The Dangerous Summer – Ernest Hemingway, 1985 ★★

A Farewell to Death

Ernest Hemingway died in 1961 but that didn’t stop him pumping out product for the next 50 years. Only Jimi Hendrix’s estate was busier. In 1985-1986, Hemingway fans had three new books to choose from, a novel, a collection of early articles, and a late-in-life memoir.

Imagine how thrilling it must have been to learn the memoir detailed Hemingway’s rediscovery of bullfighting and the land which spawned it, Spain? Together, these are key ingredients in two of Papa’s most beloved works, The Sun Also Rises and Death In The Afternoon. What could possibly be wrong?

Nothing, so long as the reader doesn’t expect the same kind of transportive experience. The Dangerous Summer mostly delivers the goods, a summer highlighted by a pair of brilliant matadors. It manages to be straightforward, amusing, piquant, and somewhat dull.

Death In The Afternoon – Ernest Hemingway, 1932 ★★★★

Baedeker of Blood

Imagine the life of a Spanish bullfighter, circa 1931. You risk life and limb in an era before modern medicine can treat your worst injuries or video can immortalize your finest kills. There’s a depression on, civil war looming and a fanbase that tends to throw things at you when annoyed.

Now add to all this pain some know-it-all American who wants to immortalize you by calling the world’s attentions on your shabby technique in the ring, your homely face, and even your lack of courage at doing something no sane person would try.

Iberia: Spanish Travels And Reflections – James A. Michener, 1968 ★★★★½

Stuffing an Entire Nation into One Big Book

James Michener was known for producing doorstopper tomes, phone-book sized novels that spanned decades and generations while taxing reader attention spans to the limit. But sometimes bigness is a virtue, as with this memoir of his travels around Spain.

Spain may get ignored by many, including me, when considering the sweep of Western civilization. Then I think on this: In 1966, while Michener was in Spain gathering material for this delightful book, Sergio Leone was there directing The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly and John Lennon was there writing “Strawberry Fields Forever.”

Don Quixote – Miguel de Cervantes, 1605-15 ★½

Trudging Through a Classic

The book wore me out long before it reached its merciful conclusion, its rambling narrative and repetitive prose making each of its more than a thousand pages like another millstone against my soul. 

And the worst part? All my long nights of reading, I carried with me the guilt I should be enjoying this.

Who am I not to admire Don Quixote?