The Bookworm: True at First Light

True at First Light by Ernest Hemingway. 319 pages. Simon & Schuster. 1999.

You cannot describe a wild lion’s roar. You can only say that you listened and the lion roared. It is not at all like the noise the lion makes at the start of Metro Goldwyn Mayer pictures. When you hear it you first feel it in your scrotum and it runs all the way up through your body.

Riding the bus was good for saving money, reducing oil consumption (however minutely one man can do that), and tearing through books. But since returning to Iowa City I no longer need to ride the bus, or even drive, to work since my bedroom now doubles as my office. However, I’m trying to figure out a way to imitate riding the bus in the morning. I think the best way to work from home is to maintain a schedule as if I still needed to commute (I hate that word), and I’m in the process of working that out. Reading “on the bus” will no doubt be incorporated.

Shamefully, True at First Light is the last of my Christmas haul. It is also the last Hemingway book I will read for the foreseeable future. After also having reread his novel trifecta, I need to put Papa down for a while.

True was posthumously published in 1999. It was edited and finished by Patrick Hemingway, one of Papa’s sons. In his short introduction, Patrick wrote that he carved the book out of a 200,000-word untitled manuscript, which I assume is no small feat. (To me, writing 200,000 words is no small feat.) It is, as labeled by the cover, a “fictional memoir” of the 1953 African safari Hemingway took in Kenya. It was his last safari and Patrick was there for at least part of it. Except for a few mentions, though, Patrick made no appearances in the book and I wonder if the few references to him were inserted later. Hemingway was a father figure to many, but I don’t know how good of a father he was to his own children.

Unlike Hemingway’s first safari memoir, Green Hills of Africa, True focuses less on the animals and landscape and more on the members of the camp and the inevitable mini dramas that play out. It was A Moveable Feast in Africa. Hemingway and his fifth wife, Mary, hunt, but their quest for meat and game trophies is used more to highlight a growing tension between them. Mary patiently and eagerly hunts a certain lion — “her” lion — but Hemingway, the well-seasoned and knowledgeable hunter, is always looking over her shoulder and telling her what to do. This irritates her to no end and creates a lot of friction. Though I’m uncertain if something similar happened during the real safari, Hemingway’s emphasis on the marital feuding is a fictional element of the book. Although I appreciate the crafting, I was really bored by their little tiff.

Another tedious point of contention was the odd situation with Debba, a young Masai (?) woman who was considered Hemingway’s fiancée. Hemingway is playfully courting this teen girl, who he may or may not have had sex with, for whatever reason. She has plastered the room in her family’s small farmhouse with color spreads of movie stars and royalty, as well as ads for washing machines and thick cuts of meat, from American and English magazines. Debba is smitten with Hemingway, and he tries as best he can to obey tribal laws and be courteous to her parents, who hover like hawks over this shameful courtship. It works symbolically — the white man comes to Africa and corrupts the culture no matter how honorable his intentions — but the whole thing was annoying and sick. I dreaded the scenes with Debba.

Nevertheless, True was still a good book. Hemingway’s beautiful but trip-hazard prose was intact, but I don’t think True featured the careful fine-tuning it would have had had the author finished it himself. There was more than one minor continuity issue, but I think those were overlooked for the fact anything of Hemingway’s is an instant cash cow.

Unexpectedly, True piqued my interest as a beer nut. Hemingway and crew drank a lot of Tusker, a Kenyan lager. Toward the end of the book it seemed like one bottle was being passed between Papa and his African “brothers” at all times. Tusker was enjoyed at night around a dying campfire and for breakfast or at first light when the day’s first hunt began. I obviously became very curious about Tusker and was able to get a bottle at Dirty John’s. A tasting is scheduled tonight.

Overall, True pales in comparison to Green Hills of Africa, but I think it is still a worthwhile read. True embodies this Hemingway writing philosophy quoted in the “Cast of Characters” in the back of the book:

As he once remarked to his third wife, Martha Gellhorn, “We’re just sitting cross-legged in a bazaar and if people aren’t interested in what we’re saying they’ll go away.”

Cool new words I learned: All definitions courtesy of my MacBook dictionary. Suttee: “the former Hindu practice of a widow immolating herself on her husband's funeral pyre.” Suppurate: “undergo the formation of pus; fester.” Impudent: “not showing due respect for another person.” Chit: “a short official note, memorandum, or voucher, typically recording a sum owed.” Farrier: “a craftsman who trims and shoes horses’ hooves.” Miscegenation: “the interbreeding of people considered to be of different racial types.” Unguent: “a soft greasy or viscous substance used as an ointment or for lubrication.” Grog (as in The Grog Shop, a liquor store in Santa Cruz): “spirits (originally rum) mixed with water.” Purdah: “the practice among women in certain Muslim and Hindu societies of living in a separate room or behind a curtain, or of dressing in all-enveloping clothes, in order to stay out of the sight of men or strangers.” Palliative: “(of a treatment or medicine) relieving pain or alleviating a problem without dealing with the underlying cause.” Watchword: “a word or phrase expressing a person's or group's core aim or belief.” Hasp: “a slotted hinged metal plate that forms part of a fastening for a door or lid and is fitted over a metal loop and secured by a pin or padlock.” Profligate: “recklessly extravagant or wasteful in the use of resources.” Malefactor: “a person who commits a crime or some other wrong.” Inimitable: “so good or unusual as to be impossible to copy; unique.” Expiate: “atone for (guilt or sin).”