Rating: 
Summary: Mediocre at best
Review: I was thrilled when I first heard that this book was being published, because I am writing my thesis on gender conflicts in Hemingway. I thought this book would be valuable to my discussion. However, I found that True at First Light is one more example of the dangers of posthumous works. To begin with, Patrick Hemingway's introduction is maudlin and pompous to the point of hilarity. The text does not seem to have a distinct plot or conflict, as do most Hemingway novels. Yes, Hemingway's terse writing style is ever-present, but his subtle manner of character development is missing. The novel ends abruptly, without resolving earlier mentioned conflicts that seemed important. All in all, this book left me with the impression that its publication was just a way to make money.
Rating: 
Summary: I like Hemingway.
Review: Writing that shows a new, old Hemingway, in his final wayward fling in a doomed relationship once again, kittens, with moments of beautiful prose. These moments are worth the price of admission.
Rating: 
Summary: Although not his best work, it is EH none the less.
Review: Unlike most of Hemingway's books which are very hard to put done (usually rush home to finish), it still has moments of brilliant insights about things that most people ignore or don't recognize. Hemingway still puts more into 1 page than most of today's writer's put into an entire book.
Rating: 
Summary: "Mediocre EH is better than none at all..." - Pat Hemingway
Review: Back in 1985 when I was an idealistic young English teacher and writer, I was assigned by a large city newspaper to go down to Key West and interview Pat Hemingway's return after 40 years to his father's Key West home. I gladly took the assignment - I not only had read all the published books, but had also visited the Kennedy Library and read the unpublished manuscripts like this unfinished novel in question and for instance the original first chapter of "Sun Also Rises", etc. And so I cornered Patrick Hemingway in one of the rooms of the old Key West house and couldn't help but to ask this question: "Why are the heirs to the Hemingway estate so intent on publishing partial novels, personal letters, third rate short stories, etc. that EH himself had obviously deemed not worthy of readership and in fact denied their publication through his will?" After asking the one question I'm sure Patrick had always feared, I was positive he would abruptly end the interview. I held my breath. But he looked me in the eyes and said, "I have long contemplated that answer myself. Let me put it to you this way: Is mediocre Hemingway better than NO Hemingway at all? Think about it." And so I did. And it is my opinion that Patrick Hemingway is right - it is nice to see these unfinished works in bound form that we can place in our libraries and study. But one must approach these cautiously.... _Garden of Eden_, _First Light_, _Islands_, _Dangerous Summer_, etc. are NOT novels, but merely a writer's exercises - their "dress rehearsals" - and certainly not the polished, timed pro stuff on which they stake their reputations. It's safe to say that Papa is now turning over in his grave - no, doing cartwheels - over these unfinished manuscripts... Likewise with the fat volumes of old journalism.... And the boys - Pat, Jack and Gregory - are as much to blame as Scribner's - everyone gets a pay-day when this stuff is marched out. The canon expands. With the book market being soft, a publisher needs a "hook" and what better hook is a "rediscovered" manuscript? Cha-ching, baby! But it is cheating and perhaps not serving Papa's memory or legacy in such a great way. Again, when one gets in an ethical corner, Patrick's words in 1985 clears one conscience, does it not? As a writer, I like to see an unfinished manuscript - it encourages me - it's easy to dissect - I like to see the chaulklines being snapped, the dialogue in raw form, the story lines needing a fixing. But I will not call it a NOVEL and heaven forbid not puss-out and call _First Light_ "A FICTIONAL MEMOIR". Give me a break... How awful... Having said all of the above, the "story" was to me, a hunter from way back, very much revealing and exciting, but I can't for the life of me imagine it entertaining or informing a non-hunter. To me, the magic is in the handling of the rifles, the dedicated pursuit of Mary's lion, the placement of shots, the worry that Papa has for the zeroing of Mary's rifle, the eating of the lion, the color of the African sky at first light when the shooting is first possible, the feel of a pistol on your leg, the excitement of finishing off a leopard in heavy cover with a slick Model 12 pump. For a hunter, it's a gigantic rush. This book made me want to immediately book a hunt to Africa's deepest interior. So in that capacity it works. And works well. The guns are right, the hunt is right, the hunting ethics are right. Cheers. On the other levels - the Mau Mau insurgency, Papa screwing a native girl, etc. - other story lines alluded to in other reviews - I just didn't see. I was too busy getting into the hunt, I guess... Granted there were terrible spots in the book where EH rambled, but this is indicative of of the unpolished nature of these manuscripts. Write it off and go on. The biggest disappointment of the whole "book" was Patrick Hemingway's introduction. I initially bought the book just for this section. Here I thought Patrick, himself an African white hunter for nearly 40 years would turn a good piece, but alas, it is BAD... The last line/prayer is strange... His admission that his father COULD have made the manuscript into a bear, but Patrick instead offers "a child's teddy bear" is revealing. I keep thinking of that 1985 quote of Patrick's. That keeps me sane and is perhaps the controlling force in all of this mess. - Talton Weber
Rating:
Summary: Papa's flair still alive
Review: I'm still about forty pages from the end, but I love this book! I marvel at the Hemingway style, still alive, still vibrant. There's not much plot here, but for the best writers, plot is almost an afterthought anyway. It of course demands contrast to The Green Hills of Africa and yet At First Light may be better. Because Hemingway wrote At First Light much later than Green Hills, one is presented in this book not just with the artful descriptions of Africa, its game and its dying safari trade, but also with a first person glance back on a full, rich life which of course Hemingway borrowed from liberally for his writing. It's this interplay between what happens in the present of the novel, and what had happened in the author's past that I found so refreshing. Paris in the 20s and Cuba much later and the American west in between; bullfighting and deep sea fishing; drinking beer, gin, Campari and other beverages alcoholic; and the author's compatriots in the writing trade - Orwell, Fitzgerald - it's all here. The regrets and the long agos and even the triumphs and the whats-to-bes - they're all here. From Papa to you. Enjoy.
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: I liked it, but I'm a true Papa person....
Review: The latest attempt to cash in on the Hemingway legend is weak at best and just plain dumb at worst. I wish Patrick would have just published the notes. They would have been enough for true Hemingway fans. The rest of the world could have lived without another weak story line that Papa never would have submitted for publication. I love all things Hemingway, but this book, along with "Garden of Eden" pushes even my limits of endurance. I hope this is the last of its kind....let Papa rest in peace. We owe him at least that!
Rating:
Summary: Required reading for Hemingway fans
Review: This book is a definite read if you're a Hemingway fan like me that needs to read everything that ever came out of his pen. But it is also good besides. I like it just as much as Green Hills of Africa, though there are definite differences owing to the twenty years difference that they take place in. Things I didn't like though are for one the editing job. There are a few typos and some sentences with a few words missing here or there. But for the most part it is classic Hemingway with beautiful descriptions, clever insights, and wonderfully realistic dialogue.
Rating:
Summary: Not the worst novel he wrote.
Review: This is not that bad of a novel. It did get kind of tedious at times. It is a lot like "Green Hills of Africa". If you like Hemingway, this is worth having, though it's not as good as "Farewell to Arms".
Rating:
Summary: Hemingway misses the big game, but scores a good trophy.
Review: The book, True at First Light, was well written in it's first incarnation Green Hills of Africa, but it is still a good book so far. It reads well and then it reads thin and then it reads as muddy as the swamps written in the story. Leave it say, it reads like late Hemingway. But that is not to say the book's a piece of rubbish and should not be read, no. There are great stretches of brilliance that are often marred by metaphor in the last, closing sentences, but it is not the destination, but the journey itself that counts. The picture on the back cover serves as such a metaphor, I believe, as it shows a Hemingway profile, entrenched in reading. The hunter is unaware and old, his glasses dangling precariously from his face, as if he had been sucker punched and you begin to wonder if the author isn't blind to his heirs already. It's obvious that they wanted to place their names in the literary canon for another year by publishing this work. It would have suited better, had it been edited by Hemingway himself and given to Sports Illustrated, as where it no doubt was headed and then placed aside for "The Old Man and the Sea". It is obviously, painfully apparent that it is a warm-up piece and greater things were to be had in the excruciating process of butchering one's own work in name of the editorial factor. Wonderful glimpses of greatness emerge throughout the work and have a staying power and then wane curiously, as if the author was piece-mealing the work in a series of subsequent bursts of inspiration. There are achingly beautiful descriptions of the African Plain that are sidled with lines such as: "Does not the carrot feel a thing.." when a brief but detailed treatise on the African's right to eat meat over vegetarianism. Obviously, he would have handed that metaphor straight over to elision. One wonders what greatness would have come, if Hemingway had given his complete attention to "True at First Light." So all in all, this is my review. Good not great Hemingway, such as "A Moveable Feast" or "Farewell to Arms" or "The Sun Also Rises" or any of his "First Forty-Nine" short stories. But to end the century, it is not a bad way to go out. Less than a treason had it never been published.
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