Hemingway: The American Homecoming

This third volume in Reynolds's biography deals with the 25-month period of Hemingway's life beginning in March 1926, which saw the breakup of his marriage to his first wife, Hadley; the publication of The Sun Also Rises and his emergence from Left Bank obscurity to the status of Paris celebrity; and his marriage to Pauline Pfeiffer and the couple's return to the U.S. for the birth of his second son, Patrick. Especially interesting is the coverage of the writing of A Farewell To Arms after a never-finished novel Hemingway had put aside with 30,000 words completed. Together with the preceding two volumes, The Young Hemingway and The Paris Years, Reynolds has devoted some 826 text pages to bring his subject to within three months of his 30th birthday. His leisurely presentation is rich in detail and rendered with an accomplished narrative touch. More than any of the other biographers, Reynolds provides readers with a sense of what the ``becoming'' Hemingway was like and how he used his life to create his art. Photos not seen by PW. (Dec.)