Ernesto: The Untold Story of Hemingway in Revolutionary Cuba

Feldman, who has taught writing at the University of Maryland, focuses on Hemingway’s decades-long ties to Cuba and its people in his ambitious but rambling debut. First arriving in 1928, Hemingway and second wife Pauline originally stayed only two days, but the visit began a lifelong connection. From The Old Man and the Sea to Islands in the Stream, the country provided Hemingway with material and was where he lived, on and off, for more than 30 years. Along with Hemingway’s troubled life, multiple marriages, and affairs, Feldman details Cuba’s rich history and political strife. Feldman’s two years at Havana’s Hemingway Museum and Library as the first North American allowed to study in residence there is noticeable in his detailed and numerous footnotes. However, long, convoluted sentences may make readers wish that Feldman were as enamored of Hemingway’s minimalist writing style as of the man. Meanwhile, Feldman’s common use of first rather than last names conveys an unearned familiarity with Hemingway and such other famous figures as Fidel Castro, and, despite the abundant citations, many passages give unsupported, detailed descriptions of Hemingway and others’ perspectives more reminiscent of fiction than biography. This labor of love provides one more, potentially useful, reference for future students of Hemingway, but it’s not the definitive look at this aspect of his life. Deborah Ritchken, Marsal Lyon. (May)