Rating: 
Summary: For Fans and Scholars Only
Review: This is not one of Papa's best works. In fact, many passages are just plain awful. But Hemingway at his worst is still better than some writers at their very best.In some parts, Papa still can peform the magic he did in works such as ``For Whom The Bell Tolls,'' and ``The Old Man and the Sea.'' The writing is crisp, clear and smooth. You can tell that Hemingway loved being in Africa. But the good stuff is surrounded by writing that definitely needs more editing, despite his son's best efforts. This is something that only a Hemingway fan or scholar would read. People who read him only in high school English class might not like it as much. Some fans who are expecting a newly discovered treasure from the master also might not like it. In short, reading this book is like eating a burnt apple pie created by a master chef. It might not always taste terrific, but at least you know it was in good hands.
Rating: 
Summary: The Man Is In It
Review: Sure the work was incomplete and this patched up version tends to ramble and doesn't have a real strong narrative drive. So what? As with virtually all Hemingway, it is a rewarding and fascinating read. The prose is brutal and beautiful and wise and sad and strange and funny as hell sometimes and sometimes definitely not politically correct by today's standards. It will disturb in a new way and reveal fresh rewards to the reader every trip through. The book ends with Hemingway and his wife making plans to visit the Congo by plane. There is great poignancy in knowing that this was the trip (documented in Hemingway's article The Christmas Gift, available in By-Line Ernest Hemingway) where the two plane crashes took place that caused the serious internal injuries which are said to have begun the downward spiral in Hemingway's physical and mental health. What was written in the Saturday Review about Mark Twain's autobiography (also a patched up posthumously published work) I think applies to this book just as strongly: "It is worth reading because the man is in it."
Rating: 
Summary: Shame on Patrick! Shame on Scribner's!
Review: This is not even bad Hemingway. This is simply a mess. Were EH alive today he would be so ashamed of this book that he might feel compelled to shoot himself again. From the first words of Chapter One on, the reader is aware that this is but a rough draft in search of a novel and in need of more than a quick fix. In need of more than the son is able to bring to the manuscript. He is neither the father nor is he the editor Maxwell Perkins was. And only an editor with the skill of a Pekins could turn this disaster into a decent read. It seems that everybody involved in this exercise were concerned with one thing only. They wanted to cash in on a name. They certainly did not care about Hemingway and those who value his work as a master literary craftsman, one of the great American writers of the twentieth-century. They should have left this one alone and in the archives where it belongs for scholars to study. The thing to do would be to urge readers to return to Hemingway's short stories and novels such as The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and The Old Man and the Sea. There the reader meets the real thing and that is the best way to honor the "Maestro" and celebrate his talent this centenary of his birth. Otherwise take the honorable tack and let the Old Man rest in peace. And, as a final caution, I would urge all working writers to have their unfinished work burned upon their deaths. This is the only way to secure your reputation, folks.
Rating: 
Summary: Happy 100th Papa!
Review: Well, seeing that EH has been dead for a while, he probably is not caring about the 100th anniversery of his birth, let alone having a happy one. Several readers voiced disappointment in this book, and rightfully so, as if they do not like it, no use in pretending they do. I really liked this book. It is true it is not at the level of his masterpieces, but what do you expect? Even Patrick, who edited it, humbly calls this book "a child's teddy-bear" when compared to the Urus horribilis that Papa could've shaped it into. But because it is not AFTA or TSAR, that does not mean it's bad. Hemingway paints the scenery with such beauty that you can smell the African morning air and feel the flying dust that the cars make. The hunt is exciting, and the tension between Ernest and Mary during the hunt is even more so. Really, this is a fun book to read, a book that possesses that beauty that Hemingway is known for. But I suggest to only read it if you have read at least a couple of his earlier masterpieces, or better yet, if you are already an admirer of his work, being familiar with several of his novels and short stories. But if you are part of the latter case, I'm sure you've already read this book, and if you haven't, then what are you waiting for? It is a good book.
Rating: 
Summary: Good but not great. Not the Papa Hemingway of old.
Review: Do you remember the last episode of Seinfeld? You probably watched the entire show, all the while thinking it anticlimactic. You may have thought the finale okay, possibly good, but definitely not great like the early episodes. The same can be said of Ernest Hemingway's True at First Light, a posthumous novel edited by his son Patrick and released this month - one century after the birth of Papa. True at First Light is an autobiographical novel about Ernest Hemingway's final African safari, taken in the mid-1950's with his fourth wife Mary. The story revolves around warring African tribes, Hemingway's protection of a game reserve, and his wife's fixation on killing the giant black-maned lion - her personal white whale. The book is slim on plot, but full of day to day life. Hemingway rises before dawn, eats breakfast, wakes Mary, and rides around endlessly in his truck. He jokes with his African friends, argues with his wife, makes up with his wife, and then he does it all again. Luckily, Patrick Hemingway scrapped half of the original manuscript. True at First Light isn't monotonous in its entirety though. Hemingway paints a few scenes as interesting as his six-toed Key West cats. Ernest and his entourage create a bastardized religion and drink beer for breakfast. Papa - old, tired, and often times cranky - still has enough energy to court a young African girl. Unsuccessfully. He drinks gin like water and fells baboons with steady hands and blurry eyes. He name-drops too, mentioning F. Scott Fitzgerald, D.H. Lawrence, George Orwell, and Henry James. Some of the novel's finest moments occur when Hemingway resurrects old themes from better books. He describes bullfights and trout fishing, and he recalls an expatriate Paris. Death in the Afternoon, Big Two-Hearted River, and A Moveable Feast are temporarily reborn. At times, Hemingway masters the English language and perfects his minimalist form. He makes everyday life surreal and causes Africa to roar in the mind's eye, wild and dangerous. But these moving passages are few, and, as a whole, Hemingway sounds weary and hollow. His simple writing style stilts his characters dialogue, and they ultimately sound like automatons - repetitively saying the same thing in the same metered way. This novel is not an entirely bad experience, but at times it is sad to read and causes yearning for the old Papa. Although True at First Light does contain moments of genius, Hemingway's iceberg theory fails him this time - one-eighth of this story is somehow too much.
Rating:
Summary: Absorbing
Review: How delightful to read something from the master again. I love some of the new stuff out this year, THE TRIUMPH AND THE GLORY comes to mind, as does A MAN IN FULL, or Norman Mailer's retrospective, but what can rival Ernest Hemingway ? Buy yourself a copy and enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Hemingway's reflections Yes, a novel No.
Review: I approached this book as a lover who has lost their desired and longs to hear their voice one last time. I bought the book becaucse I was selfish. I got what I wanted, Hemingways voice, but I do not believe this book should have been published. I believe unless explicit instructions are given by the author for publication after his death, his unpublished words should die with him. This is not Ernest Hemingway's book it is Peter's book, and Peter shames his father, and is guilty of perpetuating the commercial myth of Hemingway - in his introduction he can hardly bring himself to call Ernest Hemingway Father, but refers to him instead in the mythical term 'Hemingway'- by publishing it. Let us not remember and cherish Ernest Hemingway for the man he was not, but instead for the man of many faults and no apologies that he was. I gave this book two stars because the voice is Hemingway's, and perhaps He would have turned these recollections into a good novel had his life turned out differently. But He had nothing to do with this book, and in its published form it is nothing more than the remberances of an old man. Forgive them Papa for they know not what they do.
Rating:
Summary: Putrid, racist, yet somewhat entertaining
Review: The book's racial undertones are not hidden, and are not politically correct. Hemmingway portrays the savage Africans as cruel, sub-human, sloppy-breasted, wiccans who travel the desert defacting on everything they can get their grimy paws on. This is not true, about the only thing in the book that is true, is that lions are scary. Hemmingway's attempts to humanize the situation by personifying the lead characters as "above it all" simply does not resonate with the reader, as they are immerced in the culture (or lack thereof) of the surreal urbanness of the jungle. The love affair in the book is dull, and the parallel betwixt the romance of the lead characters and the love for savage nature is portrayed as two-dimensional and tawdry. The symbolic Oedipous Complex that Hemmingway must have dealt with comes through in flying colors in the "mother" nature quasi-ejaculation scene. The entire "breeding sequence", although alluring, is an obvious rip-off of Tom Wolfe's "quivering horse rutting scene" from A MAn In Full. Mr. Hemmingway should stick with his old formula of Soldier Meets Nurse, Soldier Beds Nurse, Nurse Dies, Soldier Remembers Nurse at a Bar. This book would make a good read amongst prisoners, inbreds, people from Vermont, AIDS patients, and the Red Chinee. If the book were issued in braille, I would not allow my battery-acid seared daughter to read it.
Rating:
Summary: It's Hemingway!
Review: What more can be said? The prose is mesmerizing and the story is beautifully written. But I mean really what can I say about Hemingway that has not been said? The man was and is, even in this limited form, a complete genius and I urge all to read this. P.S. I would've given Ernest the benefit of the doubt and given him five stars even if I hadn't read it so I'd appreciate it if people didn't berate papa with one stars just for the sake of argument.
Rating:
Summary: Tired
Review: I am writing this to counteract the five star reviews that are given by those people who believe that a book is going to be good without even attempting to read it. Please allow only serious readers to give reviews(stars). Thank You
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