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.
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.
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.
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Used availability for Michael Palin's Hemingway's Chair
See all available used copies of this book at: Abebooks UK or Abebooks US
Hardback Editions
May 1998 : Hardback
| Title: Hemingway's Chair Author(s): Michael Palin ISBN: 0-312-18593-6 / 978-0-312-18593-0 (USA edition) Publisher: St Martins Pr Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
January 1997 : Hardback
| Title: Hemingway's Chair Author(s): Michael Palin ISBN: 1-86021-866-0 / 9781860218668 (UK edition) Publisher: Random House Audiobooks Availability: Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
January 1996 : Hardback
| Title: Hemingway's Chair (Windsor Selections S.) Author(s): Michael Palin ISBN: 0-7451-7916-9 / 978-0-7451-7916-2 (UK edition) Publisher: Chivers P. Availability: Amazon UK More details... |
April 1995 : Hardback
| Title: Hemingway S Chair Export/airports Author(s): Michael Palin ISBN: 0-413-69460-7 / 978-0-413-69460-7 (UK edition) Publisher: Methuen Publishing Ltd Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
April 1995 : Hardback
| Title: Hemingway's Chair Author(s): Michael Palin ISBN: 0-413-68930-1 / 978-0-413-68930-6 (UK edition) Publisher: Methuen Publishing Ltd Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
1988 : Hardback
| Title: Hemingway's Chair Author(s): Michael Palin Publisher: St Marftins Availability: Amazon More details... |
Paperback Editions
June 1999 : Paperback
| Title: Hemingway's Chair Author(s): Michael Palin ISBN: 0-312-20550-3 / 978-0-312-20550-8 (USA edition) Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
1998 : Paperback
| Title: Hemingway's Chair Author(s): Michael Palin Publisher: St Martins Pr Availability: Amazon More details... |
September 1996 : Paperback
| Title: Hemingway's Chair (Paragon Softcover Large Print Books) Author(s): Michael Palin ISBN: 0-7451-3736-9 / 978-0-7451-3736-0 (UK edition) Publisher: Zero to Ten Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
April 1996 : Paperback
| Title: Hemingway's Chair 3d Shelf Talker Author(s): Michael Palin ISBN: 0-7493-5446-1 / 978-0-7493-5446-6 (UK edition) Publisher: Arrow Books Ltd Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
April 1996 : Paperback
| Title: Hemingway's Chair Display Author(s): Michael Palin ISBN: 0-7493-5451-8 / 978-0-7493-5451-0 (UK edition) Publisher: Arrow Books Ltd Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
April 1996 : Paperback
| Title: Hemingway's Chair Author(s): Michael Palin ISBN: 0-09-942792-3 / 978-0-09-942792-6 (UK edition) Publisher: Arrow Books Ltd Availability: Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
April 1996 : Paperback
| Title: Hemingway's Chair Author(s): Michael Palin ISBN: 0-7493-1930-5 / 978-0-7493-1930-4 (UK edition) Publisher: Mandarin Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
November 1995 : Paperback
| Title: Hemingway's Chair Author(s): Michael Palin ISBN: 0-413-70130-1 / 978-0-413-70130-5 (UK edition) Publisher: Methuen Publishing Ltd Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
Audio Editions
April 1995 : Audio Cassette
| Title: Hemingway's Chair (Reed Audio) Author(s): Michael Palin ISBN: 1-86021-944-6 / 9781860219443 (UK edition) Publisher: Random House Audiobooks Availability: Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
Other Editions
1999 : Unknown
| Title: Hemingway's Chair (Paperback) Author(s): Michael Palin (Author) Availability: Amazon More details... |
1996 : Unknown
| Title: Hemingway's Chair Author(s): Publisher: Mandarin Availability: Amazon UK More details... |
1996 : Unknown
| Title: Hemingway's Chair Author(s): Michael Palin Publisher: Mandarin Availability: Amazon Amazon CA More details... |
Unknown
| Title: Hemingway's Chair 10 " Display Author(s): Michael Palin ISBN: 0-7493-5456-9 / 978-0-7493-5456-5 (UK edition) Publisher: Arrow Availability: Amazon Amazon UK More details... |
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