I have always wanted to learn how to cook soul food, but have never been a very good student and most cookbooks have not been helpful. This cookbook is wonderful, I am in it almost every weekend, figuring out what I am going to cook or bake next. The recipe for Sylvia's greens - EXCELLENT! I have also tried Crizette's crispy corn fritters - DELICIOUS! The recipes are simple and easy to follow - the instructions are the BEST! I thank Sylvia and my family thanks Sylvia! Move over, Betty Crocker - this is my new favorite cookbook reference!

This cookbook is not only a great one to have for the delicious recipes of good, southern home-cooked food, but it is also one that reminds people of their own roots and heritage. Any time a family unites for a meal, there is a great deal more going on than fulfilling that need to kill the hunger. Good food is the only recipe for the soul. Sylvia has included many recipes in this book that my family has enjoyed for many, many years. I may be a bit biased in rating this book because there are some included by my aunt, Neomia Brown, and grandmother, Annie Frazier (who passed a year ago this December). Bless your heart Sylvia and to all of you who enjoy the recipes throughout the book! Thank you Sylvia for reminding us through your own story that good food may not be able to heal a broken heart, but it can at least nourish the soul when families can gather to enjoy it!

When I first received Sylvia's book I thought it was just going to be another cookbook where the pictures look good but the flavor never turns out...,Well not this book. If you follow the recipes to a tee you will end up with absolutely delicious dishes. My family really thinks I learned how to cook..I tell them "honey it's not me but my best friend Sylvia". The cake recipes are excellent and are all flavorful and moist. How many times have you baked a cake from the book and it is dry and never looks like the picture? Sylvia has recipes for pound cakes that...., well I can't believe she gave out these secrets. Invite your family and your mother-in-law over for pot roast, string beans, sweet potatoes, etc., etc., etc. all seasoned great and turn out delicious. Don't forget the last recipe in the book -- Fresh Squeezed Lemonade -- do it exactly as she says -- You don't know what you're missing. If you know just the basics in the kitchen and want your soulfood meals to taste like "Mama's" get this book and you're in for a big surprise. Before Sylvia came along I just cooked but now I BURN in the kitchen!!

This book could very well be the best of Hemingway.

A Moveable Feast was published after Hemingway's death and many feel that he would never have wanted it published. I'm very glad they did. It is a memoir of Hemingway's time in Paris during the 1920's. During that time he and his first wife, Hadley, lived on $5.00 a day.

I first heard of this book in the movie, City of Angels (Nicholas Cage, Meg Ryan). In it, Cage reads a quote from it to Ryan. The quote interested me and I bought the book. I was amazed.

The characters in this book are extroridnary including everyone from Ezra Pound to Aleister Crowley. He narrates stories including F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda that are so acidic they almost hurt to read.

Hemingway was at his best when he wrote this book. It is a memoir of an aging man looking back on a very happy time in his life. Its a great place to start for Hemingway beginners and a touching read for Hemingway veterans.

"A Moveable Feast" is a wonderous quick read that manages to transport the reader back to the bohemian Paris of the 1920s like a magical time machine. Hemingway's personal, casual and intimate accounts of such figures as Ford Maddox Ford, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Alistair Crowley and Gertrude Stein make the reader feel as though the reader has become great old friends with each of these romantic figures as well as with dear old grumpy Ernest himself. I read this book in preparation for a trip to Paris and when I got there, I almost expected to see Mssr. Hemingway at his favorite table at the Closerie de Lilas with a drink, his notebook and two blue pencils still writing observations about passers-by. Reading this marvelous little book is like taking a vacation back in time and as such brings renewal to a modern world weary soul.

(As a footnote, the Closerie de Lilas is still there but it is now one of the nicest restaurants in Paris and the sort of place Mssr. Hemingway would not have dreamed about stepping into; no matter how much money he had won on the horses. Read the book, you'll know what I mean)

Hemingway's classic lucid and laconic trademark writing style is indeed fully alive and well in the posthumously published A Moveable Feast. A Moveable Feast, the unique term used to describe Paris of the 1920's, reads like The Sun Also Rises - with great dialogue and characters. In fact, in the preface, Hemingway states, "If the reader prefers, this may be regarded as fiction."

Hemingway admits to leaving out some details and happenings - some that were widely known and others that were "secrets". That being said, Hem(as he is affectionately called - seeing as he loathes Ernest) nonetheless emits a plethora of juicy details and tidbits that make A Moveable Feast a compelling and delightful novella - even if it is nonfiction.

Hemingway runs the entire gamut(a word F. Scott uses much to Hem's displeasure) with his eclectic cast of expatriates including the virtually blind James Joyce, the alcoholic genius hypochondriac that is F. Scott Fitzgerald, the influential & eccentric Gertrude Stein, the elitist Ford Maddox Ford, the bel esprit of Ezra Pound, the selfish, insane, and terribly jealous Zelda Fitzgerald, a fellow who he profanely derides named Hal whom I suspect is Henry Miller and many, many more. By the way, we learn that La Generation Perdue inadvertently was coined by a garage mechanic of Gertrude Stein, not Gertrude herself. An indescribable feeling of vibrancy, vigor, and passion emanate from A Moveable Feast as Hemingway, despite being poor, inherently loves his life, writing, sipping his cafe de cremes and white wines in Paris cafes, as well as his continuously changing circle of friends. I highly recommend this short, yet unforgettable work, to all who want to learn what it truly was like when Hemingway was poor and unestablished living check to check - and nonetheless exerting an invigorating joie de vivre. Paris in the 20's - a time and place magically unlike any other in history.

"It was all part of the fight against poverty that you never win except by not spending. We ate well and cheaply and drank well and cheaply and slept well and warm together and loved each other." - Hemingway.

English professors spend their careers teaching students not to confuse the author with the characters in the book. Shakespeare is not Hamlet, and Cervantes is not Don Quixote, or so they say.

But Hemingway's readers have a better idea, and Robert F. Burgess is one of Hemingway's best readers. Burgess knows that when Hemingway's fans read "The Sun Also Rises," they like to imagine how Hemingway himself drank in Paris and how he ran with the bulls in Pamplona.

Robert F. Burgess has written a book for those who read Hemingway as preparation for their own European adventures. Burgess knows that, for full appreciation of Hemingway's novels, one would do well to skip that college English class and make the grand tour. If you are planning to trace Hemingway's steps through Paris and Pamplona, then Burgess has prepared your itinerary.

Burgess knows that Hemingway's readers are not content with postcard views of the Eiffel Tower--they want to know precisely where Hemingway slept, ate, and walked. Burgess' book is encyclopedic in its detail, but it reads like a novel as Burgess introduces people he has met during his travels.

Wisely, Burgess has recognized that Hemingway has spawned a cult following as well as a critical reception. Hemingway's fans visit the author's bars and other haunts with the fervor of Bible scholars on a tour of the Holy Land. When they make their literary pilgrimage, Hemingway's readers want gospel truth--nothing apocryphal.

Burgess is such a stickler for authenticity that his book reminds one of how Hemingway began his writing career in Paris. Before he was famous, Hemingway looked out over the rooftops of Paris and decided that he should learn how to write one true sentence. Hemingway then wrote a few true sentences based upon straightforward observation of Paris street scenes.

In response to Hemingway's one true sentence, Robert F. Burgess has written one true book. He has documented the sites in Paris and Pamplona that Hemingway observed and described. Hemingway took pride in describing places precisely, and Burgess has gone to similar pains to trace Hemingway's legacy accurately.

Burgess' book is a thorough testament to the verisimilitude of Hemingway's fiction.

Book is an excellent read. The first half of the book neatly traces Hemingway's time and travels in and between France and Spain. The bibliographical recounting is based largely on Hemingway's best biographers and personal memoirs of the people in his life. The second half of the book-and perhaps the best part-is the author's personal memoirs of his encounter with Hemingway at the annual running of the bulls at Pamplona in 1959. This encounter ultimately led to the author's quest-traveling over the same paths in France and Spain-to further understand Hemingway and his works. Essentially, Robert Burgess discovered two important things: 1. Hemingway's fiction is consistently more fact than fiction, and Burgess makes a convincing case for this premise; and 2., at the annual running of the bulls at Pamplona in 1959, within a year of Hemingway's death in 1960, he was still listening, learning and recording facts for future fiction. The book is an essential manual for the Hemingway buff. Further, it is an excellent companion for The Sun Also Rises.

This book, Hemingway's Paris & Pamplona - Then and Now, is an exciting and nostalgic read. It's fun. Robert Burgess weaves an interesting history of Hemingway's personal and literary experiences in France and Spain using The Sun Also Rises as a basis, while also exploring and portraying these places today. The reader gets the trip for the price of the book. Inside, Burgess' own recollections of Hemingway, historical facts, literary references, friends' statements, and his detailed investigation of the sites reveal the world that Papa and his characters knew. From the Pyrenees to Pamplona to Paris, the author captures the essence of Hemingway's turf, accurately describing it then and now. The specifics are splendid, as real and imaginary people are brought to life. For Mr. Burgess, researching and compiling this book must have been a memorable trip back in time, as he re-explored places from his own past. The enthusiasm shows. For anyone interested in Hemingway, Spain, Paris, or Mr. Burgess' extrordinary travels, I could have reviewed this book in two words: BUY IT.....
By Jimmy Hall/ Georgia

Hemingway's short stories were always a bit more finely crafted than his novels. The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway allows the reader to examine and even partake in the development of Hemingway as a writer; from his early Nick Adams stories, a few of which went on to become The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell To Arms, To Have And Have Not; to the mature Hemingway who wrote about his experiences as a reporter during the Spanish Civil War and later in Europe between the wars. This work contains some of the finest shorts of American literature. (Read The Short Happy Life Of Francis Macomber; The Snows of Kilimanjaro; A Clean Well Lighted Place; Big Two-Hearted River (parts I & II); Hills Like White Elephants--too many good ones to mention them all.) There are some poor stories as well but even these are well constructed. In short, the definitive volume of Hemingway--better than any single novel or other collection. A must have.... (I'm holding mine in my hand as I type with the other--) Little known fact: The Finca Vigia Edition contains an editorial change in the story A Clean Well Lighted Place--a moved line of dialogue--which was made by a silly editor after Hemingway's death and which renders the text incorrect with respect to his orignal published manuscript. In fact there are no correct versions of this short story presently in print. The accurate version, though, may be found in the Library of Congress.

Hemingway's writing is a grand example of stylistic dichotomy: His prose is as austere and utilitarian as a barn, yet his stories, unique and instantly recognizable as his own, pound with energy, drama, and almost excessive bravado. He wastes no time on literary pretension and gets right down to business; writing, drinking, and living life to the fullest are inextricably entwined, and nothing matters more than a well-worded and well-placed line of dialogue.

Hemingway's subject matter is easy to summarize: he writes about the things he actively enjoys. His short stories cover safaris, hunting, fishing, the outdoors ("Big Two-Hearted River"), boating, horse racing ("My Old Man"), bullfighting ("The Undefeated"), boxing ("Fifty Grand"), war, lowlife crime ("The Killers"), even a couple of fairy tales. Basically, Hemingway can turn anything adventurous and daring into reading material for the armchair weekend warrior. With a few exceptions, the stories take place either in the plains of Africa, throughout war-torn European countries, or in and around Michigan.

While some of the stories profess nothing more than pure narration, the recreational activities of the characters usually serve as a backdrop against which they face private conflicts or ethical dilemmas. Realism is emphasized, and only "Cat in the Rain" can be said to have a conventional happy ending, albeit one that glosses over the heroine's real problems. Hemingway is more interested in the seedy side of life, portraying people on the fringes of society: vagabonds, smugglers, expatriates. An important distinction about his war stories is that he tends to write not about soldiers, but about fighters -- individualistic rebels who are compelled by the strength of their political convictions and revel in the camaraderie on and off the battlefield, often with a bottle of fine wine.

The two stories that bookend this collection are indicative of the diversity of Hemingway's thematic repertoire. The title character of "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" exposes his cowardice to his wife and loses the real trophy -- her love -- to their safari guide, even while regaining his dignity in a final effort that is too little, too late. Hemingway appears to reflect himself in "The Strange Country," in which an acclaimed cosmopolitan writer takes a cross-country road trip with a much younger girl in a series of vignettes that contrasts the comfort of American domesticity with the imminent dangers of pre-World War II Europe. This is the ultimate expression of Hemingway's restlessness: The world was too small to contain him; life was too slow to keep up with him.

Hemingway is one of the finest writers this country has every produced. In these politically correct times, he was fallen into disfavor, and that is a crying shame. His terse, lean lines are so easy to mock today, but what people forget is that he created that style, molded it and trimmed it down from the long-winded, more European style of writing that was so popular before his advent. As a short story writer, he is the master. Not a wasted word, and every word carved in its perfect place. When a Hemingway character plunges their arm into a cold stream, the reader can feel the ice cold numbing the fingers. His short story, "The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber" turned me onto reading as a teenager. So much came from him, and so much still comes from him. Raymond Carver, James Ellroy, Elmore Leonard and many others all walk a clear path that he cut through thick brush.

As a fan of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, it was not hard for me to enjoy this album. As a former Juke and E-Streeter, Miami Steve sets the rock world ablaze with this solo venture. This is as soulful and rockin' as anything Daryl Hall could try to sing. Piercing guitars, and dead-pan Stax-like horns, this album has plenty of hidden gems. Under the Gun and Angel Eyes are my favorites. Listen closely for Bruce's background vocals. Released in 1982, this album got lost in the shuffle of the New Wave craze. A few cuts are heard in the Sopranos as background music....in Bada Bing no less! Without being overly derivitive, Miami Steve makes his own interpretation of Sam Cooke, the Drifters, and black soul music. For a more world beat sound, try the out of print album Freedom-No Compromise.

Steve Van Zandt finally left his sideman and producer role and stepped out as a frontman to release this superb album in 1982. Of course he was and is a member of the E Street Band and one of Springsteen's oldest friends, but after the break up of an early Springsteen band, Steel Mill, and before rejoining Bruce at the end of the Born To Run sessions, Mr. Van Zandt went on the road as part of an oldies package tour backing up a variety of sixties soul group. The combination of early to mid 60's soul music and rock has always been a big element in Bruce's music and the Jersey Music scene that produced him, Steven, Southside Johnny and others. The training Steven received on those package tours serves him well on Men Without Women. The album has a wall of sound production feel to it and songs like "Forever", "Save Me" and "Angel Eyes" would not seem out of place in Phil Spector's catalog. There are soaring horns, stinging guitar riffs and tortured vocals all over the album. Mr. Van Zandt does not stray too far from the E Street family as members of the band appear to lend support as does the Boss himself. Bruce is uncredited on the album, but you can plainly hear him singing back up on "Until the Good Is Gone." With it's lyrics about the relationships between men & woman and the trials and tribulations between adults, the album is like a more rhythm & bluesier older brother of Born To Run. These songs may be about what happens to the Magic Rat, Barefoot Girl, Terry & Wendy and the others when they grow up and get into mature relationships. After this record, Mr. Van Zandt used his subsequent albums as a voice for his political stances. But on this record, he just lays it it on line, singing about the things men and women do.

If Van Zandt really knows how good this is, why won't he put that band back together for so more???

This stuff, along with Hearts of Stone, are amongst the most under appreciated of all rock....

Steve: fuggetabout the Sopronos and give us MORE!

Garden of Eden was published approximately 20 years after Hemingway's death. Carlos Baker, author of one of the most thorough Hemingway biography, described the manuscript as being lengthy and not very good. Thus, many were surprised when Garden of Eden was published in a shortened version, and was quite good. The novel explores themes of sexuality not touched on in Hemingway's other works, but present in his life. The writing, while not his absolute best, compares quite favorably to Old Man and the Sea, and Across the River and Into the Trees. It is far superior to Islands in the Stream, Hemingway's other major posthumous work. It is impossible to know how much of the strength of this book is due to the editing or comes from the original manuscript. Nevertheless, it deserved to be published and should be read by anyone who admires Hemingway's work.

This is the Hemingway he did not want you to know about. This is the Hemingway He prefered unpublished. In "The Garden of Eden" Hemingway takes all his fantasies, including his sexual ones, and writes them on paper. If you are interested in what made Hemingway tick in his relationships read several biographies and then read this book. You will recognise a lot: same hair styles, multiple partners, love triangles, role switching, even love language. This is Hemingway's truest biography, even though he labeled it as fiction.

I became a writer largely out of love and admiration for Ernest Hemingway. Old Man and the Sea is his best in my opinion, but this one is my favorite. So much of Hemingway's work is loosely autobiographical, so many protagonists modeled after himself. But in his earlier works, when he gets to the deepest parts of these men, he pulls back, or shies away with emotional distance or some other kind of evasion. There is no such evasion in the Garden of Eden. This book is his most vulnerable, tender and humbling portrait of so many of the central struggles of his life.

It is difficult to separate Hemingway the man from Hemingway the writer and for that matter Hemingway the character in his own writing. He encouraged them to be confused in his own way during his life and was a major contributor to the blossoming of our current culture of celebrity obsession. So it's not invalid in my opinion to read his work as part of the greater story of his life and find meaning in it from that perspective.

In this book, Hemingway finally takes on some of the painful issues of his life. There's a great deal of sexual intrigue in The Garden of Eden, specifically about gender and identity. David and Catherine, the two main characters, do some fascinating and disturbing play with their genders and their relationship with each other as a man and a woman. A lot of people have theorized that one of the contributing factors to Hemingway's suicide had to do with his conflicted sexuality which he hid for most of his life. As a child he was raised as a girl until the age of four or five by his mother who had wanted a daughter. Aside from that, there was a history of cross dressing in his family, which also tragically played out in a subsequent generation with Hemingway's son Gregory AKA Gloria.

We see him delve into one of the great traumas of his writing life -- when his wife (was is Pauline or Hadley?) lost an entire suitcase full of his writing including all the carbon copies, in the middle to early part of his career. This incident is replayed in this novel and dealt with on a much deeper level than is mentioned in a Moveable Feast.

We are also able to see in The Garden of Eden a more complex heroine and a more fragile and intertwined relationship than is presented in any of Hemingway's other works. This again is another major issue of Hem's life story -- why was he married 5 times? what were these relationships like and what was it about him and each of the women that contributed to this? Though The Garden doesn't give any answers, it is fascinating to see the questions touched upon and explored in a more honest and vulnerable way than in his other work.

It is true that this novel is disturbing. I wouldn't describe reading it as a feel-good experience. But after a while, feel-good experiences become a little one note and this is something more interesting. There is an exquisite kind of mourning and desolation that runs through this book, and yet at the same time some of his most voluptuous writing about food and sex and his surroundings. The tension is breathtaking, yet at the same time heartwrenching as you can almost feel it all becoming too much for him.

I love this book. It is in my top ten of all time. And I know almost everyone would disagree with me, but I think this book is more than worth reading. It's a precious final window into the soul of one of the greatest writers of our time.

ps. A caveat: Read a couple other Hemingway novels before you read this one, if you haven't.

Hemingway was reticent about his craft; he feared that talking about it would destroy it, or even worse, be a substitute for it. Yet, woven throughout his novels and other writings are numerous observations about writers and the art of writing. In "Ernest Hemingway On Writing", Larry Phillips has culled several hundred excerpts from Hemingway's books, interviews, and personal correspondences that touch upon some aspect of writing. They range in length from a mere sentence fragment to several paragraphs. As Phillips explains in the introduction, "This book contains Hemingway's reflections on the nature of the writer and on the elements of the writer's life, including specific helpful advice to writers on the craft of writing, work habits, and discipline. The Hemmingway personality comes through in general wisdom, wit, humor, and insight..."

Some of these reflections are insightful, some are humorous, and some show us Hemingway at his best. But this is not to say that the collection works as a whole. While I like the idea behind book, and feel it has definite value, there are a good number of excerpts that do not seem to have any of the above qualities, so I question why they were included. They seem like filler. Nonetheless, I'll list a few of the reflections that I liked, as they show something of Hemingway's many moods and styles.

In a letter to Charles Scribner, Hemingway reveals a tortured ambivalence about writing: "Charlie there is no future in anything. I hope you agree. That is why I like it at a war. Every day and every night there is a strong possibility that you will get killed and not have to write. I have to write to be happy... But it is a hell of a disease to be born with. I like to do it. Which is even worse. That makes it from a disease into a vice. Then I want to do it better than anybody has ever done it which makes it into an obsession."

Among the reflections are many little truisms about writing: "...it has never gotten any easier to do and you can't expect it to if you keep trying for something better than you can do." There are also sardonic remarks: "The good parts of a book may be only something a writer is lucky enough to overhear or it may be the wreck of his whole damn life--and one is as good as the other." Some of Hemingway's remarks seem genuinely helpful, as when he describes what he does when he is "stuck". He would say to himself "Do no worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know." Then, he explains "If I start to write elaborately, or like someone introducing or presenting something, I found that I could cut that scrollwork or ornament out and throw it away and start with the first true simple declarative sentence I had written." Finally, when asked "How much should you write a day?", he proffered this advice: "The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day when you are writing a novel you will never get stuck. That is the most valuable thing I can tell you so try to remember it."

The collection definitely contains some gems; if you are a Hemingway fan you will likely enjoy it. However, if you are looking for sage advice from the master, you are apt to be disappointed, for once you remove the quips and the anecdotes, there is not a great deal left.

I read "Hemingway on Writing" in nearly one session. I had recently completed a series of difficult articles and felt drained, at least creatively. I took a few days off and read this book. It energized me and gave the wherewithal to jump back in the fire. When Hemingway writes that he suffers like a -------, when he doesn't write or just before, what writer can't relate? Equally powerful is his, "Need to read some bloody thing I've written in order to convince myself ... to write something else." Whatever the particular writing problem, whether fiction or nonfiction, Hemingway's advice can help. Highly recommended! -- Timothy Daiss

Hemingway's straight-to-the-point advice reveals much about his own process of writing and helps us get inside his head (just a bit) which is of much interest to the Hemingway fan. It is also great for those of us seeking advice or new ways of looking at different aspects of the writing process. Even when I don't entirely agree with his comments, they are insightful and enlightening and offer suggestions for what may be benificial variations in our too-routine writing routines. I also must agree with one of the other reviewers: the paper is poor (like the brown stuff you used to practice your alphabet letter writing on when you were in kindergarten.) Why? I don't know- this is a book that I can easily refer to anytime I feel myself lacking in drive and I would like to know that it will stand the test of time (physically); a few passages from it and I feel energized by what he has to say. Regardless of the por paper quality, I HIGHLY recommend it.

If the first section on Bimini (the Island on the Stream [the gulf stream for those who still do not understand]) was package by itself it would have received 5 stars. Unfortunatley the latter 2 stories bring the overall rating down somewhat. That too could have been fixed through a little more editing. But regardless I would recommend buying this book to read the first section alone. It gives the depth and feel of what a child or adult on the stream experienced. I must admit when I first read this story I was horrified that the little island Bimini would get more fanfare from this. I had many memorable trips there but it's been years since. But at anytime I can pick up this book read the Bimini section and remember Brown's hotel dock, the Complete Angler, the beauty of the Ocean, the feel of the tradewinds, and the thrill of the fishing. The story of Tom Hudson life on the island almost gives one a jolt of envy that it wasn't them until the following developments that Hemingway is known for. What else can you say? If you enjoy Hemingway, the Sea, and Fishing buy it.

Of the Hemingway books I've read or tried to read, Islands in the Stream is my favorite thus far. All the great and not-so-great elements of his legendary style are here, from the deadpan prose to the men who try too hard to be men, but they all fit together very well in this case. The exotic island setting is perfect for Hemingway's trademark everyday-life-is-an-adventure motif, which for once is wholly convincing.

Thomas Hudson, a hard drinking, twice divorced, expatriate American artist, is an all too obvious self-portrait. But his low-key reactions to most of life's ups and downs, the inner demons he mostly keeps a lid on, and his begrudging love of life in spite of it all can surely appeal to the romantic adventurer in all of us. The three sections of the novel, bound only loosely together, follow Thomas from an average day in paradise to a tragicomic reunion with the lost love of his life to a Nazi-hunting adventure off the coast of Cuba. Along the way, there are tragic twists delivered without any sappiness whatsoever, as only Hemingway could do, not to mention a life-or-death fishing scene that rivals "The Old Man and the Sea."

I can't imagine why this is being marketed as a love story, as that aspect of the novel is probably its weakest point, although his (very few) women characters are at least marginally more developed and convincing than usual. It's really more a story of escape and coping with the lack of love, and it's one of the best I've ever read of that subgenre. Yes, as others have pointed out, it's a bit uneven and the first section holds up better than the other two; and yes, the editing is imperfect and surely not exactly the way Hemingway would have wanted it. But the whole book is worth reading all the same. Given Hemingway's condition toward the end of his life, we're lucky to have it.

Ernest Hemingway's Islands in the Stream is my favorite book by Hemingway, and indeed, my favorite book. I feel that Hemingway is at his descriptive best in this book, so much so that the reader gets a genuine feel for the enviornment that the main character, Thomas Hudson, is in, and the emotions that he feels. The book is divided into three sections, each quite distinct, but working well together to show the difference in a person after particular events have taken place. The story has been referred to as Hemingway's greatest love story, but don't be mistaken; it's not your typical sap--there is much more to the story and to life than the love between a man and a woman, the story does consist of that specific type of love, but also consists of love for family, love for work, love for escape, love for life, love for home, love for self, love for friends, love for duty, and many, many more types of love. Islands in the Stream may come accross as a book "not to read" simply because it does not have the happiest of endings. Although the ending is not "happy", it is satisfying, and most importantly, realistic. Too much writing, in books, television, and movies, is meant to make you feel better, instead of meant to give you an understanding of life. If you are looking for a book that will help you better understand yourself, people, life, and love in a realistic manner, or if you just love Hemingway's beatiful articulation, this book is for you.

This novel is considered by most to be one of the great novels of the 20th Century, and its author to be one of the greatest authors of all time; there are undoubtedly reasons for this. Yet, Hemmingway is also considered to be a "love him" or "hate him" type. I tend toward the former, though he isn't one of my personal favorites.

The plot of this novel is relatively straightforward. American Robert Jordan, a member of the International Brigades fighting with the Republicans against the Fascists during the Spanish Civil War, is given the task of blowing up a bridge to prevent the Fascists from bringing up reinforcements to repel a Republican offensive. But while the plot is uncomplicated, the depth and breadth of Hemmingway's story telling are not. There are layers and layers of emotion, passion, and personal pain. You are transported to the mountains of Spain with Jordan and a band of Spanish guerilla fighters. The characters are so incredibly real, that you feel as though you could find their names in a history book. For those who have never read Hemmingway, I'd say give it a try.

This novel certainly deserves its billing as a "classic." The action takes place during the Spanish Civil War (of the 1930's), and the story follows a group of guerilla loyalists, who are fighting against Franco's fascist forces in the name of the Republic.

The entire novel only covers a span of three days, so the reader truly gets a sense of the time passing. Because of this, it feels as if the events are actually occurring as one is reading. Each moment is important, and there are few discontinuities in the story. Also, the novel is written in an interesting format where the climax doesn't occur until the final pages-this adds quite a bit of suspense. What really makes this book so excellent is the delicate combination of action and lull, and love and hate, which Hemingway builds into the story. There is a very beautiful (if only slightly unrealistic) love story carefully interwoven with murder, conspiracy, and disaster.

It is impossible not to deeply care for each individual in the story because there are few characters, and they are all extremely well developed. The reader can find a piece of somebody that he/she knows in every character. Hemingway also deals effectively with emotion. It is always easy to understand exactly what each person is feeling. With Robert Jordan, specifically, Hemingway uses a unique series of monologue-type passages so that the reader really can "get inside" Jordan's head. Somehow, Hemingway manages to do this while keeping out that uneasiness one gets when reading a play monologue. The novel has an anti-war feel to it, but it still contains several enthralling battle scenes. If only the love story were a bit more believable, this book could be truly fantastic. "For Whom The Bell Tolls" is definitely a worthwhile read right from the opening quote by John Donne all the way to the very last page.

"For Whom the Bell Tolls" was the first Hemingway I ever read. I was a high school kid in the early 1970s, working on my campus newspaper, newly graduated from Jack London but not yet ready for Jack Kerouac.

To my young eyes, it was a good action story: Robert Jordan, the passionate American teacher joins a band of armed gypsies in the Spanish Civil War. He believes one man can make a difference. The whole novel covers just 68 hours, during which Jordan must find a way to blow up a key bridge behind enemy lines. In that short time, Jordan also falls in love with Maria, a beautiful Spanish woman who has been raped by enemy soldiers. The whole spectrum of literature was refracted through the prism of my youth: Good guys and bad guys, sex and blood, life and death. For me, just a boy, the journey from abstraction to clarity was only just beginning.

Re-reading "For Whom the Bell Tolls" at 42 (roughly the age Hemingway was when he published it), I have lost my ability to see things clearly in black and white. My vision is blurred by irony, as I note that two enemies, the moral killer Anselmo and the sympathetic fascist Lieutenant Berrendo, utter the very same prayer. For the first time, I see that the book opens with Robert Jordan lying on the "pine-needled floor of the forest" and closes as he feels his heart pounding against the "pine needle floor of the forest"; Jordan ends as he begins, perhaps having never really moved. I certainly could never have seen at 16 how dying well might be more consequential than living well. And somehow the light has changed in the past 26 years, so that I now truly understand how the earth can move.

As a teen, I missed another crucial element, even though Vietnam was still a seeping wound. Three pivotal days in Jordan's life force him to question his own role in a futile war. He wonders if dying for a political cause might be too wasteful, but he ultimately believes that dying to save another individual is a man's most heroic act.

The book's title is taken from John Donne's celebrated poem: "No man is an Iland ... and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee." It was not about loneliness and aloneness, as I once had thought, but about the seamless fabric of all life: What happens to one happens to all.

I am not blind to Hemingway's flaws. He was a good short writer, and what was short was almost always better. Pilar's tale on the mountainside has been widely acclaimed as the most powerful of Hemingway's prose. Her story within a story is nothing less than a contemporary myth.

"For Whom the Bell Tolls" has also been regarded as Hemingway's capitulation to critics who barked that his innovative style was too lean, and as a consciously commercial exercise for which Hollywood might (and did) pay handsomely. Robert Jordan, in so many respects, was a tragic mythical hero in the vein of Achilles, Gawain and Samson. "For Whom the Bell Tolls" ranks as one of the great American war novels in a country that has always struggled with the concept of good and bad wars.

Some have questioned the accuracy of Hotchner's representation of Hemingway. Malcolm Cowley put it best when interviewed by Denis Brian: "You know what he did? I could spot it because I knew the sources. When he said 'Hemingway said,' actually he was quoting from Hemingway's letters to him. Because Hemingway's will said: 'You must not quote from my letters. They're protected by copyright.' So Hotchner just put the letters in place of the conversations."

For more on the factual inaccuracies present in "Papa Hemingway," one should consult Denis Brian's "The True Gen: An Intimate Portrait of Ernest Hemingway by Those Who Knew Him" (1988).

I do not doubt that Hemingway and Hotchner were friends. At a Hemingway conference several years ago, I had the opportunity to hear Hotchner speak. His love and respect for EH seemed very genuine. However, I do question the accuracy of some of Hotchner's recollections in this book.

Anything I say here will simply detract from this wonderful book, so I will keep it short. I've read a number of Hemingway biographies, but this is unquestionably the best. Hotchner only new Ernest for approximately the last 14 years of his life, so if you're looking for a comprehensive biography, try elsewhere (I wouldn't feel comfortable recommending any of the other Hemingway bios I've read). What Hotchner can give us is a portrait of Papa (Hemingway) from the perspective of a very close and dear friend (Hotchner hunted and travelled with Papa, helped edit and publish his books and essays, and even named A Moveable Feast). And Hotchner is no fool. He knows that Hemingway had a propensity towards exaggeration, and seems to have a pretty good B.S. detector.

If you want all the facts, and want to know everything Hemingway ever did, read one of the opuses written by a college professor who got all of his or her information third-hand. If you want to know what Hemingway the man was like, read this book.

After finishing, I think it is fair to say that Hemingway's most tragic character turned out to be himself. Read this book.

A friend rec'd this out of print book to me. He has rec'd many great ones, but this blew my mind. One of the best books I've ever read by one of Heminway's closest friends for the last 14 years of his life. The True, uplifting, and sad novel, left me with 2 regrets: 1.) That I did not read it sooner, while I was younger, and 2.) That my life will be nothing like a life touched by, or experienced like Hemingway's.