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In True at First Light the glory days of the "great white hunters" are over and the Mau Mau rebellion is violently dislodging European farmers from Kenya's arable lands. But to the African gun bearers, drivers, and game scouts who run his safari in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro, Hemingway remains a lordly figure--almost a god. Two parallel quests propel the narrative: Mary, Hemingway's fourth and last wife, doggedly stalks an enormous black-maned lion that she is determined to kill by Christmas, while Hemingway becomes increasingly obsessed with Debba, a beautiful young African woman. What makes the novel especially strange and compelling is that Mary knows all about Debba and accepts her as a "supplementary wife," even as she loses no opportunity to rake her husband over the coals for his drinking, lack of discipline in camp, and condescending protectiveness.
As usual with Hemingway, atmosphere and attitude are far more important than plot. Mary at one point berates her husband as a "conscience-ridden murderer", but this is precisely the moral stance that gives the hunting scenes their tension and beauty. "I was happy that before he died he had lain on the high yellow rounded mound with his tail down", Hemingway writes of "Mary's lion", "and his great paws comfortable before him and looked off across his country to the blue forest and the high white snows of the big Mountain."
Passages like these--and there are many of them-- redeem the book's rambling structure and occasional lapses into self- indulgent posturing. Joan Didion dismissed True at First Light in The New Yorker as "words set down but not yet written", but this fails to acknowledge the power of these words. The value of True at First Light lies in its candour, its nakedness: it provides a rare opportunity to watch a master working his way toward art. --David Laskin
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Book Description Hardback. Condition: Very Good. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # GOR002442791
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Book Description hardcover. Condition: Good. Book is in good condition. Slight discolouration to the pages. Unclipped dust jacket. Seller Inventory # G0239134
Book Description First U.K. Edition. Fine cloth copy in an equally fine dw, now mylar sleeved. Particularly and surprisingly well-preserved; tight, bright, clean and especially sharp-cornered. Copy is not price-clipped. Physical description: 319p. ; 24 cm. Notes: Includes Swahili glossary. Summary: The fictionlised account of Ernest Hemingway's time living and hunting in Kenya. Written when Hemingway returned from his 1953 safari, but only recently edited by his son Patrick, True at First Light is a rich blend of autobiography and fiction, a breathtaking final work from one of this century's most beloved and important writers. Subject: Big game hunting - Kenya - Fiction. Autobiographical fiction. Kenya - Fiction. Modern fiction. FICTION / General. Other names: Hemingway, Patrick. Genre: Autobiographical fiction. 1 Kg. Seller Inventory # 229082
Book Description hardback with dustjacket. Condition: Namestamp on half title. A fictional memoir of an African safari based on a manuscript edited by the author's son. The action centers on wife Mary's desire to kill a lion and her jealousy of a beautiful African woman Hemingway is eyeing. Seller Inventory # 19255432
Book Description Paperback. Condition: Very Good. First Edition. Pre-Publication, First Edition. The wraps are a little shelf rubbed. Internally, there are no markings or inscriptions, and the pages are immaculately clean and complete. The binding is excellent. GK. Our orders are shipped using tracked courier delivery services. Seller Inventory # 6pkhq