Book info

• Title Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure
• Author Michael Palin
• Year 1999
• Genre Travel

When Michael Palin was researching for his novel HEMINGWAY'S CHAIR his interest was stimulated by Hemingway's appetite for travel and 'Papa's' evocations of the places he knew. Hemingway remains a compelling figure, and Palin's goal was to revisit Hemingway's world. This book includes the American West ('wide lawns and narrow minds'), Idaho, Michigan ('fly fishing, hunting'), Europe in the First World (where Hemingway was wounded serving in the Ambulance Brigade), Cuba (where Hemingway wrote FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS), Paris in the Roaring Twenties and Spain during the Spanish Civil War, Sun Valley and Key West - where the Hemingway lookalike competition is an annual event.

Thoughts

I’ve been working my way through Michael Palin’s back catalogue of travel adventures, and if I’m honest, this is the one I was least interested in reading. I don’t know anything about Hemingway or why he’s so important, so a lot of it went over my head.

However, I do think it’s a nice idea to follow in someone’s footsteps and dig into the things that made them tick. And Palin is so brilliant, that it doesn’t really matter where he goes, it’s always interesting to read his impressions of the sights, smells and sounds that he stumbles across along the way.

Rating: 3 / 5