Hemingway Book

Paul Hendrickson, in his book Hemingway's Boat, says of Kenneth Lynn's "unforgiving" biography of Papa: "[It is] often absurd in its psychological interpretations of Hemingway as it is brilliant in its creative analysis of his work." In the bibliography he speaks of Lynn's "psychoanalytic (and often ridiculous) text."

There is truth to Hendrickson's characterization. Lynn's study does move between the brilliant and the absurd, between the reasoned analysis of Hemingway's writings and the wildly speculative in regard to what he believes is the impact of Hemingway's supposedly androgynous upbringing by a domineering and unbending mother.

It is clear by the end of the first chapter that Lynn is not overly sympathetic to Hemingway as a person. Lynn emphasizes time and again Hemingway's self-absorption, his viciousness, his destructive competiveness, his mercurial nature. He also'and here enter Lynn's "psychological interpretations"'is persistent in underscoring evidence that confirms Hemingway's gender confusion that in his writings is seen in the themes of transvestism, twin hood, the female in the male, death, depression and suicide. All of which hark back to his mother who in Hemingway's early years dressed him in female clothing.

Although Lynn is harsh in his portrayal of Hemingway and insistent on his psychoanalysis, the study is, if controversial, still engaging. The text flows easily and is often insightful particularly in his treatment of selected pieces of the Hemingway canon. The final chapter that deals with the years from 1945 to Hemingway's death in 1961 does seem a bit thin in terms of its content but there are other biographies to fill that thinness. There are few other biographers, however, who discuss so extensively the writings of Hemingway and their relationships to Hemingway's actual life.

Lynn's treatment of particularly Hemingway's fiction does raise an important question. That fiction is closely tied to his life'to the places, people, incidents and concerns that defined him. But does exposing the real in Hemingway's fiction diminish the impact of the work? Does that fiction once linked to the real Hemingway become merely sources for recreating Hemingway's life? Do they lose in that process their artistic and/or creative value and impact? Those who answer "yes" to that question may want to avoid Lynn's study.