Review of Hemingway's Daughter

[Ankisha Rana]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Hemingway's Daughter" by Christine M. Whitehead.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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A refreshing read. The main character, Finley Hemingway, is so authentic that I want to know more about her. The one person that doesn’t exist in reality, but is so real that you’d want to find her and meet her.

The famous novelist Ernest Hemingway's life, his family, and everything around him has always been talked about and written about, so you would not expect that there was something more to know about him. Despite this, the author was able to create someone who feels very close to him.

The book does go over Hemingway’s marriages, children, and bouts with alcohol and depression, but from the perspective of the central character. Taking in details of his life while not really focusing on them.

The author also highlighted the war and the disparity between men and women. It touched all the important issues yet stayed true to the characters.

Finely's drive was to build a career in law when no woman could, to find true love in life, and, finally, to feel like she mattered to her father. And in doing so, she experienced a plethora of emotions, and as readers, you are bound to feel that joy and pain with her. You'd want to hope so desperately that she gets all that.

The most heart-tugging part was Finley’s journey of discovering and understanding what love means. My favourites are the excerpts from her discussion with her father about that. They take you on a journey of self-evaluation. Without trying to teach any lessons, it was able to leave me with some amazing wisdom.

Even among the characters who are real, there is something unique about how they are portrayed. You feel strong sympathy for them as well. Having a Hemingway name was both a blessing and a hindrance, and the writer sure does bring that out in many instances.

Most incidents seem accurate, but where reality ends and fiction starts is what keeps you on edge. It makes you feel like you are alive in that era and are sitting amongst these very life-like characters.

It leaves you with so many open-ended thoughts that I am sure this reading experience will surely stay with me for a while. Kudos to the writer for giving me this perspective and so much more to think about.

I definitely give it 4 out of 4 for its uniqueness and the fact that I couldn't stop reading it.

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Hemingway's Daughter
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