "Through Infinity"
Hadley: "I don't know much about infinity."
Hemingway: "Infinity begins where forever leaves off."

Unfortunately, Hemingway's "forever" ended much too quickly. He spent his last days believing he was being watched by the FBI and any number of other government agencies. Because of his paranoia, he was hospitalized, subjected to electric shock treatments, and eventually killed himself. As it turns out, he wasn't paranoid at all. He was right. He was under surveillance from the government; tapped phones, undercover operatives, and who knows what else. Of course, I'd known and read this before, but reading it from Hotchner, not only a fabulous writer, but a personal friend of Hemingway's, and given the new perspective I'd gained while reading his work, this fact struck me in a way it never had before.

Because of this book, I have added several works by Hemingway and several Hemingway-related titles to my To-Be-Read list. The perspective I've gained and the enjoyment I got out of reading this book will serve me well in perspective and context in my future readings.


Tip to readers: If you're new to Hemingway, read Paula McLain's The Paris Wife before reading this book! The backstory on Hadley Richardson will prove invaluable when navigating the context of this memoir.

[Candice Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an absolutely gorgeous look inside of Hemingway's own life and the love he had and lost through his life. Such wonderful insight of one of my favourite authors.

[Alan (on December semi-hiatus) Teder · Rating 2 out of 5]

Back to the Well
Review of the St. Martin's Press hardcover edition (October 1, 2015)

This one feels off and gives the impression that A.E. Hotchner''s publisher & editor went back to the well to try to cash in on the recent popularity of Hemingway spousal related publications e.g. The Paris Wife, Paris Without End: The True Story of Hemingway's First Wife, Mrs. Hemingway, Unbelievable Happiness and Final Sorrow: The Hemingway-Pfeiffer Marriage etc. and films e.g. "Papa", "Hemingway and Gellhorn", "Midnight in Paris" etc.

The editor seems to have constructed this from Hotchner's notes for 1966's Papa Hemingway and expanded it with material from other sources (probably some of those listed above) in order to build a story of Hemingway supposedly telling Hotchner the story of his simultaneous love of Hadley Richardson and Pauline Pfeiffer and the supposed 100 days of separation that first wife Hadley Richardson imposed on the Hemingway/Pfeiffer relationship before she would grant a divorce. This is presented as if Hemingway told Hotchner the story over the course of their 13 years of friendship.

On the way to present a more dramatic story, various incidents or facts seem to be invented and these "wrong notes" are what put me off this book. I'm picking these up as a self-admitted Hemingway nut, and an actual Hemingway scholar would probably pick up even more of them. A few examples of what I mean:
- Hemingway and Picasso meet during the supposed 100 days (which would have been from late Sept. 1926 to end of Dec. 1926) and then go to a party at Gertrude Stein's apartment where they proceed to argue about the way that author portrayed then in The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, a book that wasn't even published until 1933.
- several times it is mentioned that Hemingway's fishing boat "Pilar" was bought with Gus Pfeiffer's (Pauline Pfeiffer's uncle) money whereas Hemingway was inordinately proud of buying the boat with his own money earned or advanced by Scribner's and Esquire Magazine.
- Hemingway's voice only occasionally sounds authentic here, although quote marks are used throughout as if his speech was being quoted verbatim. For instance, I would expect a "mano a mano" conversation between Hemingway and Hotchner to have much rougher language, but the speech here seems all cleaned up and romanticized. The only off-colour word I remember was "shitmaru" which is a Hotchnerism from Dear Papa, Dear Hotch: The Correspondence of Ernest Hemingway & A.E. Hotchner

Anyway, maybe that seems thin to some, but I remember those without even going back to look them up. If I took notes while reading I'm sure there would be several more specifics but the overall impression would still be the same. I'll be interested to read what a Hemingway authority review of this would be.

So, this is probably a 4 rating as a dramatic fiction (which is what its average rating seems to be) but I only give it a 2 due to deception.

[Elizabeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

A glorified tale of toxic masculinity.

Ernest has an affair with a woman named Pauline, even though he is married to the love of his life - Hadley. Ernest makes a huge point of describing how plain and unattractive Pauline was in comparison to his beautiful wife, even though he later claims that Pauline seduced him.

He complains of the suffering of loving two women at the same time, but when his wife finally leaves him and he is forced to dedicate his life to Pauline, he suddenly (and conveniently) doesn’t love her anymore. He COMPLAINS of Pauline having two long, complicated and painful childbirths. The doctor recommends that Pauline have no more children for her health, and to facilitate that, advises Ernest to perform coitus interruptus from now on. This “seals the deal” for Ernest to divorce her.

He also takes off immediately after the birth of his two sons with Pauline, in one case disappearing for two whole months. When Pauline tries to participate in Ernest’s favourite activities (presumably to spend some time with him and keep their marriage alive), like fishing and hunting, he just complains that she’s not very good at it.

Oh, and did I mention that Pauline’s family was wealthy, and by marrying her, Ernest benefited from her wealth and privilege for the rest of his life? He, of course, is nostalgic about being poor with Hadley in Paris, and romanticizes the hell out of it, even though his favourite boat Pilar (which he owned for the rest of his days) was gifted to him by Pauline and paid for using her wealthy uncle’s money.

Another huge problem with this book as a whole is that the writer blatantly admits in the preface that he is biased by being a close friend to Ernest, and that most of this memoir is based on his memory alone (the first edition of this book was published when A.E. Hotchner was 98 years old). He also says that he wrote whatever Ernest told him as it was told, meaning that he didn’t correct details if Ernest’s memory was not entirely accurate.

Perhaps a worthy read for diehard Hemingway fans, but I got absolutely nothing from this book, other than the knowledge that Ernest Hemingway was a pretty terrible life partner.