Hemingway's Chair

Michael Palin

ISBN 10: 1860219446 ISBN 13: 9781860219443

Synopsis

Martin Sproale is an assistant postmaster obsessed with Ernest Hemingway. Martin lives in a small English village, where he studies his hero and putters about harmlessly--until an ambitious outsider, Nick Marshall, is appointed postmaster instead of Martin. Slick and self-assured, Nick steals Martin's girlfriend and decides to modernize the friendly local office by firing dedicated but elderly employees and privatizing the business. Suddenly, gentle Martin is faced with a choice: meedly accept defeat as he always has, or fight for what he believes in, as his hero, Hemingway, would.

Filled with Michael Palin's trademark wit and good humor, this novel is for anyone who has ever dreamed of triumphing over the technocrats and backstabbers of the world. Hilarious, touching, and ultimately inspirational, Hemingway's Chair will make readers stand up and cheer.

About this title

About the Author

Michael Palin was a lifelong (so far) member of Monty Python.

Reviews

The Monty Python veteran's debut novel is a slight but engaging oddity: an affectionate portrait of a shy and disappointed man who's obsessed with Ernest Hemingway. Pale, rash-prone Martin Sproale has worked at the Theston post office for the past 16 years. He maintains a chaste flirtation with his colleague Elaine, and is unfailingly polite to the eccentrics and busy-bodies who swarm in on a daily basis. The only question is: When will his boss retire, leaving Martin to ascend to the coveted position of Postmaster? While he waits, Martin comforts himself by nursing his quasi-secret obsession: He devours biographies of his hero, savors trivia, packs his room with Hemingway memorabilia. But Martin's staid routine gets shaken. His professional ambitions are dashed when a young man from central headquarters is sent to manage his post office. And another Hemingway enthusiast arrives in his somnolent seaside town: Ruth Kohler, on sabbatical from a New Jersey university, is holed up at a local farmhouse, writing a book about Hemingways women. The work situation rapidly degenerates: The new boss is keen on modernization, and indifferent to the role that the post office has traditionally played in the community. Longtime clerks are fired, computers are installed, finally the office itself is moved out of its grand headquarters and into the back room of a candy shop. Martin's only consolation is the attractive scholar: The two of them drink grappa, argue over the relative merits of the master's works, and get down to some serious flirtation. Egged on by Ruth, Martin attempts to organize resistance to the post office changes, and is unceremoniously fired. Boozy rampages, manic schemes, and some self-discovery ensue as the timid postal clerk gets in touch with his inner Ernest. The pairing of gentle satire and dead-on description of raw human pain is a bit disconcerting, but in all, Palin offers a lively, if slight, ride to nowhere in particular. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Is there anything that Michael Palin can't do? Now, with Hemingway's Chair, he's produced an engaging and accomplished first novel. It makes you wonder when we'll be hearing the premiere of Palin's First Symphony.... His book is well paced, his prose carefully hewn, his characters fully developed and convincingly human. And his comic timing is impeccable.... in a couple of late scenes ... the book begins to exude the first faint whiffs of amateurish excess. But Palin ultimately manages to retain our sympathies, if not our unqualified belief.

With apologies to the late Tip O'Neill, it could be said that all humor is local. Palin is best known for his work as a member of Monty Python's Flying Circus, the comedy troupe that poked fun at quaint English customs with a subtle humor Americans enjoyed but probably did not fully understand. Palin serves up much of the same in this light but entertaining first novel about Martin Sproale, a postal worker in a small seaside town trying to save his beloved post office from the ravaging forces of modernization, technology, Thatcherite greed, and the European Union. Sproale strives to emulate his hero, Ernest Hemingway, trying to transform himself into the contumacious American writer to battle the novel's corporate villains. An American Hemingway scholar writing in England feeds his obsession and encourages him in his struggle, culminating in a very Pythonesque denouement. Hemingway is well crafted and witty, but the personalities and peculiarities in this humorous portrait of small-town English life lose some of their context on this side of the Atlantic. Ted Leventhal

Edition details

• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1860219446
• ISBN 13: 9781860219443
• Binding: Audio Cassette