Review: Hemingway's The Garden of Eden - A Summer of '24 Read

Reviewed by: Anthony Acker

I just finished reading Hemingway's The Garden of Eden. This was my first novel-length reading of Hemingway, and I absolutely loved it. This novel was his second book released posthumously and came out in 1986 to mixed reviews due to the editing of Hemingway's writing and how much was removed from the original manuscript. He began writing The Garden of Eden in 1946, and over the span of 15 years, he wrote 48 chapters, though it was left incomplete. The final release we have is 30 chapters, with 200,000 words cut down to 70,000. Despite this, I truly loved this novel.

In the book, we follow David and Catherine Bourne, newlyweds traveling through Spain as David writes his stories and book. Catherine, who comes from a wealthy, high-status family, has helped contribute financially to their trips and his writing, despite David bringing in decent money by his label. Catherine is a wild creature who likes to play with gender roles and is also quite moody and controlling, while David is laidback and tries to keep the peace within the story, doing his best to keep Catherine happy. They enjoy each other's sexuality and bodies more so than their personalities, constantly drinking and having verbal squabbles in between trips to the beach and meals at local cafes.

Catherine explores her sexuality and identity by role-playing as a boy, initially in the privacy of their relationship, but soon wanting to live publicly as a boy. She continually cuts her hair shorter, begins to tan darker, dresses more masculine in tailored slacks, and goes about the towns on her own. David enjoys this aspect of her at first, but she continually breaks her promises and begins to demand that David mimic her style. She has him bleach his hair the same shade as hers, get the same cuts, dress similarly, and even asks David to be her girl in the bedroom. Catherine continually moves the goalposts, and David sees no end to her desires to change.