Vertebrates Book

The fifth and final volume in this still definitive study of the life and inspirations of Hemingway is the hardest to read. Not because the writing suffers as Hemingway's did in the final decade of his life, but rather because this section deals with the slow descent of Papa into premature senility, fragility, and madness. Beginning with the stunning success of For Whom the Bell Tolls, the writer's life begins to take a deluded descending spiral as he convinces himself that he can help the World War II effort by patrolling Key West for U Boats (discovered by Reynolds for the first time). He follows his own self defeating cycle of leaving his wife for another woman but this time the cycle leads to diminishing results. Despite his success with The Old Man and the Sea and achieving the pinnacle successes of the Nobel and Pulitzer Prizes, Hemingway can only write intermittently and never self-contentedly. Coupled with a number of instances of his penchant for suffering significant injuries, Hemingway's brain pays the price. In the final years, he is a tragic shell of himself left with only one option, the only thing he still knows how to do well. Brilliant and essential for all literary history buffs and Hemingway enthusiasts.