Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure

Rating:
Summary: A fine travelogue, evoking the past and present
Review: I am not a Hemmingway fan - the idea of a macho yet self-destructive soul holds no appeal for me. Likewise, I find his prose turgid and bland, unlike his contemporary, Steinbeck. However, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Michael Palin brings his charm, understated wit, and consummate travelogue-writing skill to the book, and Basil Pao brings fantastic photography and art direction.

Hemmingway's life and travels provide an overarching theme to the book that brings us from place to place. Since most travelogues use geographical locations to provide the arc, the eclectic globe-trotting in this book is refreshing, while at the same time logical. Likewise, within each chapter we see a variety of locales that won't necessarily make a standard travelogue, because Hemmingway lived in these places and discovered a number of out-of-the-way sites that give a better feel for the actual culture of the cities and countries we're visiting.

I've personally visited four of the places in the book - Montana, Chicago, Key West, and Paris. That I wish to return to those places and experience the parts I missed, as chronicled in the book, is a testament to Palin and Pao's skills. Presumably a fan of Hemmingway would get even more out of this book than I did, but you obviously don't have to be a Hemmingway afficionado to appreciate and enjoy this book.

Rating:
Summary: A fine travelogue, evoking the past and present
Review: I am not a Hemmingway fan - the idea of a macho yet self-destructive soul holds no appeal for me. Likewise, I find his prose turgid and bland, unlike his contemporary, Steinbeck. However, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Michael Palin brings his charm, understated wit, and consummate travelogue-writing skill to the book, and Basil Pao brings fantastic photography and art direction.

Hemmingway's life and travels provide an overarching theme to the book that brings us from place to place. Since most travelogues use geographical locations to provide the arc, the eclectic globe-trotting in this book is refreshing, while at the same time logical. Likewise, within each chapter we see a variety of locales that won't necessarily make a standard travelogue, because Hemmingway lived in these places and discovered a number of out-of-the-way sites that give a better feel for the actual culture of the cities and countries we're visiting.

I've personally visited four of the places in the book - Montana, Chicago, Key West, and Paris. That I wish to return to those places and experience the parts I missed, as chronicled in the book, is a testament to Palin and Pao's skills. Presumably a fan of Hemmingway would get even more out of this book than I did, but you obviously don't have to be a Hemmingway afficionado to appreciate and enjoy this book.

Rating:
Summary: Michael Palin made me love Hemingway! (Well, LIKE him.)
Review: I didn't care much for Hemingway (yes, yes, I know he's the greatest writer of the twentieth century, or so everyone tells me)--so why would I pick up this book, you might ask? The man and his work never interested me much--UNTIL I read Michael Palin's new travel adventure! It took the ex-Monty Pythoner's love of Hemingway to get me interested in him. I picked this book up because I'd loved Palin's previous travel books, especially 'Around the World in Eighty Days.' Palin's off again on a journey with a specific theme--to follow in the footsteps of Ernest Hemingway on his world travels throughout his life, from Oak Park in Illinois, to Spain and France and Africa, to Key West, Florida, with dozens of stops and Hemingway anecdotes, history, and literary appreciation along the way. Palin's a HUGE Hemingway fan (if you like this, check out Palin's novel 'Hemingway's Chair') and his love for the man and his work are absolutely infectious. Gorgeous colour photos by Palin's usual colleague Basil Pao make this an attractive gift book. In short, while I shrugged at Hemingway the writer in college lit classes, it took Palin to introduce me to Hemingway the MAN...and my appreciation for him has grown considerably. Sometimes it just takes a great literature teacher to awaken your interest in a writer...but I never thought one of my teachers would be a Python!

Rating:
Summary: Great even for people who don't know Hemingway
Review: I haven't read much of Hemingway but this book makes for a good read. Well illustrated throughout you get some flavour of his life, and what his old haunts are like now (some have changed for the worst unfortunately). It covers large chunks of Europe, the Caribbean fringes and Africa. It's given me a lot of unusual travel ideas for myself.

It's also given me a great desire to read Hemingway (he's popular stateside but not so much here.)

One note of caution though for USAns... some of it involves Cuba, so they can't visit all the sites. :(

Rating:
Summary: The Bell Tolls For This Book!
Review: I must admit that my knowledge of Hemmingway's writing is rather limited and that I bought this book because I've loved all of Palin's travelogues. After reading this book, however, I can truly see myself heading down the library looking for a tired copy of classics such as A Farewell to Arms or For Whom the Bell Tolls. Palin's ability to interact with icons of Hemingway's past (be it people and/or places) really bridges time from today back into the past. Basil Pao's photographs are beautiful and I really enjoy the pictures of the earth that precede each chapter. You will enjoy this book if you're or Hemingway fan or if you're a Palin fan!

Rating:
Summary: What a great traveling companion!
Review: Michael Palin takes us to Hemmingway's haunts across Italy, Spain, Paris, Africa, Key West, Cuba as well as Illinois, Michigan and the American West. Along the way, he searches out people who knew Hemmingway, places he ate, drank, slept and wrote and adventures such as the running of the bulls at Pamplona, big game hunting in Africa and fishing in the Gulf Stream. Palin's observations and comments, woven together with quotes from Hemmingway's books and letters made this a travel book with something extra, especially for the Hemmingway fan. The photographs were very nice and really added a lot. I really enjoyed reading and looking at this book and would happily accompany Michael Palin anywhere!

Rating:
Summary: A must read for the Hemingway
Review: Michael Palin writes one of the ultimate coffee table books for the Hemingway afficionado. When Palin says how he admired Hemingway when he was a boy growing up in Sheffield, England, this introductory homage is itself nearly worth the price of the book. We follow Palin as he travels to and writes about each of the pivotal places and people in Hemingway's life (including Illinois, Michigan, Paris, Spain, Key West, Cuba and Idaho). The passages are accompanied by photographs from Basil Pao, Palin's longtime collaborator

Palin describes what events happened in each place that make it significant to the Hemingway fan, but he also describes how each place is still interesting today: the running of the bulls in Pamplona, for instance, or the Hemingway look alike contest in Key West. In that sense, this is also a great travel book. It's clearly written with admiration for the author, but never cloyingly so. Palin's prose is measured, and he works in some of his celebrated humor. This book would make a great gift for the Hemingway fan in your life.

Rating:
Summary: Do Yourself a Favor and Buy This Book
Review: This book is the companion to the BBC series which visited many of the places Hemingway wrote about and lived. This television series was done to commemorate Hemingway's 100th birthday. I had been uninterested in Hemingway prior to reading this book. Palin's engaging style changed that for me. Palin has a passion for Hemingway that is infectious. I was prompted to read The Sun Also Rises, The Dangerous Summer and Death in the Afternoon by Palin's telling of Hemingway's passion for bullfighting. I also visited Pamplona for the 2000 San Fermin festival, one year after the one described in the book.

This book would be an excellent travel narrative even without the Hemingway connection. There are, besides the chapter about bullfighting and Pamplona, entertaining accounts of duck hunting near Venice, Key West nightlife, sportfishing in Havana, and taxidermy in Idaho. Palin's writing style is like having an old friend telling you an interesting story. The photography is excellent as well. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: What a strange, attractive and useful travel book!
Review: Yes, this is a travel guide book. You should buy it if you are lucky enough to retire with some money. Enough to stay at the Ritz of Paris (this Palace Hotel bar was "liberated" by Hemingway and the US army), to go big-fishing at Key-West, starting from the suburbs of Chicago where Hemingway was born. Anecdots about Shakespeare & Company bookshop on the Seine river bank were quite instructive about Hemingway bad temper. It was a pleasure to read Whitman's point of view about Hemingway vanity. This book is the kind of book you would love to write. It's a pilgrimage's diary. Something annoyed me, however. Why Michael Palin is so proud to be pictured as the center of each Hemingway sanctuary? .... Well, forget this and buy the book. It stands up as a standard in itself.