Fiesta by Ernest Hemingway Reviewed by Steve Rudd

No, I wasn't naïve enough to be fooled into thinking that this exquisite novel from the legendary Hemingway was an in-depth car manual designed to accompany the latest Ford creation.

Far from it, in fact, for this story follows a bunch of friends who travel from Paris to Spain, and to the town of Pamplona in particular to witness the bull-running and -fighting events of the infamous San Fermin festival, that is held annually there. Unfortunately, I never studied anything by Hemingway in school (which, I think, is something of a scandal), and only really became interested in the writer courtesy of the travel show that Michael Palin produced called Hemingway Adventure, in which Palin travelled to a large number of places around the world where the larger-than-life man lived and worked through his life.

Palin did this partly to aid research for a novel that he subsequently penned, a damn fine read entitled Hemingway's Chair, just in case anybody cares to seek such a novel out. Returning to Ernest, Hemingway was born in 1899, in the Oak Park suburb of Chicago. He came to be a huge fan of game hunting, bull-fighting and sea-fishing over time, and proceeded to settle in Africa and Europe for prolonged periods. He was very fond of Paris, and this is where his Fiesta story sets out from, as the friends in the story get all fired up about driving down to Pamplona to witness the festivities.

Luckily for him, the Phantom manages to persuade Christine to come to New York to star in an opera.

En-route from Paris to Pamplona, the scenery is vividly described, yet Fiesta is at its most exciting when they actually arrive in Pamplona and the manic week-long festival of sense-attacking events get under way. Hemingway was always renowned for his highly individual writing style.

He undeniably had a keen ear and eye for describing situations with such finesse that the reader of his work really does feel as though they are directly seeing, hearing and experiencing everything that he is. Although many people find the violent act of bull-fighting utterly repulsive, Ernest didn't seem to be fazed by the blood and the guts. He was simply exhilarated, and witnessing the bulls' deaths so close at hand only made him strive to live his life to the full to even more of an intense extent. Sights and sounds fill his Fiesta, mirroring the real event meticulously. In truth, this book helped to promote the festival in Pamplona to a magnificent degree, and I look forward to the day I can attend. As for other work by Hemingway that should be read at all costs, try his masterpieces A Farewell To Arms and For Whom The Bell Tolls. He wasn't a Nobel Prize-winner for nothing you know.

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