Jay Parini
No Fiesta
Hemingway’s Second War: Bearing Witness to the Spanish Civil War
By Alex Vernon
University of Iowa Press 264pp £25.95
Ernest Hemingway has generated a full-blown biographical industry. His immensely fresh style changed the look of fiction, turning a kind of poetic baby talk into literature. At its best, the work shimmers – I’m thinking of In Our Time (1925), his first collection of stories, which brought into public view half-a-dozen masterworks of American literature. A few of these, such as ‘Soldier’s Home’ and ‘Big Two-Hearted River’, dealt with the after-effects of war on young American veterans of the First World War. Hemingway had seen that war close-up, as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross (he was wounded in both legs by shrapnel and received the Italian Silver Medal of Bravery for his efforts).
He wrote about the First World War in A Farewell to Arms (1929), his finest novel, which features Frederic Henry, an American who serves – as his author did – as an ambulance driver. Hemingway was among the most autobiographical writers of the century, and made few efforts
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
London's East End was long synonymous with poverty and sweatshops, while its West End was associated with glamour and high society. But when it came to the fashion industry, were the differences really so profound?
Sharman Kadish - Winkle-pickers & Bum Freezers
Sharman Kadish: Winkle-pickers & Bum Freezers - Fashion City: How Jewish Londoners Shaped Global Style; Fashion City: ...
literaryreview.co.uk
In 1982, Donald Rumsfeld presented Saddam Hussein with a pair of golden spurs. Two decades later he was dropping bunker-busting bombs on his palaces.
Where did the US-Iraqi relationship go wrong?
Rory Mccarthy - The Case of the Vanishing Missiles
Rory Mccarthy: The Case of the Vanishing Missiles - The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the United States and the ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Barbara Comyns was a dog breeder, a house painter, a piano restorer, a landlady... And a novelist.
@nclarke14 on the lengths 20th-century women writers had to go to make ends meet:
Norma Clarke - Her Family & Other Animals
Norma Clarke: Her Family & Other Animals - Barbara Comyns: A Savage Innocence by Avril Horner
literaryreview.co.uk