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 15th
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.
