Islands in the Stream by Ernest Hemingway

I “read” most of this novel as an audio book, which is certainly not my preferred way to absorb a story. I prefer to take notes and mark pages and be able to back up a minute when needed. However, I had quite a few opportunities over the last few weeks to focus with my ears while doing something else with my hands, so I decided to make the most of my time and listen to Islands in the Stream. I did also check out the book from the library, so while at home I’d find my place and read ahead or over some sections.

(I’m down to only two books written by Hemingway left to read: Torrents of Spring and The Garden of Eden.)

Published after his death from an incomplete manuscript, Islands in the Stream reeks of a lifetime of regrets and touches so many pieces of Hemingway’s adult life. There are three parts of the novel, each defined by its location in the Gulf Stream: Bimini, Cuba, and At Sea.

In the first part, Bimini, the protagonist, Thomas Hudson, references a strong hurricane, reminiscent of the hurricane that hit Key West during his resident there. He also references past wives, clearly referring to Pauline and Hadley. He is nostalgic and romantic about the wife modeled after Hadley (the mother of his first son, Tom, in the novel). He is mostly vindictive about the wife modeled after Pauline (the mother of his younger two boys, Andrew and David, in the novel). Thomas Hudson often brings up regrets, frequently about leaving Tom’s mother, then quickly talks himself out of thinking about his regrets or into justifying the decisions he made to himself again.

One conversation that Thomas Hudson, a painter, has in Bimini was quite unexpected for me. Hudson is having a conversation with a bartender about what he should paint and he brings up Heironymus Bosch, the 15^th century Dutch painter. Bosch is known for triptychs depicting warped scenes inspired by religion. The Temptation of St. Anthony and The Garden of Earthly Delights are my favorite of his paintings.

At the end of the Bimini section, the two youngest boys, Andrew and David, are killed in a car accident with their mother. Thomas Hudson wonders why they were in Biarritz anyway, when they should have gone to St Jean de Luz. This stood out to me because I was just in that part of France this past summer, and I had the same choice and did choose St Jean de Luz over Biarritz.

The Bimini section was definitely my favorite of the three. Thomas Hudson (clearly modeled after Hemingway) spends time with three children (clearly modeled after each of his three boys) over the summer and cherishes his paternal side. While some of the interpretations from son-to-character, particularly Gregory-to-Andrew, are sad, most of the reflections are endearing.

The Bimini section also includes Roger Davis, Thomas Hudson’s close friend and a famous writer. The two men share a very a old and genuine bond and Thomas Hudson’s children seem to love Roger almost as much as their own father. After the boys leave, Roger also leaves the island with a love interest.

My favorite thing about the Cuba section was the description of Thomas Hudson and his relationship with his cats, particularly one cat named Boise. Years have passed and Thomas Hudson is in Havana. He has recently learned that his last son, Tom, a pilot in WWII, has been killed in action. He drinks more and spends much time with his cat, whom he loves as much as any human. The section starts off with the narrator referring to Thomas Hudson as “the man” for the first several pages, creating a distancing of the reader with Thomas Hudson. He clearly feels less himself. Something is missing. Boise the cat comes up in nearly every lengthy conversation that Thomas has in this section. Thomas Hudson explains that they miss each other and need each other but they also need to spend time away from home. For Thomas Hudson, that time is on the sea. For Boise, that time is in the Cuban countryside.

During the Cuba section, Thomas Hudson is not painting, but working for the military undercover. While he is in Havana, Tom’s mother visits. She is a famous actress, entertaining troops with the USO. They briefly rekindle their love for an afternoon and Tom tells her about their son’s death. Thomas Hudson also tells how he despises his current wife, who seems to mostly resemble Martha Gellhorn. The wife is not there, but off on some other work. Hemingway’s opinion of Marty is echoes in Thomas Hudson’s opinion of the his wife, saying that she will write and remark about how awful things are, but doesn’t do anything to change them.

Other interesting tidbits include the changing names of the cats in Havana. Some of the cats have nicknames or Thomas Hudson has different names for them depending on the time period. He also references an affair with a princess, who might be inspired by Adriana Ivancich. FBI men on the island are also briefly mentioned, which might be indicative of Hemingway’s growing paranoia about FBI following him towards the end of his life.

The At Sea section has Thomas Hudson and a crew of unofficial soldiers hunting shipwrecked Germans among the keys. He is still struggling to make peace with Tom’s death and has issues thinking clearly. He had beautiful nostalgic memories of Tom’s childhood with his mother in Paris. Seeing this kind of regret that must be an imprint of his personal failure for the end of his relationship with Hadley appear in this novel, mirroring that found in A Moveable Feast, it becomes apparent just how deeply that pain ran in Hemingway’s psyche. While he remembers Paris, he has another cat that he loved. The cat would “watch” Tom while Thomas Hudson and his wife would enjoy time in a café.

While hunting for the shipwrecked U-boat crew, Thomas Hudson is shot and seems to be dying at the end. The last words come from a member of his crew: “You never understand anybody that loves you.” 

Islands in the Stream is a novel about loss. While it is apparent that it is cobbled together, it does have a cohesive theme. The most apparent thing to me is Hemingway’s weariness. While he had certainly lost a lot by the time he worked on Islands in the Stream, he makes his losses very tangible in his fictitious representation. (Perhaps I am drawing too much on Hemingway’s real life to understand his fiction, but the parallels are the most interesting aspect to me. Besides, he himself said that he couldn’t separate his truth from his fiction.) The failure of romantic relationships was real, the death of Pauline after their divorce was real, but none of the boys ever died. It could be argued that Ernest saw Gregory as lost due to a lack of acceptance and understanding of his transvestitism and other personal issues. However, most telling to me is the loss of focus seen in the At Sea section and the continued heaviness of the novel. Weariness is the best way I can describe it. Everything keeps going downhill and each loss is harder than the last. 

Finding My Balance by Mariel Hemingway

Broadening my obsession with Ernest Hemingway, I’ve just read a memoir by his granddaughter, Mariel Hemingway. Yoga is used as a literary device throughout the memoir, so since I’ve been taking an Ashtanga yoga series of classes, I thought that this would be especially appropriate to read now. (Mariel practices Hatha yoga, not Ashtanga, but close enough.) Two interests in one book pushed it to the top of my Books To Read List (which currently has upwards of 50 books on it).

Mariel’s memoir is much more about her spiritual journey than the actual events of her and her family’s lives.  Of course, some kind of context is needed to understand the journey, so certain aspects and specific events are covered. Events are not the drivers of the story, but rather they are used to illustrate the truths that Mariel has discovered throughout her life. These events and circumstances clearly show why Mariel’s spiritual journey toward balance and health was particularly arduous. The Hemingway family has experienced more than its fair share of death and mental suffering. Of Mariel’s own immediate family, only one sister survives, who also suffers from mental illness. Mariel was also the main support for both her mother and her husband during their intense cancer treatments. Add to this the pressures of being an actress from a famous family and it’s clear that staying grounded would become very challenging for anyone in the same position.

One thing I particularly enjoyed about this memoir is that it’s not from the perspective of the wayward youth who rebels in response to a stressful home life. Mariel is the dutiful child. She is loyal and stays close to those who need her when there are problems. While her reasons for doing so and the methods that she chose were not always mentally healthy, it is remarkable that she never became self-destructive as the rest of her family did. This isn’t usually the perspective that I typically hear and it was a welcome change.

Mariel is the daughter of Jack Hemingway, who was Ernest’s son with Hadley Richardson. I was very surprised that there was no mention of Hadley or any of the extended Hemingway family, such as cousins or uncles. (Ernest died a few months before Mariel’s birth.) I would have been interested to know more about their family relationships. However, perhaps her extended family was not that integral to her life if she did not include anything about it. It also occurs to me that Finding My Balance is over ten years old and Hadley has only recently become a household name due to the popularity of The Paris Wife by Paula McLain. I’m not sure if that has any bearing on her exclusion in the memoir.

I think that due to my age, I have a different perspective on why Mariel is famous. She identifies herself throughout the memoir as an actress by profession, while I recognize her from yoga DVDs since I haven’t actually ever watched a movie that she has been in. So for me, I had expected that yoga was very important to her. I’m curious how someone who would have been more familiar with Mariel as an actress might have thought of her experiences or solutions.

Yoga is the key to the balance that Mariel finds. She opens each chapter with a yoga pose, explaining how to do it and how it is significant to her growth. As a yoga student, I appreciated that she could admit that even after years of practice, she sometimes doesn’t feel strong in a pose or can’t stretch as far as she could the day before.

I did enjoy the yoga segments, but when I read descriptions of the book I was concerned that I would not. Spiritual wisdom can often come off as preachy or condescending or just as full of shit. Last summer I tried to read The Pilgrimage by Paolo Coehlo, which is about the author’s experience walking the Camino de Santiago, since I was going there also and I loved The Alchemist. However, I couldn’t stand all the proselytizing. It felt disingenuous. Thankfully, there was none of that in Finding My Balance. There were words of wisdom, usually arrived at after a series of steps in the wrong direction. It felt much more human and relatable.

Her documentary, Running from Crazy, was just shown at Sundance last month, so it’s been getting a lot of press lately. It looks like it'll be airing on OWN later this year.  (Source)

Favorite Excerpts:

“I’m learning that the faults that I find in others are great indicators at what I should look at in myself.”

“Like the deaths we deal with – of habit, youth, changing friendships, joys gone by, out loved ones – life is a practice of surrender.”

“..crisis has a way of empowering us.”

“Rather than trying to figure out who I am, I am learning to accept the person that I now understand myself to be.”

Earlier today, Mariel tweeted a link to a short interview that she did which included her favorite of her grandfather’s characters. I replied that Lady Brett from The Sun Also Rises is also my favorite Hemingway character and she re-tweeted it. I also follow her on Instagram. She seems lovely and very genuine. 

Edit 2/16/13: One shared experience between Mariel and Ernest did occur to me this week. Mariel explains how eating habits were always an issue for her. She craved the hollow buzzing feeling that comes from too much caffeine and sugars paired with too little nutrients. Ernest similarly embraced the feeling of hollowness that came with being hungry. He mentions it in both Islands In the Stream and in A Moveable Feast. 

Running with the Bulls: My Years with the Hemingways by Valerie Hemingway

The life of Ernest Hemingway is currently my favorite obsession. I was initially concerned that a personal memoir relating to Hemingway would be biased beyond use. Inherently, memoirs are biased. (Or I should say, inherently, people are biased. Authors of any subject cannot refrain from some bias, but in a memoir we encourage it.) On the contrary, Valerie Hemingway’s recollection of Ernest and Mary Hemingway and their “cuadrilla’ of friends is full of new information from a valuable perspective.

I remain somewhat wary of her assessment of Ernest’s youngest son, Gregory, who was her husband for over a decade. Based on the amount of abuse that she suffered from him, it must be taken with at least one single grain of salt; although as someone who is accustomed to thriving in the most unusual circumstances, Valerie has demonstrated strength and a will of reason that exceeds that of most people.

Having recently been to the Basque country in Spain (and France), I was delighted to read about her adventures in Spain with the Hemingways. Her insight into personal moments, without verging on the point of betrayal, were tremendously revealing. I could not think of a more accurate title for a book.

I was especially engrossed in the work of Valerie and Mary, Hemingway’s widow, when selecting works and items from the Finca Vigia in Cuba to take with them as they prepared to leave the house forever. This process had been a mystery to me and Valerie was one of two people with access to this information. (I’m not sure if Mary touches on this as well in her autobiography, How It Was, as I have yet to read it. But it is waiting on the shelf!) Their choice of selections has shaped some of Hemingway’s legacy, especially in regards to his later works and insight into some of his personal relationships. Equally interesting to learn about was the political climate that was present while the Hemingway possessions were subjected to the tense relationship between the U.S. and Cuba in the early 1960’s. Arrangements had to be made with both Fidel Castro and JFK due to the embargo and travel restrictions for U.S. citizens. Mary remained grateful for JFK’s assistance and chose his presidential library to house the largest collection of Hemingway papers.

The author of Hemingway’s Boat, Paul Hendrickson, acknowledged the use of Valerie’s memoir and knowledge in his work but I was surprised to find out just how far-reaching his use of her insight went. Just as she was privy to many sensitive moments in Ernest and Mary’s lives, she was privy to a large portion of Gregory Hemingway’s complicated life. Valerie stood by all of the Hemingways with a generous amount of acceptance, even if she didn’t always understand their actions.

The scenes and friendship that Valerie became privy to was amazing to me. Valerie touched so many aspects of Hemingway life that I could barely stop reading her recollections. Valerie’s memoir is a remarkable viewpoint of a person who at first glance appears to be a background player, but was such an important person to so many Hemingways. Despite the famous family name, I hope and believe that Valerie has stayed true to her ethics of privacy in regards to the Hemingway family, which she and her children are a part of. Her insights into Hemingway life are not to be missed.

Below are some of my favorite passages. (My original list was more than twice as long. There are lots of gems in this book.)

Pages numbers are from the iBooks version. My review is also on Amazon.

“When he liked someone, he became blind to their faults.” p. 94

“Couples learn to roll with the waves as well as create waves when the sea is smooth.” p. 115

“I often thought in the hours I spent listening to him that he liked to make statements more for effect than for accuracy. He didn’t say what he really thought. In conversation with literary figures or people was not well acquainted with, he was a provocateur. “ p. 120

“His only quarrel with the Catholic Church was that he believed animals have souls, and if he was to be damned for that, then so be it. As far as he was concerned, his Black Dog was up there in heaven with all the faithful; if he wasn’t, it was not a place Ernest wanted to be. I never knew to what extent he was being serious when he made remarks like that, but I think at the time for him it was the truest statement he ever made.” p. 146

“A grudge was jealously guarded, and loyalty in friendship was demanded. He had the most inquiring mind of anyone I’ve ever met. “ p. 150

“Only with his absence could I appreciate the intensity of his presence.” p. 180

“The ironies of life, where opportunities present themselves in the wrong sequence.” p. 185

“Ernest told me that if he had not been a writer, he would have liked to have become a painter, and that his objective as a writer was to invent with words a world as real and innovative as that a painter conjured up with his brush.” p. 271

“Ketchum lay a scant mile and a half away. Once a mining town, it was now the center of the high country sheep ranging industry and a major origin point for shipment to market by rail. Many Basques has moved there, drawn to the sheep country. For Ernest, it was reminiscent of his beloved Pamplona.” p. 429

“Ernest told me that journalism was a great teacher for a novelist. While practicing it he learned to observe accurately, to state “the true gen” and express it with the shortest, most direct sentence. In his early days as a foreign correspondent, this last was absolute necessity for sending dispatches by cable, where every word must count and ambivalence was detrimental to the sense and accuracy of the story. In reading through his papers, I saw that he followed these same principles all his life.” p. 450

“I can’t be a godmother because I don’t believe in God.” –Martha Gellhorn p. 534