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The Garden of Eden. The preface is scary: the book was not complete, the publisher has retouched the manuscript, and it is probably his most criticised work.However, beauty runs through this work, with intense passages, but I was a little embarrassed by all these descriptions of cocktails and meals.
Maybe we’ll just be us. Only changed. That’s maybe the best thing. And we will keep on won’t we?*There is nothing you can do except try to write it the way that it was. So you must write each day better than you possibly can and use the sorrow that you have now to make you know how the early sorrow came. And you must always remember the things you believed because if you know them they will be there in the writing and you won’t betray them. The writing is the only progress you make.
this is one of hemingway's most fascinating character studies, and like all his heroines in all of his books, i sort of fell in love with her. how i feel about this book is complicated and not for the faint of heart -- i love it, yes. but i almost feel a little invaded ... i had this idea in my head of this summer on the mediterranean when i was like, 14, and then to read this book ... well, it was wonderful and shocking in its truthfulness.i still sometimes want to escape to live in this painfu...
Hemingway pens his old man fantasy of a successful writer burdened by his relationship with his crazy albeit rich and beautiful wife and a stunning young heiress who falls in love with the couple. The writer lives off of these two rich women, fucking them both, while treating them as distractions to his writing. Everybody is gorgeous and one dimensional and for some reason everybody tries to cope with their problems by drinking and skinny dipping in the ocean. Somewhere in between is a narrative...
This is one of Hemingway’s novels published posthumously. As usual, there is disagreement on the appropriateness of the editing and cutting. Hemingway worked on this novel from 1946 until his death by suicide in 1961. Biographers say that up to two-thirds of the material was cut including an extended subplot. Does this mean that Ernest may rise yet again and give us another novel in the future? Perhaps Hemingway thought that the strong sexual content was still too avant garde for the times? The
Published after Hemingway's death, The Garden of Eden stands as his last novel, and it shows his growth and struggle as a writer well. It includes topics that indicate Hemingway's willingness to write about eschewing society's norms: homosexual relationships, polygamy, androgyny, and more. Hemingway's portrayal of this subject matter shows both his development and his downfall. While he plays around with gender and sexuality in The Garden of Eden, his writing still has an unshakable undercurrent...
I find Hemingway offputtingly macho at the best of times, so I was surprised to learn he’s the favorite author of a go-getting feminist type from my neighborhood book club; she put this forward as our April selection. I hadn’t even heard of it before that point, probably because it was Hemingway’s second posthumous publication, not brought out until 1986 (25 years after his suicide). My main problems with it are that 1) it reads like an early draft of an early novel – unpolished and with no prop...
I'm guessing that I came at Hemingway in a completely different way from most readers in that this posthumously published book was one of the first things that I ever read by him. And it was sort of an "a-ha" moment; so *this* is what they mean by the clean and lean Hemingway style... I fell into this book effortlessly, read it quickly, and was very affected (and impressed)by it. I know it's considered one of his inferior works, but who cares. I loved it.
I couldn’t quite put my finger on what was bothering me through the first hundred or so pages of this book. Suddenly I realized – Garden of Eden is terrible. Just awful! Let me explain.I adore the Hemingway canon top to bottom, even those weirdo bullfighting stories in Death in the Afternoon, and long ago came to terms with his manifold flaws as a person. But flaws outweigh brilliance here: the thing feels like it was written through a mist of fear and anger (towards women, fathers, homosexualit...
The Garden of Eden, Ernest HemingwayThe Garden of Eden is the last uncompleted novel of Ernest Hemingway, which he worked on intermittently from 1946 until his death in 1961. Set on the Côte d'Azur in the 1920's, it is the story of a young American writer, David Bourne, his glamorous wife, Catherine, and the dangerous, erotic game they play when they fall in love with the same woman.The Garden of Eden, Ernest Hemingway, New York: C. Scribners sons, 1986 = 1365. 247 Pages, Isbn: 06841...
The Garden of Eden puts a newlywed couple's relationship under the microscope. David and Catherine are honeymooning in the Mediterranean. David is a writer. Catherine is crazy. David needs security, time to write, and support in his pursuits. Catherine needs occupation. She has too much time on her hands to allow her off-kilter mind to wander where it will, and it wanders down strange, dark, and spiteful paths. The Eden aspect comes in when Catherine can't leave well-enough alone. (David even ni...
I can understand why many readers, especially Hemingway fans, would find this book (as well as Islands in the Stream, for that matter) to be a pointless slog through the author's psyche. The story is kind of weird, there isn't any action to speak of, the girlfriend swap is Hemingway at his most mysoginistic, and the book is unfinished, but Hemingway's beautiful portrayals of the people and places are what make Garden of Eden my most favorite book. I know this is the cheeziest line of all time (b...
I like to see you in the morning all new and strange. If lines like that one were sprinkled throughout this novel, this could have been poetry. Sometimes after reading books heavy in subject or content, I turn to books with a seemingly facile flow. Hemingway always manages to gift the kind of terseness one expects from his stylistic ease. Even then, I'm often perplexed after reading because although some pages leave me in awe, I still find some chunks wanting. Yet I've been convinced enough t
At the time of his death in 1961, Hemingway had a large number of unpublished manuscripts in various stages of draft. Among them were three longer works that had engaged him off and on from the late 1940s: a manuscript about his years in Paris in the 1920s and that his widow, Mary, would publish in 1964 with the title of A Moveable Feast; several manuscripts that he referred to as his “Sea Book” or “Sea Novel” and that Mary would publish in 1970 under the title of Islands in the Stream; and the
Could I be becoming a Hemingway fan?! This story is incredible. The writing is descriptive without emotion, it pulls one in. The story is bizarre and keeps one guessing.This is a strange story of want, desire and need. No matter what Want is satisfied, it doesn't quench the thirst or need. Catherine, in particular, needs/wants/desires more; when one desire is fulfilled, it is no longer wanted but something else is. There is no contentment. There's also a power struggle of the sexes. Catherine is...
Fascinating & rare view of Hemingway & morality of 1920s Spain & France. Here he expresses deep regret for giving important info that leads to the destruction of an elephant, weights love & sexuality & gender play, reveals much of his writing life...
I read this book for a college course and was dreading it. I thought - here we go - another book with manly hunter Hemingway about war and bullfighting and all things manly. Ugh! Oh but it was not to be. This book turned me around on Hemingway and made me see the genius that he is. Sadly the book is published posthumously and it is questionable how much Hemingway is in this book - but when I read this I did not know there was a lot of controversy surrounding this and just enjoyed it for what it
I love this book. I know a lot of people tend to bash it because it was released posthumously, in edited form, but I think it's brilliant as-is. The beginning of the book in particular, I like. Hemingway's simple description of eating eggs for breakfast makes me feel as if I'm at the table as well. It really paints a picture for me. To me, it seems that Hemingway probably never released this book more because of the subject matter than because of any writing flaws. In short, a tale of innocence
Is it fair to love a book because I know so much about the author? This is a story about a writer, David Bourne, who is the typical Hemingway hero: sensitive but self-sacrificing, creative, satisfied by simple pleasures, and stoic. David is honeymooning in the French Riviera at a secluded hotel outside of Cannes and spends his mornings writing.If this were all the book had to offer, the story would still be good, but knowing about Hemingway’s life makes this book extraordinary. By having read ab...
In this novel Hemingway plays the simple triangle of two bi-sexual women and a straight man for all it's worth. In the last published novel of Hemingway's the lean, muscular dialogue still rings clear and honest and true. The narrative is clean, compelling and minimalistic with details in the narrative that breed not only credibility but also trust in the verity of the narrator. I wondered if F. Scott Fitzgerald's many trials with Zelda, as Hemingway was a trusted confidant of Scott, had left mo...