colorful and worthy
another well-written bio on the one and only ernest hemingway. key west was/is a colorful place and so was ernie. i enjoyed this one. damn near felt like almost being there and enjoying a beer with ernie.

I discovered it when I was living in Eanes Lane, about 2 houses away from the Hemingway House, in Key West.

This book is one of the few that is really able to convey the atmoshphere of the place--imagine how quiet it must have been down there in the 30's, before A1A connected the Keys and EVERYBODY could get down there; Think of the parties Papa threw for his pals who came to visit; the sometimes beautiful, sometimes brutal weather; the sunsets, the fishing, the original Sloppy's.

I lived in Key Wierd for a couple years, and love it, but Papa's days MUST have been THE days! --Imagine bar hopping with Dos Passos or being able to sail over to Havana--the music! The nightclubs! The beaches! The Girls!--I digress, but you get the point. The recent release called "Hemingway's France" does very well describing the atmoshere of his Paris days. "Papa, Hemingway in Key West" does the same justice to the very productive and legend-shaping time he spent in Key West.

As well, there are several pages featuring a very good selection of photos from those days; including a couple black and white reproductions of great Waldo Peirce paintings in his typically loose, energetic style.

This is one of my favorite Hemingway references, and I turn to it repeatedly.

This is the first book review I've ever written, and it is because I know Hemingway fans will really enjoy Mr. McLendon's book.

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