{"id":108,"date":"2008-10-25T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-25T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.orcutt.net\/weblog\/?p=108"},"modified":"2013-12-08T18:38:33","modified_gmt":"2013-12-08T18:38:33","slug":"my-favorite-books-hemingwaysa-moveable-feast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/my-favorite-books-hemingwaysa-moveable-feast\/","title":{"rendered":"My Favorite Books: Hemingway\u2019s A MOVEABLE FEAST"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You know a book is a favorite of yours when you have mul\u00adti\u00adple copies of it, and you find some of those copies in the odd\u00adest of places:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>under the couch<\/li>\n<li>in your field coat pock\u00adet<\/li>\n<li>under the car seat<\/li>\n<li>in the box of cat toys (cats, too, appre\u00adci\u00adate good lit\u00ader\u00ada\u00adture)<\/li>\n<li>in a knap\u00adsack<\/li>\n<li>in the freez\u00ader (for real; inex\u00adplic\u00ada\u00adbly, I\u2019ve also found my belt in there)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/MVABLE_FST.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-4671\" alt=\"MVABLE_FST\" src=\"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/MVABLE_FST-201x300.jpg\" width=\"201\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/MVABLE_FST-201x300.jpg 201w, https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/MVABLE_FST.jpg 430w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 201px) 100vw, 201px\"><\/a>Over the years, I\u2019ve had this expe\u00adri\u00adence with a few books, the most recent being Ernest Hem\u00ading\u00adway\u2019s mem\u00adoir, <em>A Move\u00adable Feast<\/em>. While reread\u00ading it a few days ago, I had the serendip\u00adi\u00adtous expe\u00adri\u00adence of find\u00ading five oth\u00ader copies around our small apart\u00adment.<\/p>\n<p>This is not meant to be a book review, nor is it \u201clit\u00ader\u00adary crit\u00adi\u00adcism\u201d (I nev\u00ader got that stuff, and still don\u2019t). That being said, for those of you who don\u2019t know this book, here are the facts: It was pub\u00adlished posthu\u00admous\u00adly in 1964 to mixed reviews. It appeared first as a ser\u00adi\u00adal in <em>Life<\/em> mag\u00ada\u00adzine, then came out in the hard\u00adcov\u00ader pic\u00adtured below. Most impor\u00adtant\u00adly, as execu\u00adtor of his lit\u00ader\u00adary estate, Hem\u00ading\u00adway\u2019s fourth (and last) wife, Mary, engaged in some sig\u00adnif\u00adi\u00adcant edit\u00ading of the final man\u00adu\u00adscript, cut\u00adting what many schol\u00adars believe were sig\u00adnif\u00adi\u00adcant sec\u00adtions, includ\u00ading a long apol\u00ado\u00adgy to his first wife, Hadley, for leav\u00ading her.<\/p>\n<p>Many schol\u00adar\u00adly arti\u00adcles have been writ\u00adten about the ver\u00adsion of this book that \u201cmight have been,\u201d but as insight\u00adful as they may be, I\u2019ve nev\u00ader read any of them. Besides, I\u2019m not a schol\u00adar. Nev\u00ader liked school much. Tend\u00aded toward <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Autodidacticism\" target=\"blank\">auto\u00addi\u00addac\u00adti\u00adcism<\/a>. Like Mark Twain said, \u201cI nev\u00ader let school\u00ading get in the way of my edu\u00adca\u00adtion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But I digress. In plain, hon\u00adest, reg\u00adu\u00adlar Eng\u00adlish, not acad\u00ademese, let me tell you why <em>A Move\u00adable Feast<\/em> may just be my favoritest (gram\u00admat\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly incor\u00adrect for empha\u00adsis) book of all time.<\/p>\n<p>At least once a year since I was 17, I have read this mem\u00adoir of Hem\u00ading\u00adway\u2019s ear\u00adly life as a writer in Paris. That\u2019s cov\u00ader-to-cov\u00ader read\u00ading. I could\u00adn\u2019t even count the num\u00adber of times I\u2019ve opened it just for inspi\u00adra\u00adtion. The open\u00ading alone gets me every time:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Then there was the bad weath\u00ader. It would come in one day when the fall was over. We would have to shut the win\u00addows in the night against the rain and the cold wind would strip the leaves from the trees in the Place Con\u00adtrescarpe. The leaves lay sod\u00adden in the rain and the wind drove the rain against the big green auto\u00adbus at the ter\u00admi\u00adnal and the Caf\u00e9 des Ama\u00adteurs was crowd\u00aded and the win\u00addows mist\u00aded over from the heat and the smoke inside.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Not bad, right? For me, it\u2019s the first sentence\u2014\u201cThen there was the bad weath\u00ader.\u201d This is a per\u00adfect exam\u00adple of Aris\u00adtotle\u2019s admo\u00adni\u00adtion to begin sto\u00adries <em>in media res<\/em> (in the mid\u00addle of things). Start\u00ading out with \u201cThen there was the bad weath\u00ader\u201d imme\u00addi\u00adate\u00adly begs the ques\u00adtions of, \u201cWell, what hap\u00adpened before\u2026before the \u2018then\u2019? What was the fall like? <em>What hap\u00adpened<\/em>?\u201d By rais\u00ading these ques\u00adtions with the first sen\u00adtence, Hem\u00ading\u00adway also cre\u00adates nar\u00adra\u00adtive dri\u00adve, which I\u2019ve writ\u00adten about in greater detail else\u00adwhere.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the lan\u00adguage that makes me read this book so often. The lyri\u00adcal nature of the prose bor\u00adders on hyp\u00adnot\u00adic. Yet it\u2019s oth\u00ader things, too, like the evo\u00adca\u00adtion of place, and the voice, and the pre\u00adcise details. The bot\u00adtom line is, <em>what<\/em> the nar\u00adra\u00adtor Hem\u00ading\u00adway does through\u00adout the book isn\u2019t very impor\u00adtant; it\u2019s <em>how<\/em> he does it, the com\u00adbi\u00adna\u00adtion of all of the above\u2014the style\u2014that pulls you along help\u00adless\u00adly.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In the spring morn\u00adings I would work ear\u00adly while my wife still slept. The win\u00addows were open wide and the cob\u00adbles of the street were dry\u00ading after the rain. The sun was dry\u00ading the faces of the hous\u00ades that faced the win\u00addow. The shops were still shut\u00adtered. The goatherd came up the street blow\u00ading his pipes and a woman who lived on the floor above us came out onto the side\u00adwalk with a big pot.\u2026 I went back to writ\u00ading and the woman came up the stairs with the goat milk.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Every time before I begin a new project, or if I\u2019m in the dumps about a cur\u00adrent one, I\u2019ll grab a copy of AMF out of the freez\u00ader and open it to one of my favorite pas\u00adsages.<\/p>\n<p>As a rule, I don\u2019t care for audio\u00adbooks, but I bought this one and copied the entire thing over to my iPod. I play it dur\u00ading my long walks through the Mill\u00adbrook coun\u00adtry\u00adside, let\u00adting Hem\u00ading\u00adway\u2019s ele\u00adgant\u00adly sim\u00adple, detail-dri\u00adven prose seep into me. It\u2019s a blus\u00adtery autumn day out there today, a lot like Hem\u00ading\u00adway him\u00adself describes in his sto\u00adry, \u201cThe Three Day Blow,\u201d and I think I\u2019ll take a walk lat\u00ader and lis\u00adten to AMF as the wind shakes the leaves from the trees.<\/p>\n<p>I believe this book is an absolute neces\u00adsi\u00adty for writ\u00aders, for buried with\u00adin Hem\u00ading\u00adway\u2019s descrip\u00adtions of caf\u00e9s, horse-rac\u00ading and exot\u00adic cock\u00adtails are dozens of gems about the craft of writ\u00ading, like this one\u2026<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It was won\u00adder\u00adful to walk down the long flights of stairs know\u00ading that I\u2019d had good luck work\u00ading. I always worked until I had some\u00adthing done and I always stopped when I knew what was going to hap\u00adpen next. That way I could be sure of going on the next day. But some\u00adtimes when I was start\u00ading a new sto\u00adry and I could not get it going, I would sit in front of the fire and squeeze the peel of the lit\u00adtle oranges into the edge of the flame and watch the sput\u00adter of blue that they made. I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, \u201cDo not wor\u00adry. You have always writ\u00adten before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sen\u00adtence. Write the truest sen\u00adtence that you know.\u201d So final\u00adly I would write one true sen\u00adtence, and then go on from there.\u2026 If I start\u00aded to write elab\u00ado\u00adrate\u00adly \u2026 I found that I could cut that scroll\u00adwork or orna\u00adment out and throw it away and start with the first true sim\u00adple declar\u00ada\u00adtive sen\u00adtence I had writ\u00adten. Up in that room I decid\u00aded that I would write one sto\u00adry about each thing that I knew about. I was try\u00ading to do this all the time I was writ\u00ading, and it was good and severe dis\u00adci\u00adpline.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As epi\u00adgrams on writ\u00ading go, \u201c\u2026write one true sen\u00adtence\u201d has been pro\u00adfound\u00adly over-quot\u00aded, when most of the peo\u00adple who men\u00adtion it don\u2019t know what the hell it means. I\u2019ve med\u00adi\u00adtat\u00aded on it like Kant med\u00adi\u00adtat\u00aded on Hume, and I\u2019m not sure I get it either.<\/p>\n<p>One cou\u00adplet of Hem\u00ading\u00adway\u2019s in par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar has occu\u00adpied my think\u00ading on and off for weeks, and that\u2019s this: <em>\u201cWhat did I know best that I had not writ\u00adten about and lost? What did I know about tru\u00adly and care for the most?\u201d<\/em> I believe those two ques\u00adtions, more than any oth\u00ader two that I\u2019ve read, con\u00adtain some of the best advice to writers\u2014especially strug\u00adgling novices, like I was when I first read them.<\/p>\n<p>A Salon.com trav\u00adel writer, Don George, elo\u00adquent\u00adly describes his attach\u00adment to <em>A Move\u00adable Feast<\/em> in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.salon.com\/travel\/bag\/1999\/06\/02\/paris\/\" target=\"blank\">this arti\u00adcle<\/a>. How\u00adev\u00ader, the pas\u00adsage I like the most is one in which he gets to heart of the book\u2014its poet\u00adic and nos\u00adtal\u00adgic (but not sen\u00adti\u00admen\u00adtal) rec\u00adol\u00adlec\u00adtion of a sim\u00adpler time in a man\u2019s life, before his sens\u00ades were dulled and his pas\u00adsions quashed by prac\u00adti\u00adcal\u00adi\u00adty:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Doubt\u00adless you have your own Paris\u2026it\u2019s the place where life first came vivid\u00adly to bloom for you, where you walked out the door and fell in love, where you could\u00adn\u2019t believe the exquis\u00adite beau\u00adty of the build\u00adings, or the clouds, or the sun that shone after the rain.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>For me, that place was, and will always be, Boston, where I fell in love with the Red Sox as a boy and where I went to col\u00adlege, where I dat\u00aded many pret\u00adty (and a few crazy) women, where I smoked cig\u00ada\u00adrettes and mar\u00adi\u00adjua\u00adna and drank, and lis\u00adtened end\u00adless\u00adly to The Doors, and stayed up all night, unmed\u00adicat\u00aded and unsta\u00adble and lov\u00ading it. I\u2019d tell you more about those days, but sor\u00adry, I\u2019m writ\u00ading about them else\u00adwhere now.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You know a book is a favorite of yours when you have mul\u00adti\u00adple copies of it, and you find some of those copies in the\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-favebooks","category-writers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4672,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108\/revisions\/4672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}