Across the River and into the Trees
Ernest Hemingway

A Man, His Sentences – And here it is. Venice. Harry’s Bar. Duck hunting. The enchanting, young, beautiful Renata. The haunted old Colonel. And here Hemingway is, too: the Gran Maestro, spinning a tight, autobiographically inspired tale of two World Wars, lost love, and a soldier’s ruminations. And here they are, too – the Hemingway sentences: choppy, loopy, surprising, funny, bold, baffling; how much of this, one wonders, is signature style and how much is the dark aftereffect of dual concussions plus a lifetime of booze and battles? The words and phrases and scenes echo off one another, time folds and expands with layered memories, along the way Paris is remembered as a “moveable feast,” great myths are inspired. And it all mixes together perfectly, neatly, like a Campari bitters and Gordon’s Gin poured by Papa himself.