false 272169 13 A quiet, unassuming postman develops an unexpected obsession in this quiet, unassuming--and very English--first novel from Michael Palin of Monty Python fame. Martin Sproale is the very model of a modern Walter Mitty. An assistant postmaster in the coastal town of Threston, he lives at home with his mother and rides his bicycle to work each day. It's a pleasant but uneventful sort of life, marked only by Martin's growing fascination with the life, works, and personal style of Ernest Hemingway. "Tea-drinkers, mothers, post office administrators, would-be fiancées. Little people with little minds," Martin thinks. "When would they realise that only through confrontation with danger could life be lived to the full?" Martin has transformed his room into a kind of Hemingway shrine, complete with bullfighting poster, several first editions, the same kind of typewriter Papa used--even a vintage WWI Italian army first-aid cabinet filled with all the liquors he liked to drink. <P> Two things happen to shatter Martin's equilibrium. First, a new, corporate-style postal manager takes the job that by rights should have been his, promptly beginning a campaign of privatization and modernization that threatens all Martin holds dear. Second, an American woman outbids him on Hemingway memorabilia; a scholar, "not a fan," of the writer, Ruth Kohler lives in seclusion nearby while she works on a book about the women in Hemingway's life. Martin and Ruth engage in some increasingly heated role-playing as the conflict over Threston's post office comes to a slow boil. Deprived of his position, his cozy world crashing down around him, Martin finds himself acting more like the he-man writer than he ever thought possible. Palin's debut is in some ways a surprise: poignant rather than funny, skillfully paced and couched in workmanlike but hardly spectacular prose. Readers expecting Pythonesque absurdity might find themselves disappointed--but only at first; with patience, this book unfolds its more subtle pleasures with understated aplomb. 1357973 1995 Hemingway's Chair total:194|5:17|4:66|3:80|2:25|1:6| 194 645 282 23 3 0 false false Sun Dec 07 11:38:15 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 07 11:39:03 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Dec 23 20:56:39 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 29 20:28:34 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2000 Sat Mar 29 22:52:12 -0700 2008 Sat Jun 07 10:20:11 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Feb 12 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sun Sep 23 07:52:23 -0700 2007 Tue Feb 12 13:11:07 -0800 2008 Written in 1995 but still relevant today ...more...]]> 4 0 true false Wed Jul 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 14 15:01:59 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 22 10:39:19 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Jan 25 05:06:14 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 25 07:26:09 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Fri Jun 19 21:40:38 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 16 14:43:24 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 19 21:40:38 -0700 2009 2 0 false false Sun Aug 05 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Jan 15 07:46:56 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 15 07:47:28 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Mon Aug 21 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Mon Apr 27 13:24:06 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 27 13:24:42 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Wed Mar 07 16:37:59 -0800 2007 Wed Mar 07 16:38:02 -0800 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Apr 13 11:35:53 -0700 2008 Sun Apr 13 11:36:37 -0700 2008 5 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Sun Sep 28 14:54:10 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 29 09:16:59 -0700 2008 2 0 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Nov 13 01:06:23 -0800 2007 Tue Nov 13 01:09:05 -0800 2007 4 0 false false Fri Aug 01 20:26:41 -0700 2008 Fri Aug 01 20:27:36 -0700 2008 3 0 false false Sun Apr 13 18:42:07 -0700 2008 Sun Apr 13 18:48:35 -0700 2008 1 0 false false Fri Feb 22 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Feb 24 15:20:47 -0800 2008 Sun Feb 24 15:22:10 -0800 2008 3 0 false false Mon Aug 04 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 29 09:38:06 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 04 16:50:24 -0700 2008 2 0 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2000 Sat Apr 05 11:38:46 -0700 2008 Sat Apr 05 11:41:51 -0700 2008 3 0 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Jul 07 18:30:22 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 07 18:30:39 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Sun Jan 13 05:54:36 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 13 05:54:51 -0800 2008 http://rantsravesreviews.homestead.com/H...
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