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A review by saareman
Across the River and Into the Trees by Ernest Hemingway
3.0
A Cringey Death in Venice
Review of the Scribner’s Kindle eBook movie tie-in edition (February 1, 2024) of the Scribner’s hardcover original (1950).
I've read the cringey roman à clef of Across the River and Into the Trees several times without a review. When it came up as a Kindle Deal of the Day in May 2024 as part of the lead up to the expected 2024 release of the movie adaptation I decided to give it one more go. And I actually had a break-through this time.
It is still cringe of course, but I could understand what Hemingway was possibly doing. Perhaps you have heard of the practice of "mirroring"? It is when you are in conversation with someone and you adopt their method of speaking (i.e. you "mirror" them) due to thinking that a) they will better understand you, and b) that you create a bond of empathy with them. An example might be when you are speaking English with a non-native speaker and you start speaking a sort of broken English yourself.
Across... has post-WWII U.S. Army Colonel Richard Cantwell making a visit to Venice, Italy. He has been diagnosed with a fatal heart condition and wants to make a final trip to enjoy the city, his favoured Gritti Hotel and the company of his "best and last and only and one true love", the young Italian countess Renata. The cringe enters in several ways. At the Gritti the Colonel speaks with various hotel workers as if they were all part of a secret (but completely fictitious) society "El Ordine Militar, Nobile y Espirituoso de los Caballeros de Brusadelli" (Spanish: The Military, Noble and Spiritual Order of the Knights of Brusadelli). With Renata, the dialogue is a sort of mirrored baby talk, as Renata is not a native English speaker. The further cringe is that Cantwell is 50 years old and Renata is 18 (almost 19 as she says).
The front cover of the original Scribner’s hardcover edition. Cover art by Adriana Ivancich. Image sourced from Wikipedia.
It is still cringe, but I can at least understand that much of Cantwell's manner of speaking is a "mirroring" of the speech of the non-English speaking of the Italians he encounters. Even among the cringe, there is still some of the old Hemingway magic that will peek through at times:
“When people talk listen completely. Don’t be thinking what you’re going to say. Most people never listen.”
I wrote quite a bit about the roman à clef background to Across the River and Into the Trees when I reviewed Autumn in Venice: Ernest Hemingway and His Final Muse (2019), which was about the relationship between 49-year-old Hemingway and 18-year-old Adriana Ivancich (who was also the cover artist for the first hardcover edition, see above), so I won't repeat that here. Seeing the trailer for the movie adaptation, there is a chance that much of the cringe elements have been eliminated, so let us at least hope for that.
Poster for the movie adaptation. Image sourced from Tribune Pictures.
Trivia and Links
The film adaptation directed by Paula Ortiz is expected to be released in August 2024. It stars Liev Schreiber as Col. Richard Cantwell and Matilda De Angelis as Renata. There isn't an English language trailer yet, but you can turn on subtitles in all languages (under Settings, then Auto-Translate) at the Spanish language trailer here.
If you still have free reads or are a subscriber to The New Yorker, you can read the rather vicious parody that E.B. White wrote after Hemingway's novel which was titled Across the Street and Into the Grill from October 6, 1950.
Review of the Scribner’s Kindle eBook movie tie-in edition (February 1, 2024) of the Scribner’s hardcover original (1950).
"Jackson," he said. "Do you know what General Thomas J. Jackson said on one occasion? On the occasion of his unfortunate death. ... Then he said, 'No, no let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees.'"
I've read the cringey roman à clef of Across the River and Into the Trees several times without a review. When it came up as a Kindle Deal of the Day in May 2024 as part of the lead up to the expected 2024 release of the movie adaptation I decided to give it one more go. And I actually had a break-through this time.
It is still cringe of course, but I could understand what Hemingway was possibly doing. Perhaps you have heard of the practice of "mirroring"? It is when you are in conversation with someone and you adopt their method of speaking (i.e. you "mirror" them) due to thinking that a) they will better understand you, and b) that you create a bond of empathy with them. An example might be when you are speaking English with a non-native speaker and you start speaking a sort of broken English yourself.
Across... has post-WWII U.S. Army Colonel Richard Cantwell making a visit to Venice, Italy. He has been diagnosed with a fatal heart condition and wants to make a final trip to enjoy the city, his favoured Gritti Hotel and the company of his "best and last and only and one true love", the young Italian countess Renata. The cringe enters in several ways. At the Gritti the Colonel speaks with various hotel workers as if they were all part of a secret (but completely fictitious) society "El Ordine Militar, Nobile y Espirituoso de los Caballeros de Brusadelli" (Spanish: The Military, Noble and Spiritual Order of the Knights of Brusadelli). With Renata, the dialogue is a sort of mirrored baby talk, as Renata is not a native English speaker. The further cringe is that Cantwell is 50 years old and Renata is 18 (almost 19 as she says).
The front cover of the original Scribner’s hardcover edition. Cover art by Adriana Ivancich. Image sourced from Wikipedia.
It is still cringe, but I can at least understand that much of Cantwell's manner of speaking is a "mirroring" of the speech of the non-English speaking of the Italians he encounters. Even among the cringe, there is still some of the old Hemingway magic that will peek through at times:
I wrote quite a bit about the roman à clef background to Across the River and Into the Trees when I reviewed Autumn in Venice: Ernest Hemingway and His Final Muse (2019), which was about the relationship between 49-year-old Hemingway and 18-year-old Adriana Ivancich (who was also the cover artist for the first hardcover edition, see above), so I won't repeat that here. Seeing the trailer for the movie adaptation, there is a chance that much of the cringe elements have been eliminated, so let us at least hope for that.
Poster for the movie adaptation. Image sourced from Tribune Pictures.
Trivia and Links
The film adaptation directed by Paula Ortiz is expected to be released in August 2024. It stars Liev Schreiber as Col. Richard Cantwell and Matilda De Angelis as Renata. There isn't an English language trailer yet, but you can turn on subtitles in all languages (under Settings, then Auto-Translate) at the Spanish language trailer here.
If you still have free reads or are a subscriber to The New Yorker, you can read the rather vicious parody that E.B. White wrote after Hemingway's novel which was titled Across the Street and Into the Grill from October 6, 1950.