The Garden of Eden in The Dusty Bookshelf

May 27, 2017 Anne (Booklady) Molinarolo rated it it was amazing

Shelves: classics, permanent-library, favorites, great-literary-fiction, read-around-world, spring-2017, anne-booklady-2017

In the Publisher's note, Charles A. Scribner writes that Mary Hemingway brought an overstuffed shopping bag into his office. In it were photocopies of (the now late) Ernest Hemingway's unpublished stories. Three works were longer. One of these was titled The Garden of Eden that Hem had been working on and off since 1946. His suicide in 1961 had left the manuscript partly finished. The first part that is now the published version of The Garden of Eden with minor edits to it. Scribner says that th In the Publisher's note, Charles A. Scribner writes that Mary Hemingway brought an overstuffed shopping bag into his office. In it were photocopies of (the now late) Ernest Hemingway's unpublished stories. Three works were longer. One of these was titled The Garden of Eden that Hem had been working on and off since 1946. His suicide in 1961 had left the manuscript partly finished. The first part that is now the published version of The Garden of Eden with minor edits to it. Scribner says that the 2nd Part was incomplete, which in my opinion is truly sad and unfortunate. I really wanted to see how Papa would have ended David, Catherine, and Marita's story. I have an idea (as I did with Gone with the Wind) as to what the ending might have been, but we'll truly never know. Ernest Hemingway always surprises me as a reader.

And this gem is no different. Hem delivers a character study, a diagnosis of a troubled marriage. A troubled marriage because Catherine Bourne is selfish, and jealous of her husband's writing - it take time away from her. She wants to change David and she does even before she introduces and inserts Marita into their world.

"When you start to live outside yourself," Catherine said, "it's all dangerous. Maybe I'd better go back into our world, your and my world that I made up; we made up I mean. I was a great success in that world. It was only four weeks ago. I think maybe I will be again."

She isn't. She makes a mockery of that world. She detests David's success. She hates David's writings that aren't the narration he is supposed to be working on. She even tries to make both into a single image. Her image.

What David learns is that Catherine is struggling. Yes, she may drink too much, and perhaps her grip on reality isn't strong. His wife wants to be a boy. Catherine wants to have sex as a boy. But she also likes being a girl. Other reviewers believe that Catherine is struggling with her sexuality. She is Bi-sexual. That is most likely true, but I believe Catherine Bourne is struggling with her gender identity.

And David is comfortable in his own skin. He writes because he has to, just as Catherine has to be a boy at times, with an intensity that matches his wife's. As Catherine battles within herself, Marita becomes an object of Catherine's affection. Later, David falls for Marita too. But David Bourne has his own inner battle going on, and his extraneous writings reflect that battle.

Neither Catherine nor David truly understand the other and their world is shattered. Would their world still crumble around themselves had Marita not entered "into our world, your and my world that I made up; we made up I mean." Yes Catherine, most likely. ...more

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