True At First Light : A Fictional Memoir Of His Last African Safari

Rating:
Summary: Best defined by its title...
Review: TRUE AT FIRST LIGHT by Ernest Hemingway

Possibly the last of several posthumous publications, timely retailed on HemingwayÕs hundredth anniversary, True At First Light is called Òa fictional memoir.Ó The author never kept a diary or journal to record events as he lived them but wrote when it suited him from memory. These 320 pages should be read by anyone interested in anything written by Hemingway, with this caveat: donÕt expect a product deemed ready for publication. Still, the book serves as a record and description of events and people in an Africa that, like the author, exists bigger than life, but only in memories and memoirs.

Aficionados can glean gems of sentences and paragraphs that alone make the reading worthwhile, perhaps the best giving title to the work: ÒIn Africa a thing is true at first light and a lie by noon and you have no more respect for it than for the lovely, perfect weed-fringed lake you see across the sun-baked plain. You have walked across that plain in the morning and you know that no such lake is there. But now it is there absolutely true, beautiful and believable.Ó

Within these same covers, Hemingway rambles with single sentences that fill a page and change thought progression several times, leaving the reader numb and out of breath, but then magically follows with concise, imagery-filled prose: ÒWhite flowers had blossomed in the night so that with the first daylight before the sun had risen all the meadows looked as though a full moon was shining on new snow through a mist.Ó Good stuff, that.

The bookÕs theme shows clear in this detailed hunt scene, vintage Hemingway that puts you there: ÒNow I figured that I was far enough to the left and began moving in toward the lion. He stood there thigh deep in brush and I saw his head turn once to look toward me; then it swung back to watch Mary and G.C. His head was huge and dark but when he moved it the head did not look too big for his body. His body was heavy, great and long. I did not know how close G.C. would try to work Mary toward the lion. I did not watch them. I watched the lion and waited to hear the shot. I was as close as I needed to be now and have room to take him if he came and I was sure that if he were wounded he would break toward me as his natural cover was behind me. Mary must take him soon, I thought. She canÕt get any closer. But maybe G.C. wants her closer. I looked at them from the corner of my eyes, my head down, not looking away from the lion. I could see Mary wanted to shoot and that G.C. was preventing her. They were not trying to work closer so I figured that from where they were, there were some limbs of brush between Mary and the lion. I watched the lion and felt the change in his coloring as the first peak of the hills took the sun. It was good light to shoot now but it would go fast. I watched the lion and he moved very slightly to his right and then looked at Mary and G.C. I could see his eyes. Still Mary did not shoot. Then the lion moved very slightly again and I heard MaryÕs rifle go and the dry whack of the bullet. She had hit him.Ó

The entire narrative covers only a few months of 1952 in a Kenya safari camp. Writing in first person, Hemingway describes the landscape, animals and humans with his own unique opinions of their worth. His ego breaks through in every observation, giving those interested a good helping of his obvious desire--and need--to be in control of everything and everybody. He even creates a new religion, with himself in the shining middle, of course.

For those wanting only to read a book about Africa by Ernest Hemingway, try Green Hills of Africa , written in the thirties and submitted by the author for publication. If your interest is simply the Africa of the first half of this century, read West With the Night, by Beryl Markam. She spent most of her life in Africa and just happens to be the first person to fly non-stop from Europe to America. To quote Hemingway, Ò...she can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves writers.Ó

True At First Light is worth reading but perhaps is best defined by its title.

Rating:
Summary: Well, I'll be damned ... it's really good!
Review: As a longtime Hemingway fan, I approached this unfinished work with both hesitation and skepticism: like "The Garden of Eden," the whole idea of this book seems wrong -- it smacks of disturbing the dead. If Hemingway had wanted this published, he would have finished it, right? The poor guy was in deep artistic decline when he wrote it, right?

Well, after reading this "fictional memoir," I'm no longer quite sure.

Perhaps I read too much of the lukewarm, pre-publication hype -- my expectations were very low. But upon reading it, "True At First Light" struck me as astonishingly strong. I didn't find it very rambling, or half-baked as some have charged. Nor did it seem racist: It is certainly a book of it's time -- the mid-50's -- but its treatment of Africa and Africans seems eminently respectful and somewhat sad. He compares the faded glory of these post-Colonial peoples to that of the Native Americans in the wake of the settling of the U.S. -- a mortally wounded people, struggling to preserve a history and tradition mostly destroyed by European warriors, profiteers and missionaries.

The writing is clearly an early draft -- but what a fine early draft it is! There are flashes of brilliance that only the greatest living writers could hope to match in their most "finished" works. And I personally like the less-guarded qualities of late Hemingway. His early work is clearly more innovative, and carries more historical and cultural importance. But that's not really the point, I'd argue.

For too long, Hemingway has been either lionized or condemned as a larger-than-life celebrity icon -- and of course, in many ways that's what he was. But let's not forget that under all the dated, off-putting bombast, he was also a skilled and sensitive artist -- and this work is well worth the time and close attention of anyone who loves that oft-forgotten, oft-obscured soul: Hemingway, the writer.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing Posthumous Finale
Review: This book was published to coincide with what would have been Hemingway's 100th birthday. Unfortunately, it's not much of a tribute. Fortunately, it is supposed to be the final Hemingway work, so maybe the "picking at Papa's bones" has finally come to an end.

Posthumous publications always raise the question of what would the author have wanted. Would Hemingway have wanted this book to see publication, particularly given the fact that it is need of heavy editing? I have my doubts that he ever intended for this book to see publication. He had shelved this project himself prior to his death and nothing I've read indicates he had any desire to see it to completion.

The book is characterized as "A Fictional Memoir," and, rather than seeming to have been intended as a complete novel in and of itself, the book appears to be more of a collection of material out of which a novel might have been constructed. Hemingway began work on it in 1954, and it essentially describes Hemingway's trip to Kenya with his fourth wife, Mary Welsh. The line between what is fiction and what is memoir is fairly ambiguous throughout.

Fans of Hemingway, such as myself, will be disappointed. There is no real plot or dramatic structure and what suspense there is, e.g., will Miss Mary kill her lion?, is disposed of before the book is half over. The book, which is reputed to have been edited down from over 800 pages, is in severe need of additional editing. Hemingway, who was famous for his self-editing, probably would have sheared off at least another quarter of the book.

Still, there is enough of the old master present here to make it worth reading if you are a fan.

Rating:
Summary: Best defined by its title...
Review: TRUE AT FIRST LIGHT by Ernest Hemingway

Possibly the last of several posthumous publications, timely retailed on HemingwayÕs hundredth anniversary, True At First Light is called Òa fictional memoir.Ó The author never kept a diary or journal to record events as he lived them but wrote when it suited him from memory. These 320 pages should be read by anyone interested in anything written by Hemingway, with this caveat: donÕt expect a product deemed ready for publication. Still, the book serves as a record and description of events and people in an Africa that, like the author, exists bigger than life, but only in memories and memoirs.

Aficionados can glean gems of sentences and paragraphs that alone make the reading worthwhile, perhaps the best giving title to the work: ÒIn Africa a thing is true at first light and a lie by noon and you have no more respect for it than for the lovely, perfect weed-fringed lake you see across the sun-baked plain. You have walked across that plain in the morning and you know that no such lake is there. But now it is there absolutely true, beautiful and believable.Ó

Within these same covers, Hemingway rambles with single sentences that fill a page and change thought progression several times, leaving the reader numb and out of breath, but then magically follows with concise, imagery-filled prose: ÒWhite flowers had blossomed in the night so that with the first daylight before the sun had risen all the meadows looked as though a full moon was shining on new snow through a mist.Ó Good stuff, that.

The bookÕs theme shows clear in this detailed hunt scene, vintage Hemingway that puts you there: ÒNow I figured that I was far enough to the left and began moving in toward the lion. He stood there thigh deep in brush and I saw his head turn once to look toward me; then it swung back to watch Mary and G.C. His head was huge and dark but when he moved it the head did not look too big for his body. His body was heavy, great and long. I did not know how close G.C. would try to work Mary toward the lion. I did not watch them. I watched the lion and waited to hear the shot. I was as close as I needed to be now and have room to take him if he came and I was sure that if he were wounded he would break toward me as his natural cover was behind me. Mary must take him soon, I thought. She canÕt get any closer. But maybe G.C. wants her closer. I looked at them from the corner of my eyes, my head down, not looking away from the lion. I could see Mary wanted to shoot and that G.C. was preventing her. They were not trying to work closer so I figured that from where they were, there were some limbs of brush between Mary and the lion. I watched the lion and felt the change in his coloring as the first peak of the hills took the sun. It was good light to shoot now but it would go fast. I watched the lion and he moved very slightly to his right and then looked at Mary and G.C. I could see his eyes. Still Mary did not shoot. Then the lion moved very slightly again and I heard MaryÕs rifle go and the dry whack of the bullet. She had hit him.Ó

The entire narrative covers only a few months of 1952 in a Kenya safari camp. Writing in first person, Hemingway describes the landscape, animals and humans with his own unique opinions of their worth. His ego breaks through in every observation, giving those interested a good helping of his obvious desire--and need--to be in control of everything and everybody. He even creates a new religion, with himself in the shining middle, of course.

For those wanting only to read a book about Africa by Ernest Hemingway, try Green Hills of Africa , written in the thirties and submitted by the author for publication. If your interest is simply the Africa of the first half of this century, read West With the Night, by Beryl Markam. She spent most of her life in Africa and just happens to be the first person to fly non-stop from Europe to America. To quote Hemingway, Ò...she can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves writers.Ó

True At First Light is worth reading but perhaps is best defined by its title.

Rating:
Summary: Not his best work
Review: This blend of autobiography and fiction, written when Hemingway returned from Kenyan safari in 1953, was edited into shape by the author's son years later. It focuses on Hemingway living in Kenya spending most of his time hunting, when not developing his burgeoning self-developed religion and talking with 'the natives'. He balances his personal life between Mary his wife, a petulant woman who highlights her insecurities whenever she denies them; and Debba, his native girlfriend.

There is some glorious prose in this book, and some genuinely entertaining episodes, especially when Hemingway develops his own religion incorporating the Baby Jesus, animism and the Happy Hunting Grounds for a heavenly afterlife.

But it is hard to feel for any of the characters - the whites come across as arrogant and mocking, the black Africans as comical and childlike. Much is made of Mary's 'need' to shoot a lion before Christmas, but even when it happens, she still complains. It is hard to believe the supposed respect of animals with the amount of killing included in the story.

Isak Dinesen's published letters give a much more vivid and thought provoking portrait of Kenya, with a much less sentimental and condescending veneer. If it is vintage Hemingway you are after, try 'The Sun Also Rises' (also known as 'Fiesta') to read a great writer at his best.

Rating:
Summary: Only for the aficionado
Review: A Hemingway aficionado will read this book anyway, so this review is for those who are new to Hemingway. If this is the first Hemingway book you read, it is liable to put you off Hemingway for good, which would be a loss. For you, I would recommend "A Farewell to Arms," "The Old Man and the Sea," "The Sun Also Rises," or any book of his short stories. As for "True at First Light," only a diehard Hemingway fan will be able to put up with the endless and pointless dialogs, the truly pathetic jokes, and the way a group of adult people can act like eight-year-olds about the shooting of a lion. And at the way Miss Mary (Hemingway's wife) constantly reminds her husband about how open-minded she is about his having an African mistress in the Shamba, and about how much fun they're having, and that she really doesn't mind about his mistress in the Shamba, but if the mistress were white, it would be quite a different story, and so on. And on. And on. Come to think of it, even for aficionados, this novel is an embarrassment. The only thing to be said for it is that it is a cut above "Across the River and Into the Trees." But that's like saying that horse unprintable is superior to bull unprintable.

Rating:
Summary: second rate?
Review: So OK, this is NOT Hemingway's best book. Right, it needed editing (by the author himself of course); it's an incomplete work. For Hemingway it is maybe second rate. However, keep this in mind: second rate Hemingway is still better than 90% of all the other books out there.

Rating:
Summary: True at First Light
Review: I can always trust Hemingay to be a good read as well as Baronesbooks to send me a quality book at an even better price, and within a reasonable shipping time frame. I no longer have to worry whether my book will come before or after my vacation--I can count on Baronesbooks to send it to me in plenty of time to relax and read on the beach! Baronesbooks lives up to the rating of 5 stars and is a dependable, trustworthy seller. Thanks Barones!

Rating:
Summary: A delightful journey continents away
Review: This book brought back memories of an oft-read African hunting tale: Orwell's 'Shooting an Elephant.' Orwell's adventure was so well laid out, the visuals extremely powerful; you could almost picture yourself as a part of the hunting party from start to its exciting climax and end.

True at First Light is akin to the splendors of Orwell's short story but in grandesque, memoir form. Hemingway pulls no punches in portraying the scenery, ambience and imagery sorrounding his time as an African game warden. The abundance of swahili terms, which are a little tough to digest at first, become second-nature halfway through the book as you begin to appreciate their role in attempting to portray an authentic representation of Hemingway's experiences (albeit in a fictional memoir sense). Other reviewers complained of pet names between Hemingway and his wife. Their banter, in addition to the swahili, elaborate internal insights by Hemingway, character descriptions in detail, scenery and observational accounts, all add up, in my humble opinion, to a combined enjoyable experience in which you are the independent observer in a terrific tale.

I believe the key to enjoying this book is not to compare it with prior Hemingway works or even to other fictional/non-fictional memoirs. Rather, it is an escape to the splendors of Africa and into the world of a literary legend. The words "no hay remedio" take on a whole meaning thanks to Hemingway.

Rating:
Summary: This one made the bell toll for me
Review: The fact that this book is not The Old Man and The Sea isn't going to get me to rate it any less than it deserves. Writing, as with any art, takes time and hard work to perfect, and for a first draft this book is perfect in its own way. The only sad thought I had while reading it is that it is not finished.

The description of the camp and the country was especially good, and though there are many long run-on sentences (which are very necessary, I assure you), and they're good run-ons, the writing is better crafted and cultivated than any other I've read. I keep a journal regularly, and in terms of memoirs, I could never hope to achieve what he performed in True at First Light.