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In the New Yorker...

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Jeff Wrangler:

--- Quote from: serious crayons on July 04, 2017, 10:40:03 am ---Would you mind reading all of mine so I could say the same? The pile on my dining-room table is a foot tall.

--- End quote ---

 :laugh:  Sorry, but I've read them all, already.  ;D

Front-Ranger:
I woke up very early this morning and started reading Adam Gopnik's article on the new Hemingway bio. He's such an amazing writer. . . I'm talking about Gopnik here. I didn't read any Hemingway in school that I can recall. In my 30s I read Across the River and Into the Trees about an old veteran and his young girlfriend in Venice. It made a deep impression on me. It helped me understand my father better. At the same time, it seemed like a parody of Hemingway.

It was his thirteenth novel and his last full-length work before his death. In many ways, its style was similar to Brokeback Mountain. I wonder how Annie Proulx would feel about that statement? Hemingway lived in Ketchum, Idaho for a while. I used to go skiing in nearby Sun Valley and dated the son of Hemingway's doctor. Twice I went to a cabin up in the panhandle of Idaho that Hemingway had stayed at for fishing trips.

I remember the book as being at the same time very boring and very fascinating. The symbolism eluded me until I actually marked up the story with color-coded notes. It inspired me to start writing a book about unpacking the meaning in such novels, called How to Read a Book. That's one of the handful of books I've never finished.

Front-Ranger:

"The self-recognition of breakage is the form of bravery available to real people."

He also mentions a parody done by E. B. White called, "Across the Street and Into the Grill".  :laugh: It's pretty good.

Jeff Wrangler:

--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on July 10, 2017, 06:03:59 pm ---He also mentions a parody done by E. B. White called, "Across the Street and Into the Grill".  :laugh: It's pretty good.

--- End quote ---

I thought so, too.  :)

serious crayons:

--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on July 10, 2017, 10:14:19 am ---At the same time, it seemed like a parody of Hemingway.
--- End quote ---

At this point, Hemingway seems like he might always be a parody of himself. But I haven't read enough of him to say for sure.


--- Quote ---Hemingway lived in Ketchum, Idaho for a while. I used to go skiing in nearby Sun Valley and dated the son of Hemingway's doctor.
--- End quote ---

I lived in Ketchum for two summers in college, just for fun. I worked in restaurants and bars and, briefly, for a maid service. Both times I drove out with a girlfriend. Both times, at the end of the summer, when I flew back to Minnesota for school, they stayed.

The whole time I was there I hardly met anyone from Idaho. Almost everyone was from California. There were also a handful of Minnesotans, including, coincidentally, some I'd gone to high school with. Anyway, though, at some point I talked to an Idaho native who went to school with Hemingway's granddaughters: Mariel, Margaux and, I think, Muffy.

Mariel has since made a film about  battling her family's tendency toward mental illness, addiction and suicide (like Ernest, Margaux suffered all three, and there may have been others) by living this super-healthy lifestyle. I've wanted to see it, mainly to see if I could recognize locations (it was filmed in Ketchum) but can't find it to stream. I haven't been back since 1981, so it's probably changed a lot. Back then, nearby Hailey was a cheaper, sort of blue-collar community. Then Bruce and Demi moved there.


--- Quote ---It inspired me to start writing a book about unpacking the meaning in such novels, called How to Read a Book. That's one of the handful of books I've never finished.
--- End quote ---

I have a book called "How to Read Like an English Professor" or something like that. It's pretty good. If you like, I'll send it to you.


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