Hemingway's Boat - Paul Hendrickson

Hemingway's Boat seems to have been a book Hendrickson's been working on since at least the late 1980s, perhaps even longer, owing to some fortuitous meetings with some of Hemingway's family.

To describe it as a book about Pilar, Hemingway's fishing boat, would be a bit inaccurate. Hendrickson does start when Hemingway and Pauline (his second wife) arrive back in New York from another hunting trip in Africa, and shortly thereafter, the boat is purchased. However, Hendrickson moves around a lot in time, spending a lengthy section on some of the writer's childhood in Illinois, as well as summers in Michigan. Much of the end of the book details the rough life of George Hemingway, Ernest's youngest son, extending well beyond Ernest's suicide in 1961.

Hendrickson's goal seems to be parallels. He devotes sections of the book to various people Hemingway met and befriended during the years he owned Pilar, looking at their lives both before and after, comparing and contrasting them with Hemingway. Most of these sections are depressing, people who are alone now, or had their lives wrecked by personal demons, in that regard much like the primary subject.

The book was useful because most of the time, one only hears of Hemingway's faults. The drinking, the rages, the infidelity, the petty grudges. All of those things are here, especially in Hemingway's personal communications. Hendrickson uses a lot of letters and telegrams Ernest sent to various people over the years, and there is a lot of nastiness in there. But there are also a lot of kind words. He and George especially shift back and forth between threats and vulgarity, to heartfelt concern over each other, and promises to help if they're needed.

On more than one occasion, Hemingway will start a letter with curses and insults, only to apologize later in the same letter. He knows he ought not to be writing these things, but even having realized it, he won't go back and cross it out, or simply tear up the letter and start over. He seems to feel like he has to go ahead and air the grievances, then try to fix the damage. Maybe it was too much to keep inside. Or he simply wasn't the sort to keep it inside (though there are a few things Hendrickson suggests that Hemingway was only able to hint at obliquely through his writing).

I think Hendrickson uses Pilar as the focus because it was something that brought the best and the worst in him. It was a place for him to see and experience new things, which were new things to write about. It was a place for him to connect with his sons, with other people, and a place for him to go when the stress of writing, or the critics grew too much. But it was also a place where his competitive nature could cause him to be quite unpleasant to others, and if things weren't going his way, if there were no marlin to fight, then it was no relief at all, just one more thing building up the anger.