Adios Hemingway

Writers hate other writers. That's the secret. Maybe not a particularly well-kept one. Its usually professional jealousy - we don't want to give legitimacy to the fame of others, happier to accrue their success to winds of fate or connections or something else except that they have actual skill. Incidentally, I'm not exempt from this phenomenon. Read below...This novel is by Leonardo Padura, one of Cuba's most well-known writers, and its about Hemingway, one of the world's best-known writers. Now, anybody who reads my reviews knows what I think about Hemingway. Specifically, he has no skill - his writing is so awful as to be unreadable. Why he is famous is beyond me - except that he existed in a moment in time when there were fewer writers so the bar was lower and he managed to be affiliated with the right club to get his stuff into print. Also he was a commie, and that always helps - communists still control the publishing industry, and so they naturally wanted to give one of their own a hands up. It's human nature.Padura goes one beyond me - he humanizes Hemingway. He goes out of his way to deconstruct the Hemingway myth, that of the great virile hunter, turning him into a weak inebriated madman. With all sorts of bad habits. He actually was probably right, the Hemingway myth for me was debunked by reading "A Movable Feast" which, in Hemingway's own words showed just how un-romantic was his time in Paris. "The Warmest Country" it was not, Yerevan in the winter with the great communist writers (before Stalin had them all killed) arguing in the cafe of the Intourist hotel in front of Aipetrat publishing, the snow falling around in gentle quiet seclusion of life behind the iron curtain. More chasing after Fitzgerald who was evidently a mean drunk.Now on Padura - this novel is also pretty bad. Not inspiring or uplifting or magical or magnificent. Crude when it didn't have to be; and I read it in a day and a half without having to miss any parts of it. Perhaps it did not translate - or perhaps a writer writing a mean-spirited book about another writer is not fodder for great literature. Whatever it was, don't bother reading this book. I myself only received it in the mail by accident... And that is all.

This is a pleasant murder mystery, enhanced by its adroit mixture of fact and fiction. It's 1958 and the fabled Hemingway may or may not have killed an FBI agent. Now, years later, former Cuban police inspector Conde comes to grips with the mystery. Which is a little complicated since the ex-cop has become a writer and has a love/hate relationship with the late Hemingway. In addition to being a good mystery, Author Fuentes has fashioned a stunning piece of biography which, even with its fictional forays, sheds intriguing light on Hemingway's last days. If you are a Hemingway fan you will find this book of particular fascination. But in the final analysis, it is a delightful, quick read that brings alive once more the passions of a once-ago Havana and the literary legend who tried to find peace there in the autumn of his amazing life.

I was required to read this book for a trip to Cuba and before I read it I thought it wasn't going to be that good but it was very enjoyable. I ended up flying through it in a few hours. This is a good book for those who love Hemingway and particularly for those who are going to have a chance to visit Hemingway's home in Havana. It's description of the house is extremely accurate and vivid. Even if you are not familiar with Cuba, this is a very enjoyable and unique mystery novel focused on a famous American novelist. Padura is one of the most popular if not the most popular novelist in Cuba right now.

What a book... just wonderful.

Great story

Just visited Hemingway's Havana home which made this book more alive. The author wrote as though he were Hemingway. I have not read any of his other books, but I will to see if it was just done on purpose for this book.

Nothing else to say, it's good.

Leonardo is a great writer.

This is the fourth out of the five books about Havana's greatest fictional detective and certainly deserves five stars for its story line which pulls the writers hero Hemingway back from death into a tale of the late 20th century city as it struggles to survive the suppression of its very existence by the same people who suppressed Hemingway all those years ago. Cuba Libre!

Good book.

If you like the El Conde detective series, you'll like this.

Great book, especially if you are visiting Havana at the time of reading! Enjoyed it immensely.

Es una historia bien construida con bases históricas, que si no sabes que es una novela podría pensar que es real. Cuando empiezas a leerla no hay himpas, Quizás tenga un solo punto, a mi muy particular parecer y gusto, no fuerte. El final, todo se queda a juicio inconcluso. En boca me queda el sabor de que falta algo. Pero queda la amistad.