Amazon.com info for 'Michael Palin's Hemingway's Adventure'

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Back to reviews and details of Michael Palin's Hemingway's Adventure

Amazon.com reviews:

Rating: 1 Summary: Make sure you get the right book
Comment Being a big Hemingway fan I was very excited to get this book after I first discovered it. I was looking forward to photographs of Papa and the places in his life. That's what I expected after "looking inside" another edition of the book at Amazon, which was the only choice to look at. I sure was surprised to get a little paperback with not a single photo. I saw the book I thought I was getting for $5 in a used bookstore the other day. There is no warning that the book you get is entirely different from the one you get to see. Albeit I only paid $1.41 plus $3.99 shipping for it from The Big Book Sale - it is not what I wanted or what was advertized. I will be disputing the charge. BEWARE.

Rating: 4 Summary: Good But Not Great
Comment I found this book to be good but not great. It is a mix of a short Hemingway biography and a travel book. For those that want an introduction to Hemingway and like to travel, it is an enjoyable read and I highly recommend it. If you are looking for a detailed Hemingway biography or a travel book only, then I would not recommend the book.

Also, some chapters are better than others. For example, the short section on Pamplona (within the chapter on Spain) is well written and entertaining. But the rest of the chapter on Spain and bullfighting is rushed and incomplete in my mind, given that bullfighting was a subject of so much of Hemingway's writings and that Hemingway's "Death in the Afternoon" was practically an English language treatise on the subject.

Further, at times, the book seems to be more of an independent travel book than a "following in the footsteps of Hemingway" book.

As I said, good but not great.

Rating: 5 Summary: An interest in Hemingway's authorship is not necessary
Comment I really like Michael Palin's travel documentaries, both the BBC TV programs and the books based on the programs. He has a knack for finding interesting people and places, and he presents it all with wit and charm and a personal engagement that is beguiling. The books are beautiful with lots of great color pictures, most taken by photographer Basil Pao.

This book is based on the BBC TV program where Mr. Palin traveled to all of the places where Ernest Hemingway had lived and traveled. One can't really say the program "follows Hemingway's footsteps" because some sequences are presented out of order, but it's all there:

Chicago and northern Illinois (Hemingway's youth)
Italy (WW I and duck hunting)
Paris (Hemingway's start as an author)
Spain (running with the bulls, bullfighting)
Key West (fishing, boxing)
Africa (hunting, airplane crash injuries)
Cuba (fishing, Hemingway's home for 20 years)
Montana and Idaho (dude ranches, Hemingway's death)

Each chapter that describes a place almost invariably leaves the reader smiling and thinking that it would be interesting to visit that place oneself.

Incidentally, my high opinion of this book (and the associated TV program) has nothing to do with any interest in Hemingway's authorship. I read "The Old Man and the Sea" when I was in high school, and have not read anything by Hemingway since. Still, I find his life interesting, and I think that Michael Palin has made a great travelogue by visiting the various places and telling about Hemingway's life.

I can especially recommend the audio version of this book, which is read by Michael Palin himself. He does a great job of delivering the dialog of the various people, all with their different accents.

Of course, the audio version of the book does not include the beautiful photographs, so the very best strategy might be to get both, and listen to the audio version while commuting and then look at the pictures when you get home.

Rennie Petersen

Rating: 4 Summary: A Teriffic Travelogue
Comment If you are going to engage in some armchair travel, you could do no better than to have Michael Palin as your guide. I love all of his books, possibly even more than the accompanying TV shows. The only reason this one gets four stars from me, instead of five, is by comparison- I thought the conceit of following Hemmingway's life's path was less engaging than some of his more challenging itineraries (but add the extra star back on if you're a Hemmingway fan). Like others who have reviewed here, I was compelled by reading this book to seek out some of Hemmingway's work, and I think I was able to appreciate it better knowing something about the man. (But I'll admit, given the choice of reading him or reading Palin, I'll take the Python any day of the week.)

Rating: 5 Summary: A fine travelogue, evoking the past and present
Comment I am not a Hemmingway fan - the idea of a macho yet self-destructive soul holds no appeal for me. Likewise, I find his prose turgid and bland, unlike his contemporary, Steinbeck. However, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Michael Palin brings his charm, understated wit, and consummate travelogue-writing skill to the book, and Basil Pao brings fantastic photography and art direction.

Hemmingway's life and travels provide an overarching theme to the book that brings us from place to place. Since most travelogues use geographical locations to provide the arc, the eclectic globe-trotting in this book is refreshing, while at the same time logical. Likewise, within each chapter we see a variety of locales that won't necessarily make a standard travelogue, because Hemmingway lived in these places and discovered a number of out-of-the-way sites that give a better feel for the actual culture of the cities and countries we're visiting.

I've personally visited four of the places in the book - Montana, Chicago, Key West, and Paris. That I wish to return to those places and experience the parts I missed, as chronicled in the book, is a testament to Palin and Pao's skills. Presumably a fan of Hemmingway would get even more out of this book than I did, but you obviously don't have to be a Hemmingway afficionado to appreciate and enjoy this book.