The Most Interesting Man in the World: The Novel(s). I removed Islands in the Stream from my “currently reading” shelf because I wasn’t sure I would ever finish it. The first part, “Bimini,” is the best part of the novel, and could probably have stood alone as a short novel. It tells the story of Thomas Hudson, a somewhat famous painter, and the visit of his three sons. It’s fishing and drinking and eating and story telling, with a tragic ending . Pure Hemingway, with some wonderful passages to return to again and again. What doesn’t work so well as far as this story goes, is the character Roger Davis, a writer friend of Hudson’s. It seems like Hemingway is doing a bit of the Conradian “double” here. Hudson represents a more contemplative type, being a painter, while Roger is more of a two-fisted man of action. I could write a paper on this alone. Put the two of them together, you have the complete package – though Davis seems to have quit writing, or hasn’t written anything worthwhile in some time. One can’t help but feel that the ghost of the terrible novel, Across the River and into the Trees is being exorcised by Hemingway. To my mind, it is exorcised. The creaky sterility of that previous novel is gone, Hemingway is trying new stuff. Truly.However, in the second part of the book, “Cuba,” he stumbles. But magnificently! This is some of the best bad Hemingway – ever. There’s something ridiculous about an artist (Hudson again) being driven by a chauffeur to a military station, where he is apparently viewed as The Man. (He’s not in the military mind you, and this is World War II.) Hudson has found out that his last son, Tom, has been killed in action. Grieving, he proceeds to get blitzed at a bar, and most of the story is bar talk with friends, and a whore. At one point, while talking with a Cuban prostitute, Hudson recounts his sexual escapades with three Chinese prostitutes! This is before Viagra. Oh, and there’s an earlier recounting of an affair with a princess that is quite romantic, and a bit kinky, as they do what they do while standing on a ship at night. This scene is a reworking of another “standing” moment from the earlier Farewell to Arms. I found this a little sad, probably because I felt Hemingway was basically cannibalizing himself. Whatever, it’s still pretty cool.Anyway, by the time of the Chinese prostitutes’ adventure/story, an ocean of alcohol has been consumed, and it’s still morning. Out of the blue, Hudson’s first (ex)wife shows up (great noirish entry). She’s evidently some beautiful actress, now serving in the USO. There’s some fine snappy dialogue, for a while at least, but what punctures this encounter is that she doesn't even know her son is now dead (and he’s been dead for a couple of weeks). Hudson, being The Man – and The Most Interesting Man in the World at that, is aware, due to his connections – and importance (and yet he couldn't call on contact her?). Anyway, they drink some wine (!!!), and make love (which would seem virtually impossible at this point). And then suddenly the Call to Action comes, and The Man is off to war. The jaw simply drops at the wonderful, stagey badness of this. Still, all of that said, there is some wonderful writing to admire in this part.Part three has Hudson pursuing Germans on the islands. Whatever, my interest really started to wane here, due to the fact that I was finding Hudson so unbelievable at this point. Overall, Islands is a mixed bag, but if you’re into Hemingway, a necessary read. I think as a whole it fails, but there’s a lot of good writing to enjoy. The parts are greater than the whole.
Este livro divide-se em três partes, das quais gostei da primeira, não gostei da segunda e gostei mesmo muito da terceira.A primeira passa-se numa ilha das Caraíbas, na qual o pintor Thomas Hudson (o protagonista da história) vive e trabalha, pintando quadros cujos temas principais são cenas marítimas, e decorre durante umas férias onde este é visitado pelos seus três filhos, o mais velho, um adolescente fruto do seu primeiro casamento e da única mulher que amou na vida, e os dois mais novos do seu segundo casamento, um de nove anos e outro de doze anos, se a minha memória não me falha.O melhor desta parte são as descrições da ilha, do relacionamento entre o pai e os seus três filhos, do trabalho feito pelo pintor, e das memórias da vida deste em Paris quando vivia com a sua primeira mulher e com o seu filho primogénito, ainda pequeno, altura em que eram pobres, mas felizes, porque sabiam aproveitar tudo o que de bom lhes acontecia.Os diálogos estão muito bem construídos, pois revelam autenticidade, simplicidade e naturalidade. E eu gosto muito de bons diálogos nos livros e sou da opinião que, atualmente, os livros têm poucos diálogos e os que existem são demasiado elaborados e artificiais.Mas há um senão: as personagens adultas passam demasiado tempo a beber em casa, na rua, nos barcos, em bares e há referências a uma quantidade infindável de bebidas alcoolólicas, à sua preparação e ao prazer que elas proporcionam, que, às vezes, pensava que estava a ler um guia sobre bebidas e sobre a forma de as preparar e servir. A segunda parte passa-se em Havana, depois do pintor deixar de ser pintor e passar a trabalhar, durante a segunda guerra mundial, em missões marítimas para os americanos.A ação decorre basicamente na casa do ex-pintor e no bar "Floridita", onde, de facto, o autor Ernest Hemingway passava muito tempo, como pude constatar na única vez que estive em Havana, e durante a qual este passa uma noite e um dia a embebedar-se e a conversar com empregados de bar e com as mais variadas personagens, quase todas elas em estados etílicos de graduação distinta.Confesso que não tive a capacidade de entender e apreciar as conversas e os pensamentos filosóficos do escritor, tendo-me perdido no meio da leitura.Salva-se o reencontro de Thomas Hudson com a sua primeira mulher e grande amor da sua vida, após terem tido conhecimento da morte do seu filho, o qual foi comovente sem nunca ceder ao sentimentalismo fácil.A terceira, e para mim a melhor parte do livro, descreve a viagem de barco que Thomas Hudson faz entre as diversas ilhas e ilhéus das Caraíbas e os seus canais, com uma tripulação de homens interessantes, mas cuja personalidade é pouco explorada pelo escritor, em perseguição de um barco com soldados alemães. Uma viagem com muitos riscos e peripécias, num cenário simultaneamente idílico e perigoso, entre calmarias e tempestades, também durante a segunda guerra mundial, onde Ernest Hemingway demonstra que foi um homem aventureiro, experiente marinheiro e também guerreiro, fruto da sua vida em que desfrutou do mar, participou em guerras, o que faz transparecer que o que lemos está realmente a acontecer.
What do You think about Islands In The Stream (2003)?
This may have been the most miserable slog through prose that I've ever endured. Highlights include the children's stilted dialogue in Bimini, long digressive stories told to a prostitute in Cuba, (Which she manages to point out are boring as all get out.) and then it finally gets interesting, though in need of serious edits about page 385. Please for the love of god, read any of EH's other books. There is a reason that this one wasn't published until after his death. Read the last book, (At Sea) if you're going to read any of it. This was originally supposed to be part of "The Old Man and The Sea." That novella won a Pulitzer, and it did so because it wasn't dragging this 450 page anchor along with it.
—Cole Perry
How to do Hemingway justice in a review... Well, the character, Thomas Hudson, though infuriatingly caught up in his own acts of insecurity, inactivity toward his creative pursuits as a painter, and acquiescence to comfort, still manages to have me as a reader clinging to hope for him. That is the beauty and the plague of Hemingway, and he managed to serve me as the reader with this experience so nuanced and caringly in his story here. Hemingway's style is a strong example of how writers can use dialogue in character building..or in Thomas' case, character stagnation. You seem to have worked your way back into my life, Hemingway, and thank you for the literary knowledge and creative spark you deliver.
—Gwen Golaszewski
I have often thought that there should be a reluctance on the part of the estate of a deceased writer to publish any of an author's works posthumously. Seriously, if the book was finished and the writer hadn't bothered to take it to the publisher, what would you assume his motives to be? An aversion to money, perhaps? This book is one of several that was published after Hemingway's suicide, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if he hadn't published it simply because he felt that it wasn't good enough. If that was the case, I agree with him completely.There are some parts of the book that I found engaging; Hemingway knew fishing and firearms and draws the reader in when he writes on those topics. Regrettably, there is far too little of that in this book. When he is not writing about physical action, he bogs down in unlikely and tedious dialogue and improbable thought processes. His protagonist, Thomas Hudson, seems detached and dispassionate, almost to the point of being uninvolved in the whole story. And that, incidentally, is a name I will never forget...because Hemingway uses the full name each and every time he refers to the protagonist; Thomas Hudson did this and Thomas Hudson did that. I got heartily sick of the name by the time I toiled through the book.Overall, the book has a dark and brooding tone, more in keeping with Conrad than Hemingway although Hemingway is never exactly a ray of sunshine in any of his works. I don't think Hemingway ever intended it to be printed. In any event, I feel that I have been robbed of some of my reading time.
—Jim
