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| "Strange Tribe" by John Hemingway |
I offer this post today -- albeit nearly a week later than I had planned -- to Fathers. I have been so busy getting ahead on my work as well as regular preparations for my "trip of a lifetime" to Europe and Africa, departing this Wednesday, that I have not been as diligent on my writing.
However, this book is one of the best "father-son" books I have ever read. It deals with three generations -- Ernest, Gregory, and John. As I am about to embark on an epic "three generation tour" with my father and my son in Europe, to conclude with a father-son journey up Mt. Kilimanjaro, the timing for this book for me could not have been better. It is a very fast, interesting and easy read. It is a page turner for sure.
"Strange Tribe", is written by author John Hemingway. John is the Grandson of Ernest and the son of Gregory Hemingway, Ernest's son by his second marriage to Pauline Pfeiffer.
The title of the book refers to a statement Ernest made to Greg -- John's Dad -- after catching him in a particularly embarrassing moment trying on female clothing. While that may seem like a tantalizing or maybe uncomfortable way to begin a book about one's father, the truth is that the issue of Greg Hemingway's cross-dressing and other issues are no secret. It was a matter of very public record and not something that has ever been "covered" up or "glossed" over by the family.
I purchased this book in May on my annual pilgrimage to the Pfeiffer- Hemingway home in Piggott, Arkansas. If you have not been to this home it is well worth the visit. In the 1990s, as a state senator, I had been one of the co-sponsors and strongest supporters of the bill creating and funding the museum, which was the project of Arkansas State University and Dr. Ruth A Hawkins, who has always had a very strong vision for the Arkansas Delta and the Crowley's Ridge area. She also wrote a book on the Hemingway-Pfeiffer marriage, entitled "Unbelievable Happiness and Final Sorrow" that you can buy at the bookstore there and on Amazon. However, it was not until last year, my first visit to the museum, that I caught the "Hemingway bug". So be careful if you visit. You may end up spending a lot of money and time on this subject.
Actually, the title "Strange Tribe" is perfect. It sums up the book perfectly. John Hemingway (referred to by his first name from here on so as not to confuse the Hemingways) tells his own father-son story with his Dad while also seeking to understand his family and the influence of it on both his grandfather and his own father.
The title is so appropriate it actually reminds me about the time Ernest was challenged to come up with the "shortest short story" with only one sentence. The next day he came up with "For Sale: baby shoes, never worn." It is still considered the shortest short story in literature. Anyway, this title "Strange Tribe" says it all. Once you have read the book you will understand.
It is also a very fitting tribute to all fathers. The father looms large and heroic to every son. He is at times a superhero, at times a mystery, and ultimately a disappointment as well. There is nowhere any father's image can go but down after so many years being viewed through the worshiping eyes of a young boy. In John's case, this was especially true. It was also especially true of Greg as well.
In many ways, Greg appears to be the true heir to his father's dynasty of talent and introspection. He looked like Ernest, he was a very sensitive soul, much like his father, and he had a strong feminine side. While Greg liked to cross-dress, he was always "straight" in his sexuality. Greg was supposed to be the girl that Ernest and Pauline wanted, and apparently there was disappointment when yet another boy was born. In addition, Pauline left the care of Greg almost entirely in the hands of a stern headmistress who disciplined Greg by threatening to leave him "like his parents" who were so often traveling.
Likewise, Ernest and his brother were often dressed-up as girls when they were children. Their mother -- herself an interesting personality -- basically cross-dressed her children for a very long time. In addition, some of the topics in Ernest's books and short stories touch on issues of gender confusion and role play that make it clear that when Ernest walked in on Greg that day it was not exactly a new concept.
John provides us with his own life story as a child who was moved around from one family to another. His chapters on living with Ernest's brother and his wife were some of the most interesting to me as well. John grew up mostly in Miami, and he had a mother who had lots of mental issues as well. He describes his efforts at coping with this kind of unsettled madness as well as growing up a "Hemingway" and what that means. The issues of inter-family disagreements, rivalries, and misunderstandings, as seen by a younger generation of Hemingways, was interesting as well.
He describes how his father coped with being the son of Ernest and Pauline Hemingway, and how he coped with being the grandson and Greg's son. I thought that so much of what he went through we all go through, only to a lesser degree. However, this allows us to find empathy for his story while at the same time being captivated by who we are talking about here. I was relieved to see that Ernest did seem to care very deeply for all of his children, despite the problems. In his many letters to his son Greg it was apparent that Ernest never lost patience with all the trials and mistakes and problems. He seemed to support him no matter how hateful Greg could be in his letters to Ernest. I like this about him and every father can probably identify with this to some degree as well.
You may be shocked that we are mentioning "femininity" or "cross-dressing" or anything not totally male oriented when discussing this topic. Afterall, we are talking about Hemingway -- the great man of machismo, that icon of masculinity, the man who stared at death rather than ignoring it, the man who literally seemed to define grace under fire. We are talking about perhaps the greatest writer of the 20th Century and of American Literature itself (although I have to put him a close second to Mark Twain here, a fact with which even Hemingway seemed to agree).
However, in this book his grandson John does a very good job of explaining I think how this side of Ernest's nature was very much a part of being a Hemingway as well. Indeed, while it was manifested in Greg in ways that are obvious, it may have been manifested in Ernest in ways not so obvious at first but still very significant. There is no doubt that Ernest was a genius. It has been said that a genius is someone who can keep two opposing ideas in their mind at the same time while resolving a problem -- that many geniuses use both sides of their brain at the same time to perceive and "sense" the world around them.
Perhaps this is the essence of the Hemingway genius, that he was able to feel strongly both sides -- the feminine and the masculine -- and that it was this almost spiritual way of understanding the "real world" as it is that makes Ernest a genius. Maybe it was through this understanding and a heightened empathy and ultra-sensitivity to the death he witnessed on the battlefields of Italy and Spain that he was able to see the real tragedy and drama of life as it really is, and not dressed up as something it isn't -- and through this we can really understand death and therefore life itself and how it should be lived. Maybe it was his "feminine" side that was able to take out a pencil or sit at a typewriter "and bleed".
While John explains all of the problems he and his father had -- even being estranged for ten years -- he also does at the end what most of us sons do when we are grown. We seek to understand, to empathize, to drop the judgement and the blame.
For most of us, if the father has fallen in our eyes by the time we are teenagers, the father returns later in life as a sort of hero once again. After having your own children, one is better able to see and understand your own father in a new light and from a wiser perspective. This book takes us on that journey, but is more interesting than most because of who we are talking about here. It is so essentially the same as what you may have experienced, and at the same time very different.
John Hemingway writes of feeling lucky that some of the mental issues in his family seemed to have "skipped" over him. He writes of his determination to prevent his own children from enduring the kind of craziness that he and his father and grandfather were made to endure. After all he has been through, John turned out to be one of the "normal" ones.
One generational gift that seems not to have passed-over John Hemingway is the talent for writing. It must be an intimidating thing to have a name like Hemingway when you sit down to write. However, there is no question that he has the gift, one that even his Dad (who called it like he saw it -- not unlike Ernest) seemed to get excited about when he read his work. His writing is smooth and easy to follow.
I have been keeping two books going most of the time, one usually on biography and the other a work of EH. I would read this one every morning over breakfast while reading "Death in the Afternoon" and now "For Whom the Bell Tolls" in the evenings.
In "Strange Tribe" John Hemingway establishes himself as his own man and a writer who needs to make no apologies for his name. He has found his own voice. We are lucky as readers that he has picked up the "family pen" and I hope he will continue in the "family business" as well.
The final test for any book is how you really feel at the end of it. If the book is really good, it is like saying "good bye" to a friend. You are sad to turn the last page. "Strange Tribe" passed this test for me.
It is true that there seems like hundreds of biographies on all things related to "Hemingway". It is really mind boggling how popular he is. However, most people cannot read them all. This is one you should have on your "must read list" if you want to understand the family and Ernest Hemingway.
You just have to read it yourself to find out what I mean.
Click on this link to buy it today.
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