Welcome, May!
May 1, 2021
May blew into Southwestern Ontario this morning with a strong wind and beautiful sunshine, although I know it snowed overnight in some parts of the province. You all have my sympathies! I shouldn’t be surprised, and to be honest, I’m not. It’s not unheard of for us to have snow on the Victoria Day (May 24) long weekend here. Still, there’s lots of colour in the neighbourhood today, with daffodils, hyacinths, tulips and flowering trees in every shade of pink; and our lilac trees have sprouted tiny buds.
This week in one of my book-ish Facebook groups, a woman mentioned that she listens to audiobooks while walking. While it may seem obvious to some, this was an epiphany for me! Why hadn’t I considered this before? The poster said she had a rule that the particular audiobook she was listening to could only be enjoyed while walking. Well! I certainly needed motivation after this long Covid/Netflix winter, and perhaps this was it! I quickly figured out how to download audiobooks from the library, charged up my Bluetooth headphones, and headed out this afternoon for my inaugural audio-walk to Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter. (The Facebook poster also recommended thrillers, so that you are anxious to get walking and find out what happened!) Of course, my memory is not what it once was either, so I will need to walk regularly so as not to lose the storyline!
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I’ve always had a fascination with Ernest Hemingway, although (true confessions!), I’ve yet to read one of his books. I have seen El Floridita, the bar he frequented in Havana, Cuba, although I can’t recall why we didn’t go in. I read and very much enjoyed The Paris Wife, a novel by Paula McLain based on Hemingway’s marriage to Hadley Richardson, the first of his four wives. Hemingway in Love: His Own Story, by his longtime close friend and writer, A. E. Hotchner, is a compelling account of intimate conversations between the two, as Hemingway reflected on his life during a stay in a psychiatric hospital in 1961. A few weeks later, Hemingway was discharged from hospital and returned home, where he took his own life.
A recent article entitled Ernest Hemingway and Gender Fluidity, notes that although Hemingway had a reputation for hyper masculinity, he was in fact intrigued by homosexuality and the fluidity of gender roles and identity. This is not new, having first become apparent with the posthumous publication of his work Garden of Eden in 1986, and when read along with the diary and memoir of his fourth wife, Mary Welsh Hemingway. At that time, critics claimed that the author was pathological, deviant, and perverse. Although diverse expressions of sexuality are (slowly) becoming more accepted, according to literary scholar Valerie Rohy, Hemingway’s “macho reputation seems to license today’s critics to devalue his femininity, as if demonstrating their loyalty” to the author’s masculine image. The link to the article is here; it also links to Rohy’s paper Hemingway, Literalism, and Transgender Reading:
https://daily.jstor.org/ernest-hemingway-and-gender-fluidity/
Finally, for those who share my fascination, PBS recently aired “Hemingway,” a three-part documentary by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick (so far, I can only find it on IMDb for Canadian viewers). Details here: https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/hemingway/ and here is a link to an interview with the filmmakers: https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a35981284/ernest-hemingway-documentary-ken-burns-lynn-novick-interview/
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May 1 also marks the launch of the 2021 Festival of Literary Diversity (FOLD). Recognizing a need to celebrate authors and stories that are underrepresented in Canadian literature, Jael Richardson, the Toronto author of Gutter Child, founded the festival in 2014. Traditionally held in Brampton, Ontario, the event will take place virtually as it did last year, from May 1-15. Check out all it has to offer here: https://thefoldcanada.org/
And as if all of that wasn’t enough excitement for one day, I’m off to tune into the Kentucky Derby! Talk soon!