The Ambulance Drivers

I received a free electronic copy of this biographical history from Netgalley, James McGrath Morris, and Da Capo Press in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for sharing your very hard work with me.

And there was a great deal of incredibly hard work involved in compiling this history. There is so much out there about Hemingway, and so little about Dos Passos that finding truth imbedded in the legends must have been difficult indeed. I came away from this with the same ideals I brought into the quest - I have adored Dos Passos all my adult life, just as my Dad worshipped at the feet of Hemingway. The major truth I was able to add to my preconceived notions is that both Hemingway and Dos Passos were mere men facing difficult times. It was their reactions to the whims of fate that bound them together as friends while young, and inevitably separated them into armed retreat toward the end of their lives. How human. And how tragic.

Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos met on the battlefields of WWI when Dos Passos was 22 and Hemingway not quite 19. Both were volunteer ambulance drivers, both later became war correspondents and both later became novelists. A close friendship developed between them and for many years their lives moved in tandem along very similar trajectories. But the friendship became - mainly on Hemingway's side – more and more volatile and increasingly the rivalries and jealousies between them – again mainly on Hemingway’s side – forced them apart. In this well-researched and engaging dual-biography, Morris explores this personal and literary friendship in a lively and well-written account, from which Hemingway doesn’t come out at all well. It must have been very difficult to sustain any sort of friendship with him. What a pity that he is now the best-remembered writer and Dos Passos far less well known. Perhaps this book will revive interest in him.

Confirms what we already knew - that Hemingway was a total ass.
In all seriousness though, I loved this book. Morris writes beautifully, weaving the stories of these two very different men - differences that both assured and ultimately ended their friendship - together.