Review by Choice Review
Starting with Linda Wagner's early study Hemingway and Faulkner: Inventors/Masters (1975), many considerations of these writers and their texts have appeared in briefer form in various venues. This is the first book devoted to both the biographical relations of the writers and the interrelations of their writings, nonfiction and fiction. Fruscione (Georgetown and George Washington Univ.) draws on correspondence recently made available in The Ernest Hemingway Collection at Boston's John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. This long-overdue book provides a balanced developmental examination of the writers' personal relations and the corresponding books on a decade-by-decade basis. The new sources, harnessed with the older ones, indicate that the relationship of Faulkner and Hemingway was more intense than most readers have realized. For example, in the salutation of a letter to Hemingway, Faulkner refers to Hemingway as "Brother," which is significant because that was the term of address Faulkner wished his nephew Jimmy Faulkner to use for him. But Hemingway's letters referring to Faulkner mix hostility, jealousy, and respect. Fruscione addresses in detail the shared influences, phrases, and images apparent in the two men's fiction. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers. T. Bonner Jr. emeritus, Xavier University of Louisiana
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
