I'm a huge Hemingway fan, have been since my my senior year in High School when I had to read one of his short stories for my Advanced English class - I immediately couldn't get enough. The summer after high school I binge read almost all of his novels. In university, I took every class that had him on the syllabus, including a single author class - which was like heaven. I know a lot of people criticize his treatment of women, his vague and obtuse writing style, his hyper-masculine characterization - and I will admit, there is a lot to criticize. But in the end, he'd just a damn good writer. And so, when I stumbled across this book in a tiny bookstore in Guelph, I was blown away by the whole conceit of the book. Hemingway as an amatuer spy. Fighting Nazis in Cuba. And being persecuted by the FBI and other secret spy agencies. It combined so many things I love. Hemingway. World War II stories. Spy thrillers. I was so excited. And for the most part, the book lived up to that excitement. The characterization of Hemingway is perfect - the moody, obsessive writer with a pretty obvious drinking problem. However, while the image of Hemingway the novel casts is perfect in almost every way, there are a few obvious issues: Hemingway still comes across as a joke - his mission in Cuba to sink German U-Boats seems ridiculous. There is no rhyme or reason for it. The books casts it as something that he came up with one day while lying next to his pool in a drunken stupor. There was never any actual discussion as to why he wanted to do this thing. What was the real push for him. I had a hard time connecting to that aspect of the novel - I wanted to understand why he wanted to do this. My other main issue with the novel was the narrator. I had just a hard time understanding why he was doing the things he was doing. Why did he suddenly fall under the spell of Hemingway - and it really is written as though the writer casts a spell over those that come close to him. Why did Lucas suddenly decide to become a disciple of Hemingway when he spends the majority of the early parts of the novel whining about having to be in Cuba babysitting Hemingway. The sudden shift in characterization was so strange and odd. Even after the death of the boy, which was meant as a turning point for Lucas, he continued wishing he had nothing to do with Hemingway. And yet, 100 pages later, Lucas is suddenly pro- Hemingway. It was just too sudden and odd for me. But enough of what I didn't like, for now. What did I like? Everything else! The pacing of the spy thriller was perfect - it was just fast enough that I wanted to keep up, and slow enough that I could go back and figure things out before the next big dramatic moment happens. In some ways, it reminded me of an Alan Furst novel or a Len Deighton - but in Cuba. The incredible detail of the novel blew me away - clearly Simmons spent a long time researching the novel. There were tidbits of Hemingway in there that I had never heard of before. I loved that aspect of the book. It was especially nice to see Hemingway through a new set of eyes - Lucas, a man who had never read a fictional novel in his life, was the perfect subjective observer to give us a fresh look at Hemingway and his struggles with alcohol, mental health, and what was clearly a unique form of obsessive compulsive. But, I have to wonder, was Lucas believable? I am not entirely sure I really connected with his character. He seemed to know his profession - but that profession was oddly placed here. The rationale for many of his actions left me puzzled or cold. Why did he torture the Nazi spy in the way he did? It was needless and disturbing (and slightly homophobic). Finally, I need to say something about the epilogue. It troubled me. It struck me as superfluous. I didn't need it. I didn't need to see how each character made out after the events in Cuba played out. If Simmons had left it at the last moment Lucas and Hemingway see each other, it would have been perfect. A neat little story all wrapped up - and in fact the book felt finished at that point, but suddenly I had 30 pages to go of material I was not really sure why I was reading. It felt clumsy and awkward. But, then again, Lucas as narrator admits his shortcoming as a writer and narrator, because he doesn't really know when to end the story. But Simmons should. He should know that the book didn't need that extra material. It took away from the story - it took away from the adventure in Cuba and left the reader with a feeling of distance from what had happened in the last 500 pages. Do I recommend the book? Yes. Absolutely! But maybe, if you just want a really good spy thriller, skip the last 30 pages. But if you want a pseudo Hemingway biography that felt awkward at times, be sure to read those 30 pages, with reservation.
Talk about a concept that sells itself: Ernest Hemingway battles Nazis spies in Cuba during World War II. Who wouldn’t pay money to see that fight?In this historical fiction based on Hemingway’s activities in the Caribbean during the war, Joe Lucas is an FBI agent who has been busting up Nazi intelligence networks all over North America since Pearl Harbor, but he is given a special assignment by J. Edgar Hoover himself. Ernest Hemingway has talked the US ambassador to Cuba into getting him authorization and funding to set up his own network of spies he calls the Crook Factory to root out Nazi infiltrators on the island. Hoover sends the reluctant Lucas to spy on Hemingway under the guise of being his government liaison. Lucas is less than thrilled to be pulled off his high profile assignments stopping real Nazi spies to babysit the famous writer and can’t understand why Hoover even cares. As a writer, Hemingway doesn’t impress Lucas because he doesn’t even read fiction, and the FBI agent doesn’t think much of Hemingway as an spy ringleader either. Lucas finds Hemingway’s loose network of Cuban workers and drinking buddies to be laughable, and Hemingway himself to be a boastful overgrown child playing spy games. Lucas is even more horrified when Hemingway comes up with a harebrained scheme to have his own fishing boat outfitted with small arms and other equipment to try to lure a Nazi sub to the surface to be captured and convinces the government to go along with it. Yet Lucas soon realizes that there’s a swarm of serious spies hovering around Hemingway’s Crook Factory (including British agent Ian Fleming), and he starts to think that both he and Hemingway are being set up somehow in someone else’s operation. As Lucas has to start depending on the writer, he learns that there’s more to Hemingway than just the larger than life image he works so hard to maintain.Dan Simmons simply astounds me with the way he can shift from crime novels to sci fi to horror, but this was the start of several historical fictions he’d do including Drood, The Terror and Black Hills. He must do an enormous amount of research on these novels, but his flaw is that he tries to cram every tidbit of knowledge he picks up into them. Which is weird because he could create an entire universe in his Hyperion series and give you just enough detail to make it believable, but not lapse into so much that it become overwhelming. Yet in a book like this, Simmons describes things like the motors on the boats or the codes being used in exhausting detail. It helps build the atmosphere, but he lets it get the better of the story at times. Still, I enjoyed this novel with it’s depiction of Hemingway that seems to confirm the things his critics say and yet manages to transcend them to give a portrait of an artist who both uses and is trapped by his image. There’s an interesting afterward where Simmons writes that most biographers write off this period in Hemingway’s life as a wacky novelty, yet the government files on the Crook Factory are still classified, and that Hoover’s FBI maintained active surveillance on the writer until he took his own life. It’s an interesting premise with a fascinating portrayal of Hemingway and lots of spy intrigue, but the pace could have been increased with a bit less detail.
What do You think about The Crook Factory (2000)?
"The Crook Factory" is the story of Ernest Hemingway's amateur spy ring (named The Crook Factory) during World War II in Cuba, told from the viewpoint of Joe Lucas, the state department agent sent by J. Edgar Hoover to keep tabs on the famous writer. The further The Crook Factory gets into their "spying," the more apparent it becomes that something mysterious is actually going on—and that it's not looking favorable for The Crook Factory.The book starts off slow. It took me days to get through the first 60 pages. Even once Lucas gets to Cuba and we start following Hemingway's activities, events are slow to unfold. But stick with it, because once things move into action—oh boy!Also, the research that went into this book is AMAZING. What's even more amazing is how true much of it is. Memos from the State Department, transmissions intercepted at sea, other communication—much of it is reprinted verbatim from actual correspondence.I believe all the characters are based on actual people as well. The end of the book has this Sandlot-esque feel in which Lucas details what happens to every character, even if it's "he celebrated his 100th birthday last year". Favorite quotes:"None of the best things in life can be captured. The only way we can immortalize anything is by appreciating it when it happens." - Hemingway, pg 410"As much as you want to finish the damned thing, another part of you wants to end it. You don't want to say goodbye to the characters. You don't want the voice inside your head to stop whispering in the particular language and dialect of that book. It's like having a friend die." Hemingway, pg 417"Are epilogues not good, then?" asked the doctor.Hemingway had scratched his beard, watching the boys splash in the pool. "They're like life, Jose Luis," he said then. "Life just keeps going on until you die...one damned thing after another. Novels have structure. They have a balance and design that real life lacks. Novels know when to stop." - page 418"In later years, Hemingway was quoted as saying that a novel was like an iceberg—seven-eights of it should be invisible." pg 418
—Susan Melgren
This is an excellent work of historical fiction. It's based on the famous author Ernest Hemingway's efforts to thwart Nazi spies in Cuba, where he lived. He approached the American ambassador in Havana in April 1942 and volunteered his services. Hemingway received the green light, and he proceeded with a loose collection of amateur counterspies. They get into plenty of action and, in the process, route the Nazi spy ring. J Edgar Hoover, Marlene Dietrich, Ingrid Bergman, and Gary Cooper appear. Also appearing is the British spy, Ian Fleming, who later created the character James Bond, aka 007. Here's the best part: THE AUTHOR INSISTS THAT 95% OF THE BOOK IS TRUE!
—james
Dan Simmons presents a near perfect blend of fact mixed with a little fiction in this spy thriller set in Cuba during America's first year in World War II. What's true may surprise you. Simmons details the facts and fiction in the reader's guide at the end, but don't read it first! Hemingway and other real life characters (including James Bond author Ian Fleming)are peppered throughout the fast paced, no-nonsense spy tale which takes place before the actual birth of the CIA and right at the birth of its parent: the OSS (Office of Strategic Services), but no background history of the period or subject matter is required for enjoyment of this novel.
—Jake
