Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
"Brimming, addictive . . . The Lost Generation is] restored to reckless youth in living black and white." Vanity Fair
Captivating, smartly written, and provocative. Glamour
"Masterfully told . . . Deeply evocative and perceptive, and every page has a Hemingway-like ring of unvarnished truth." Christian Science Monitor
Called magnificently reported (Gay Talese) and gloriously gossipy (Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan), this exhilarating trip back to 1920s Paris and Spain reveals how Hemingway helped create his own legend. In 1925, Hemingway and a volatile entourage attended Pamplona s running of the bulls. The trip became a maelstrom of drunken brawls, sexual rivalry, and midnight betrayals all of which Hemingway then spun into his groundbreaking novel The Sun Also Rises. This revolutionary work redefined modern literature and permanently haunted his peers. But the full story of Hemingway s legendary rise has remained untold until now. Blume s vivid account reveals the inner circle of the Lost Generation as we have never seen it before, and shows how the young, unknown Hemingway made himself into a death-courting bull-fighting aficionado; a hard-drinking, short-fused literary genius; and an expatriate bon vivant."
Synopsis
"Brimming, addictive . . . In Everybody Behaves Badly, the party has just begun and the taste of fame is still ripe . . . The Lost Generation is] restored to reckless youth in living black and white." -- James Wolcott, Vanity Fair
"An essential book . . . a page-turner. Blume combines the best aspects of critic, biographer and storyteller . . . and puts the results together with the skill of an accomplished novelist. This is] a complicated story, told masterfully." -- Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Magnificently reported." -- Gay Talese
In the summer of 1925, Ernest Hemingway traveled to Pamplona for the infamous running of the bulls. He then channeled that trip's drunken brawls, sexual rivalry, midnight betrayals, and midday hangovers into a novel that redefined modern literature. Lesley Blume tells the full story behind Hemingway's legendary rise for the first time, revealing how he created his own image as the bull-fighting aficionado, hard-drinking literary genius, and expatriate bon vivant. In all its youth, lust, and rivalry, the Lost Generation is illuminated here as never before.
"Engrossing . . . Drawing on journals, letters, and autobiographies of many members of the artistic circles in which Hemingway moved in the early 1920s, Blume shows how ruthlessly Hemingway betrayed his mentors, skewered his friends in his fiction, and sought to advance his career at all costs." -- Boston Globe
"Fascinating . . . compulsively readable." -- Houston Chronicle