| ASANTE PAPA and the KEEWAYDIN WAY- - the Northwest Wind
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PRAISING PAPA AND THE LORD "It's hard to imagine Ernest Hemingway as a choir boy, |
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| Paul D. Hammersten, noted for his Native American art,has crafted a book," Asante Papa! ",that reclaims the much-married,heavy-drinking protagonist of American letters for the Christian fold. Hammersten shows us Hemingway as a little boy singing " Jesus Loves Me "(emphasis on the pronoun),in a Paris cafe' reading Bible passages out loud with John Dos Passos,and writing the familiar lines," We may need the baby Jesus. Never speak of Him with disrespect. " |
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 Paul D. Hammersten |
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| In Hammersten's view, Hemingway's quest for the perfect sentence was part and parcel of the human soul's search for ultimate truth and light. He agrees with those who see Hemingway's prose in a direct line of exalted decent from the King James Bible. Hammersten's jumping-off point for his book is the release of " True At First Light," the'fictional memoir'released in 1999 as Hemingway's last posthumously-published work. It mixes fact and fiction in describing his last safari to Africa. |
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 Papa and Mary on the birthday of the baby Jesus |
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| Hemingway's bookcontains a description of the central character shooting his old horse,whose hoof is split. His ability to express reverence for all living things-even when killing a few of them-is moving. Hammersten makes a leap of faith(not inappropriate for this ordained minister),and connects this moment to Hemingway's suicide by shotgun:"Papa,a lame man,doing what he believed best and doing the best he could,put himself down as he had his beloved pack horse." If you enjoy such speculation in the company of an enthusiast who is an artist himself,you'll find much to like about *Asante Papa!*." |
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 from PRAISING PAPA AND THE LORD by Edward F. Maroney |
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