Rating: 
Summary: Good brothers are difficult to find
Review: ..but you can encounter a bad brother in any town. This is one statement in this story which is not a real memoir and not a real novel but just writings that Patrick Hemingway put together. I read it through and was sorry that Cast of Characters and Swahili Glossary were at the end of book instead of in first pages. His wife Miss Mary asked "the liars write books and how can you compete with a liar?".Hemingway answered,."I am a writer of fiction and so I am a liar, too and invent from what I know and what I've heard.".Then he made a interesting comment about DH Lawrence as they discussed his affair with the young native, Debba. Is it any wonder that they had nightmares and "Papa" had to reach through the netting into the rainsoaked ground and find his bottle of gin to put them back to sleep..This is a well told story of a most gifted writer who chose to have it his way always..
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Summary: True At First Light
Review: After being dazzled by the brilliant simplicity and terse writing style of "Papa" in prior works, I was filled with grateful anticipation when I heard of plans to publish this book. What a letdown. It rambles, loops and especially dives. The Hemingway family should have given more thought to the literary standing of their patriarch and less to possible monitary gain. If you are in love with "Papa", read this book knowing it is a piecemeal job and not indicitive of his true talent. "Papa" would not be proud.
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Summary: Why say a word or two, when a thousand will do.....
Review: As an old Hemingway and African hand I was very disappointed. I'd like to believe that Papa would have edited this down to a long article or a very short story. The whole book is centered on some masterful writing from chapters 8 to 11/12 highlighted finally by the lion and leopard hunts, a very pointed assessment of the "white hunter/safari racket", the Masai, and himself. The book is similar to a Moveable Feast in that it drolls along, them hammers the reader in a few pages. Otherwise its very disappointing. There is a limit to so much redundancy concerning passing around beer, camp life, the philosophy of killing animals, and small talk; which was far exceeded. Hemingway now has left material for four books since his death. The best was probably Islands in the Stream, but the three others - Feast, Eden and now Light, although they all throw a few great punches, loose the fight. Hmmmm....seems a book comes out about every 10 years after his death. I guess we have 10 or more years till the next, plenty of time to edit it down.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Fine Hemingway treatment of Eastern Africa
Review: Considering its vague "fictional memoir" designation and the fact that it is a posthumous work, "True at First Light" is a surprisingly good book. It came out of Hemingway's 1953 Kenyan safari (two decades after the trip that resulted in "Green Hills of Africa") and tells the story of the narrator's hunting and game warden adventures, his affair with an African woman, and his wife's pursuit of a lion. The safari party is vividly portrayed and the local Africans are documented with respect and understanding. Hunting and the African flora and fauna are well described, as the British colonial administration and the ensuing Mau-Mau comprise the background. As usual, Hemingway shares his philosophy of life, love, art, and death, and shows himself well versed on things African and literature related to Africa. Son Patrick Hemingway, who was there in 1953 and who worked in Kenya as one of the last generation of white hunters, did an excellent editing job, forging the book from the original manuscript and providing a very useful introduction, cast of characters, and Swahili glossary. This is highly recommended for any Hemingway fans and anyone interested in Africa.
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!
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Summary: Papa Revealed in Unflattering Ways
Review: One of the most interesting stories that I have read about Ernest Hemingway described his patrolling for submarines during World War II as a booze-ridden exercise in self-indulgence. I was astonished to find that same quality described in the master's own hand in this mildly edited version of Hemingway's personal notes about his last African safari. Hemingway's son, Patrick, makes the same observation in an aside in the book's introduction. If you read this book as fiction, you will rate it somewhere around two stars. If you rate it as a journal, you will rate it around four stars. I chose the latter interpretation. This book is described as a fictional memoir, but I think the memoir part is here more than the fiction. Hemingway's problems with women, fascination with exercising authority, reticence in sharing his personal thoughts, and open courting of an African "fiancee" will probably make your realize that someone who can write like an angel may not have those same qualities in the rest of his life. There's a section in the book where his publisher sends a letter from a reader making these kind of critical observations about Hemingway's flaws as a person, and he is enraged by what the reader says. Yet the material in the book certainly supports the reader, rather than Hemingway's self-image. The book finds Hemingway at the head of a camp as a sort of temporary, assistant wild life ranger. His "job" is to kill off rogue predators that are destroying villager cattle. While camped there, Hemingway is authorized to kill a limited amount of the old and lame game to provide meat for his camp. The book is quite penetrating in capturing Hemingway's need to build fictional story lines in his every day conversations, to consume way too much booze, desire personal challenges in the classic masculine tradition (this goes as far as hunting at night alone with a spear), and becoming part of the daily life of the Africans he meets. The book's most interesting parts come in his description of the role and ethics of the person who is trying to help another hunt, in this case a massive, cattle-destroying lion that his wife wishes to shoot before Christmas. Last summer, I had the opportunity to visit Hemingway's family home in Oak Park, Illinois and learned a little about his formative years. His mother was the powerhouse in the family, earning an enormous income as a singer while his father, a doctor, handled day-to-day details. Hemingway apparently never forgave his mother for not being a traditional, nurturing mother of the type common in those years. As you read this book, you will see that Hemingway took great pleasure in practicing medicine without a license, undoubtedly feeling closer to his father's role model as he did. I wonder how much each of us feels compelled to play out the emotional dramas we experienced in our youths. Work on improving who you are, as well as what you produce!
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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.
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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.
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.
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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.
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