Featured Book: Hemingway and Faulkner in Their Time

Author: Earl Rovit & Arthur Waldhorn, editors.

Publisher: Continuum

Year Published: 2005

Type: Non-Fiction

Format / Pages: / 200 pages

Review:

For those jazz fans who love swing, Southern jazz, and the era where writers often-time lived what they wrote, then this remarkable book is for you!  Hemingway and Faulkner never met, but they were literary figures who helped shape social thought during their careers. The music, attitudes, and social mores are reflected in their novels.

What this book does is give the jazz audience a close look through the private and public gossip by fellow writers, peers, critics, and those who came into contact with these writers.  There is much humor here, too.  Hemingway and Faulkner were not beyond outrageous behavior.

Photographs, index, and biographical materials add to the enjoyment of this fine, well-written book.  Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises & Faulkner's Soldier's Pay were both published during 1926, each man won the Nobel Prize for Literature, and they died a year apart.  The commentary on the times, and how each author approached the topic of racism involving the American Negro (to employ the language of their times!) makes for fascinating reading.  Some of the writers who make comments on both men also make for fascinating reading.

A fine book, a fine look at the times Hemingway and Faulkner were living and writing in, as reflected in the comments of their contemporaries, and a sense of  honest humor make this an important reading experience.  Highly recommended.

Additional Information: Check it out @ Amazon.com

ISBN: 082641687

Reviewed by: Lee Prosser

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