The importance of being Ernest

John Hemingway was just 11 months old when his grandfather - writer Ernest Hemingway - passed away. Yet, the Nobel laureate has been an invisible presence in his life - a man he knows intimately, and yet does not! "When I was young, my father would hardly ever talk about him. It wasn't much of a problem then because I would never ask about him either. It was only when I turned 10 that people started telling me, 'You know you have a really famous last name.'"
Having a Hemingway surname - for a considerable part of John's life - has not only meant basking in the intellectual capital he has inherited, but also reading between the lines his grandfather wrote to understand the man beneath the author. The purpose of this endeavour has also been to understand Ernest Hemingway's relationship with his third son and John's father, Gregory. It is said that the two had a tumultuous relationship where Ernest did not approve of Greg's way of life. Their estrangement, along with Gregory's struggle with mental illness, forms the crux of John's memoir, Strange Tribe, excerpts from which will be discussed this week during a session at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature.
In popular culture, Ernest Hemingway's name has also come to be associated with a sense of machismo - the ultimate lover, the ultimate hunter, the ultimate man. John's writings have often inspected this notion. The real challenge for him has been to reconcile the 'greatness' of Ernest the writer with the 'flawed' man that existed underneath. "The conflict for me was that the image people had of him was different from the reality I was living with as a member of the Hemingway family. None of us doubted his greatness as a writer, but many of us knew he was much more complicated as a person. There was something else out there waiting to be examined," he says.
Defining that 'something else' has been a bit of a tightrope walk for John. For one, a number of books have already been written, dissecting one of the 20th century's most fascinating literary heavyweights. Two, John's primary sources have been family members and close associates who have been heavily in awe of Ernest's stature as a writer. This is evident in the many small anecdotes John brings up during the course of our conversation. For instance, he remembers how his Uncle Leicester (Ernest's younger brother, who was said to be close to him) would tell him that a book like For Whom The Bell Tolls was "written for guys like you". Or the other time, when writer Norman Mailer, Ernest's archrival who went on to become a close friend of Gregory's, said his grandfather was a great stylist of the English language.
But understanding his literary associations and the meanings Ernest drew out of them also helped John draw an intimate portrait of his grandfather. For instance, he contends that Ernest's mentor Gertrude Stein may have played an even more integral role in shaping the gender dynamics in his works than she is credited with. "My grandfather was interested in the idea of a possible unification of male and female and, as a result, he was always exploring how it might be possible for them to become one. Ernest was Gertrude's greatest student. He received a tremendous amount of her personality and style." The influence was so deep that John remembers a time when his ex-wife confused his writing for Gertrude Stein's. "This is part of the complexity of the man - he was macho but also sensitive and cognizant. He believed you couldn't be a man unless you had incorporated the feminine side to yourself. This is my personal belief. This may have also compelled him to write short stories that addressed gender differences and gender bending. Just think what may have exactly compelled him to write The Sun Also Rises, where the main character is that of a woman whereas the man is emasculated."
In the initial years when John himself was trying to find his feet as a writer, he was well aware that his own writings would be inevitably compared to that of his illustrious family. "When you finally start writing the way you are meant to write, you discover your voice; then you understand that this is the only way you can write. And that's a relief."
Like his grandfather, he too has lived in various parts of the world - Italy, Spain and now Canada. The decision to move to Italy was propelled by the need to move away from his own family and the problems that arose due to his parents' mental illnesses (his father Gregory was bipolar, while his mother had schizophrenia). "I was angry at my mom and dad. It took me a long time to create the kind of stability I wanted. That meant looking at what had happened and forgiving those people. Also, when you become a parent, you are no longer just a son complaining about your father; you are in his shoes. You begin to realise that it must have been much more difficult for them." Living outside America also helped him understand what being American is all about. "When you learn another language, it gives you another mind; language itself is another way of looking at things. It is a historical collection of impressions on everything - food, landscape, relationships. That sharpens your sense of who you are. I was an American; I am no longer that because I have acquired this other culture."
Wrapping up, we ask him if he and his father ever sat down to discuss Ernest's writings. "Later in life, he would talk about him (but only about his writing) because I was a budding writer. He'd joke, 'Well you know, John, your grandfather was a great writer. But when he wrote something bad, it was really bad'."
(John Hemingway's session at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature will take place on March 3 and 4. For more information, log on to www.emirateslitfest.com.)
anamika@khaleejtimes.com

• People