In early December 1922, Ernest Hemingway was in
Switzerland on assignment as a correspondent for the Toronto Daily Star,
covering the Lausanne Peace Conference. The journalist and editor Lincoln
Steffens was also there. Apparently, Steffens was impressed with Hemingway’s
writing and asked to see more.
Hemingway cabled his wife, Hadley in Paris and asked her
to bring all of his writings to Switzerland. She quickly packed all of his
fiction and poetry, including carbon copies that she could find and hurried off
to Gare de Lyon train station. At the station, she got a porter to carry her
luggage to the train compartment. During the very brief period when the bags
were out of sight, the valise with the manuscripts was stolen.
So what did the thief do with the valise once he realized
it only contained the scribblings of an unknown writer? Did he throw it into
the Seine? Burn them? Hide them away in an attic? Or is there a more
provocative and unforeseen twist? Of course, this is one of literatures great
mysteries, these lost manuscripts of one of America’s greatest authors that
today would be worth more than their weight in gold.
But what if they did survive? Shaun Harris tackles this
literary “what if” in his debut novel The Hemingway Thief.
Henry “Coop” Cooper is a successful but discontented
romance novelist who is questioning the trajectory of his career. He yearns to
become a serious writer and is in need of a jumpstart that will propel his
literary credibility.
To clear his mind he’s taken refuge at a low budget beach
resort in Baja, Mexico, where he befriends the motel’s eccentric owner, Grady
Doyle. The duo soon become entangled in a deadly escapade involving the theft
of Ernest Hemingway’s original manuscript to A Moveable Feast, a rare piece of
literary history that reveals provocative and unpublished clues to the possible
location of a suitcase which contains a treasure trove of the author’s early
unpublished works that were stolen in 1922.
In this suspense filled and surprisingly humorous novel
of cat and mouse, Coop and company trek across the cartel-laden Sierra Madre in
a ramshackle RV in search of Hemingway’s fabled suitcase, finding themselves
out of their element at every turn. For Coop this experience could become the
storyline of a book of a lifetime . . . that is if he can live long enough to
write it.
On a whole the plot construction of this
south-of-the-border historical themed thriller was a little silly and
occasionally confusing, although it most certainly was not predictable, which
is always a pleasant surprise with a debut novel.
The story is filled with stereotypical crime thriller
type characters, which is not a bad thing. The overall tone of sarcasm of the
good guy protagonists Coop, Grady, and their cohorts (who are always ready with
a witty wisecrack), reveal them to be more smart alecky than tough guys was a
little bit over the top. Many readers will find the bloodthirstiness of
antagonist, Newton Thandy, a conman, gunrunner, and rare book collector to be
particularly unique and entertaining given that these “vocations” normally
don’t coexist.
On a whole the narrative moves swiftly along and is
filled with numerous comical and poignant pop culture references. The premise
of the book is quite exceptional, a blend of literary history and suspense,
mixed with a pinch of comedy, buddy adventure, and crime thriller. Overall, The
Hemingway Thief is a quick and worthwhile read for anyone interested in an
amusing crime thriller or anything relating to Ernest Hemingway.
Michael Thomas Barry's most recent book is In the Company of Evil: Thirty Years of California Crime, 1950–1980. He is the author of six other nonfiction books and is a columnist for CrimeMagazine.com.
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