We look forward to seeing you on your next visit to the library. Find a location near you.

Hemingway's boat: everything he loved in life, and lost, 1934-1961

Book Cover
Average Rating
5 star
 
(0)
4 star
 
(0)
3 star
 
(0)
2 star
 
(1)
1 star
 
(0)
Publisher:
Varies, see individual formats and editions
Pub. Date:
2011
Language:
English
Description
From a National Book Critics Circle Award winner, a brilliantly conceived and illuminating reconsideration of a key period in the life of Ernest Hemingway that will forever change the way he is perceived and understood.
Focusing on the years 1934 to 1961—from Hemingway’s pinnacle as the reigning monarch of American letters until his suicide—Paul Hendrickson traces the writer’s exultations and despair around the one constant in his life during this time: his beloved boat, Pilar.
We follow him from Key West to Paris, to New York, Africa, Cuba, and finally Idaho, as he wrestles with his best angels and worst demons. Whenever he could, he returned to his beloved fishing cruiser, to exult in the sea, to fight the biggest fish he could find, to drink, to entertain celebrities and friends and seduce women, to be with his children. But as he began to succumb to the diseases of fame, we see that Pilar was also where he cursed his critics, saw marriages and friendships dissolve, and tried, in vain, to escape his increasingly diminished capacities.
Generally thought of as a great writer and an unappealing human being, Hemingway emerges here in a far more benevolent light. Drawing on previously unpublished material, including interviews with Hemingway’s sons, Hendrickson shows that for all the writer’s boorishness, depression, and alcoholism, and despite his choleric anger, he was capable of remarkable generosity—to struggling writers, to lost souls, to the dying son of a friend.
We see most poignantly his relationship with his youngest son, Gigi, a doctor who lived his adult life mostly as a cross-dresser, and died squalidly and alone in a Miami women’s jail. He was the son Hemingway forsook the least, yet the one who disappointed him the most, as Gigi acted out for nearly his whole life so many of the tortured, ambiguous tensions his father felt. Hendrickson’s bold and beautiful book strikingly makes the case that both men were braver than we know, struggling all their lives against the complicated, powerful emotions swirling around them. As Hendrickson writes, “Amid so much ruin, still the beauty.”
Hemingway’s Boat is both stunningly original and deeply gripping, an invaluable contribution to our understanding of this great American writer, published fifty years after his death.
Also in This Series
More Like This
More Copies In LINK+
Loading LINK+ Copies...
More Details
ISBN:
9781400041626
9781461845690
9780307700537
Reviews from GoodReads
Loading GoodReads Reviews.
Staff View

Grouping Information

Grouped Work IDdb70d14d-3ead-2466-1b5d-53f7af1bb607
Grouping Titlehemingways boat everything he loved in life and lost 1934 1961
Grouping Authorpaul hendrickson
Grouping Categorybook
Grouping LanguageEnglish (eng)
Last Grouping Update2023-05-27 02:08:35AM
Last Indexed2023-05-27 02:33:24AM

Solr Fields

accelerated_reader_point_value
0
accelerated_reader_reading_level
0
auth_author2
Davis, Jonathan (Narrator)
author
Hendrickson, Paul, 1944-
author2-role
Davis, Jonathan(Narrator)|Narrator
hoopla digital
author_display
Hendrickson, Paul
available_at_catalog
Central
Rancho Cordova
detailed_location_catalog
Central
Rancho Cordova
display_description
From a National Book Critics Circle Award winner, a brilliantly conceived and illuminating reconsideration of a key period in the life of Ernest Hemingway that will forever change the way he is perceived and understood.
Focusing on the years 1934 to 1961—from Hemingway’s pinnacle as the reigning monarch of American letters until his suicide—Paul Hendrickson traces the writer’s exultations and despair around the one constant in his life during this time: his beloved boat, Pilar.
We follow him from Key West to Paris, to New York, Africa, Cuba, and finally Idaho, as he wrestles with his best angels and worst demons. Whenever he could, he returned to his beloved fishing cruiser, to exult in the sea, to fight the biggest fish he could find, to drink, to entertain celebrities and friends and seduce women, to be with his children. But as he began to succumb to the diseases of fame, we see that Pilar was also where he cursed his critics, saw marriages and friendships dissolve, and tried, in vain, to escape his increasingly diminished capacities.
Generally thought of as a great writer and an unappealing human being, Hemingway emerges here in a far more benevolent light. Drawing on previously unpublished material, including interviews with Hemingway’s sons, Hendrickson shows that for all the writer’s boorishness, depression, and alcoholism, and despite his choleric anger, he was capable of remarkable generosity—to struggling writers, to lost souls, to the dying son of a friend.
We see most poignantly his relationship with his youngest son, Gigi, a doctor who lived his adult life mostly as a cross-dresser, and died squalidly and alone in a Miami women’s jail. He was the son Hemingway forsook the least, yet the one who disappointed him the most, as Gigi acted out for nearly his whole life so many of the tortured, ambiguous tensions his father felt. Hendrickson’s bold and beautiful book strikingly makes the case that both men were braver than we know, struggling all their lives against the complicated, powerful emotions swirling around them. As Hendrickson writes, “Amid so much ruin, still the beauty.”
Hemingway’s Boat is both stunningly original and deeply gripping, an invaluable contribution to our understanding of this great American writer, published fifty years after his death.
format_catalog
Book
eAudiobook
eBook
format_category_catalog
Audio Books
Books
eBook
id
db70d14d-3ead-2466-1b5d-53f7af1bb607
isbn
9780307700537
9781400041626
9781461845690
itype_catalog
Adult Book Non-Fiction
last_indexed
2023-05-27T09:33:24.395Z
lexile_score
-1
literary_form
Non Fiction
literary_form_full
Non Fiction
local_callnumber_catalog
BIOGRAPHY Hemingway, E. 2011
owning_library_catalog
Sacramento Public Library
owning_location_catalog
Central
Rancho Cordova
primary_isbn
9781400041626
publishDate
2011
publisher
Alfred A. Knopf
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Recorded Books, Inc
recordtype
grouped_work
subject_facet
Authors, American -- 20th century -- Biography
Hemingway, Ernest, -- 1899-1961
Journalists -- United States -- Biography
title_display
Hemingway's boat : everything he loved in life, and lost, 1934-1961
title_full
Hemingway's Boat Everything He Loved in Life, and Lost, 1934-1961
Hemingway's boat : everything he loved in life, and lost, 1934-1961 / Paul Hendrickson
Hemingway's boat : everything he loved in life, and lost, 1934-1961 [electronic resource] / Paul Hendrickson
title_short
Hemingway's boat
title_sub
everything he loved in life, and lost, 1934-1961
topic_facet
Authors, American
Biography & Autobiography
Hemingway, Ernest
Journalists
Literary Criticism
Nonfiction

Solr Details Tables

item_details

Bib IdItem IdShelf LocCall NumFormatFormat CategoryNum CopiesIs Order ItemIs eContenteContent SourceeContent URLDetailed StatusLast CheckinLocation
hoopla:MWT13512084Online Hoopla CollectionOnline HooplaeAudiobookAudio Books1falsetrueHooplahttps://www.hoopladigital.com/title/13512084?utm_source=MARCAvailable Online
overdrive:2211ca0a-bd38-4a77-aed2-a8052dcbaaa9-2Online OverDrive CollectionOnline OverDriveeBookeBook1falsetrueOverDriveAvailable Online
ils:.b20710471.i64684209Rancho CordovaBIOGRAPHY Hemingway, E. 20111falsefalseOn Shelfranag
ils:.b20710471.i64684179CentralBIOGRAPHY Hemingway, E. 20111falsefalseOn Shelfcenag

record_details

Bib IdFormatFormat CategoryEditionLanguagePublisherPublication DatePhysical DescriptionAbridged
hoopla:MWT13512084eAudiobookAudio BooksUnabridgedEnglishRecorded Books, Inc20111 online resource (1 audio file (22hr., 02 min.)) : digital.
overdrive:2211ca0a-bd38-4a77-aed2-a8052dcbaaa9eBookeBookEnglishKnopf Doubleday Publishing Group2011
ils:.b20710471BookBooks1st edEnglishAlfred A. Knopf2011viii, 531 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.

scoping_details_catalog

Bib IdItem IdGrouped StatusStatusLocally OwnedAvailableHoldableBookableIn Library Use OnlyLibrary OwnedHoldable PTypesBookable PTypesLocal Url
hoopla:MWT13512084Available OnlineAvailable Onlinefalsetruefalsefalsefalsefalse
overdrive:2211ca0a-bd38-4a77-aed2-a8052dcbaaa9-2Available OnlineAvailable Onlinefalsetruetruefalsefalsefalse
ils:.b20710471.i64684209On ShelfOn Shelffalsetruetruetruefalsetrue0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18, 19, 20, 22, 24, 26, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 12011
ils:.b20710471.i64684179On ShelfOn Shelffalsetruetruetruefalsetrue0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18, 19, 20, 22, 24, 26, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 12011