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.