Influencing Hemingway People and places that shaped his life and work

Sindelar highlights the people, settings, and scenes that Hemingway immortalized in his literature. These events range from watching his father assist with childbirth at an Indian reservation, which became the short story "Indian Camp," to his experiences in WWI and the Spanish Civil War, which inspired A Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls. The book also aims to elucidate Hemingway's values and moral code. Many of the same anecdotes crop up repeatedly, such as young Ernest's declaration to his mother at age three that he was "afraid of nothing!" Another oft-emphasized catchphrase is "grace under pressure," a tenant which Hemingway embraced to the point of forbidding his brother to cry at their father's funeral. The book's pacing doesn't emphasize any one fact or work in particular, making the recitation monotonous, though informative. Perhaps because Sindelar is a board member of the Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park, she presupposes a considerable familiarity with Hemingway's work and particulars of his life that readers may not share. However, the book can serve as a useful resource for Hemingway fans interested in learning more about the facts behind his fiction. Photos. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Sindelar (Assessment-Powered Teaching) was inspired by her students to write this book while teaching at Ernest Hemingway's alma mater Oak Park and River Forest High School. This short biography marches chronologically through Hemingway's entire life (1899-1961), with a focus on the places and people that influenced him and those that he in turn inspired, but provides little that is new. The author also does not offer much regarding the people and places themselves-for example, she does not delve into the history or character of the women in his life to any focused degree, instead reporting only on his time with them. That said, Sindelar nicely organizes Hemingway's life into chapters dedicated to the places he lived, providing readers with a clear vision of its stages and the people he spent his time with in each place. Accompanying photographs are well selected, plentiful, and go a long way in supporting the setting of each chapter. Readers new to Hemingway's work could enjoy a selected chapter on the region where the author lived while writing the book in question. VERDICT Recommended to Hemingway fans and those reading his writing for the first time, as well as those who enjoy biographies and American literary history.-Benjamin Brudner, Curry Coll. Lib., Milton, MA (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.