Resumo de Hemingway's Chair

Rugged. Tough as nails. A man?s man who is willing to fight to get the girl without losing his cigar between his manly clenched jaws. None of these descriptions serve to fit Martin Sproale, the main character of Michael Palin?s Hemingway?s Chair.

Martin was just an average kind of guy, with an average kind of job (as the assistant manager of the local post office), and an average kind of girlfriend (Elaine, a 30 something pushing her reluctant boyfriend into seeking the Managing position at the post office). Martin still lived with his mother at home and really did not seem to have too many prospects for leading an interesting life. But Martin had a hobby tinged with just a hint of fanaticism. He was a huge fan of Earnest Hemingway. Martin?s collection was quite impressive, including copies of Hemingway texts, criticisms, and letters. Duplicates of Hemingway related relics filled his room, including (later in the novel), Hemingway?s chair, one used for big game fishing. Most impressive was the volumes of biographical data Martin had amassed and memorized about his hero. This seeming obsession with Hemingway began for Martin when as a youngster he was assigned to read For Whom the Bell Tolls. Soon after this assignment, Martin?s father died. Hemingway?s words seemed to resonate with young Martin, and he soon began to focus his attention to the writer.

A few major events begin to shake things up for Martin. Nick Marshall, an outsider with ?big impressive ideas for post office modernization?, is promoted to manager over Martin. Secondly, Martin meets Ruth, the American scholar working on a book about Hemingway. Tension mounts in the story as Nick begins to modernize the post office, and to steal the affections of Elaine. Ruth, realizing that she knows all about the women in Hemingway?s life but little about the man himself, begins to develop a bond with Martin. As the swirling pressures of his life begin to press poor Martin down, he develops a wonderful escape reflex: he begins to ?channel? Hemingway, adopting his voice, mannerisms, and style. The novel ends with this ?spirit of Hemingway? disrupting (destroying) the ceremony celebrating the modernization and privatization of Martin?s post office. The Borough of Theston (presumably) returns to its pre-modern roots and Martin slips away to a land big enough to contain Papa Hemingway himself.

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