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Rating: 
Summary: A Comprehensive and Fair Assessment of Hemingway
Review: Anyone who has read Hemingway extensively has a general idea of his life, as he wrote in a very autobiographical (albeit slanted) stlye. However, for anyone wanting a fair, unflinching review of the author's life, including his loves, his clashes with friends and reviewers, and his frustrating decline as a writer, I encourage them to read Mellow's excellent biography.Mellow is clearly a fan of Hemingway's, but at the same time he provides a very even-handed and thorough account of the author's many personal vendettas, his sometimes boorish and insensitive behavior, and his failed relationships with his wives while at the same time providing glimpses into the autobiographical aspects of many of Hem's works. I became much more interested in Hemingway's excellent short stories after reading Mellow's book, which refers to them extensively. We meet Gertrude Stein, Alice Toklas, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gerald Murphy, and other Hemingway friends and aquiantances in vivid detail. I also was particularly impressed with the biography's epiphanous ending, as Hemingway took his life in Ketchum Idaho in 1961 with a self-inflicted shotgun blast. All in all, this is an excellent, concise, very readable biography which should be must reading for all fans of Hemingway's writing.
Rating: 
Summary: don't do it
Review: I was quite disappointed with this book. The author divides his time between 1) relating events of Hem's life (ok), 2) attacking Hem's character and endlessly trying to prove he was gay (?), and 3) attempts at 'literary criticism' of Hem's work (bad). Almost from the outset, I got the feeling James Mellow didn't understand much about Hemingway's stories. His criticisms seemed trite or misguided. But when I got to page 521 I was quite sure he understood very little indeed. Summarizing For Whom The Bell Tolls, he writes, "Robert Jordan, on the last night before the dynamiting of the bridge, is forced to write his letter to General Golz suggesting that the attack be called off because of Pablo's treachery and the destruction of El Sordo's guerrilla band." Evidently Mr. Mellow didn't read the part where Jordan observes the enemy's massive defensive buildup just prior to the 'surprise offensive', which would render the offensive useless and costly. We're talking about a major troop movement with thousands of pieces of equipment, where El Sordo's band figures little, and it is beyond me to understand how this understanding of the situation could be lost on the critic / biographer. I was glad to read the basic outline of Hemingway's life story, but didn't care for the sermonizing judgements of Hem's lifestyle and weak criticisms of his work.
Rating: 
Summary: a must-read for anyone interested in Hemingway
Review: I'm a huge Hemingway fan. Both in terms of his life - which was truly one of the more interesting and fascinating lives of any author I can think of - and his writing.
In my opinion, this book ranks #2 in Hemingway bios, behing the very detailed and fantastic series (5 books, I believe) on Hemingway that Michael Reynolds has written. Since Reynolds' series is so thorough, I was a little hesitant to read the Mellow book. However, I was very pleasantly surprised to find a lot of info that Reynolds chose to leave out of his books. Nothing major...but some interesting tidbits nonetheless. It sort of filled in the cracks for me. I would agree with a previous poster that Mellow seemed to blow right over some of the details about Hemingway's relationships with his wives....Pauline, in particular. It seemed to me that he didn't give sufficient attention to the breakup of his marriage to her....it just gets rushed through, and then Pauline vanishes with little mention of her again. In fact, the whole final part of the book felt a little rushed. It seemed like the post-WWII years were covered very quickly in the book. In general though, I enjoyed this bio very much. I would recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about Hemingway. Many of the older ones on him have been exposed as containing numerous major factual errors....probably Hemingway's fault as much the author(s). Mellow's is the best one-book treatment of Hemingway I have read. If you have time, check out Reynolds' series....which is the king of the heap, in my opinion.
But if you want it all in one book, go with this one.
Rating:
Summary: A good intro to Hemingway
Review: James Mellow should be applauded for the way he harmonizes Hemingway's stories and Hemingway's life. After all, Hemingway did write with a highly autobiographical slant, and by reading his fiction, one is able to travel alongside the famous writer as, for example, he travels with his father to the Indian Camp, as he lies wounded in an Italian hospital, as he leans on the rail of the bullfight arena and watches horses get gored by bulls, etc, etc. I took my time reading this massive biography, and, simultaneously, I read each of Hemingway's stories (in the First Forty-nine) as I encountered them in the bio. This dual-reading allowed greater understanding of Hemingway the man and greater appreciation for Hemingway the writer. Compared to Kenneth Lynn's biography, Mellow's objective treatment is rather dull, but memorable overall. Read the last paragraph and enjoy the beauty of the language.
Rating:
Summary: Is as a literary biography should be....
Review: Mellow is a fan of Hemingway and perseverant, hard working, and knowledgeable about even the minutia of his subject matter. For the whole of a very readable biography, he is in constant dialogue with different texts: Hemingway's, family memoirs, diaries of his lovers, family photo albums. And in doing all of this, he disentangles a lot of cleverly woven strands woven together in the quest of one man toward greatness.... I can remember first reading Hemingway like six or so years ago when I was in high school and I hated him... could not understand why he did not understand why... the pointlessness of it all... Once, being forced to read 'A Room of One's Own' all of my disappointment in the man turned toward adulation; I still count Hemingway among my favorite authors.... and this book strengthens it..... Even if Hemingway were some no one whose books had never been things of legend, whose life had not been held in esteem even while he lived-- this would still be a remarkable book. I highly recommend it to anyone-- it is definately worth all the money you'll spend....
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