Wednesday, September 04, 2019

Speaking of insanity. I have now completed about 1/3rd of The Garden of Eden. I think I have read everything Hemingway ever wrote, every novel, every short story, at least one biography and to me Garden is the most transcendent thing he ever wrote. It is dense, you feel every word is important and I never felt that way about any other work of fiction by him or another author, and it is complex. I cannot recommend it because it is so disturbing. Hemingway was the most courageous writer in the history of American letters and I know of no more courageous writer anywhere, at any time. I do not know how anyone could write Garden and I don’t know how I am going to get through it with the remnants of my own sanity intact.