Wrestling with Demons:
In Search of the Real Ernest Hemingway
About the Book
Part biography, part memoir, and part historical fiction,
this illuminating mosaic examines Hemingway's life based on revealing new information about his WWI experience. This book counters the conventional theory that attributes much of Hemingway's behaviors and drive to succeed to the psychological and physical trauma he experienced as an eighteen-year-old volunteer for the American Red Cross. DeBerg argues that his life was influenced more by other factors, such as jealousy, pride, guilt, and especially fear.
Throughout his life, Hemingway was haunted by several demons, including his parents’ disapproval, remorse, chronic pain, anguish, and a deep-seated sense of rivalry with other writers and war heroes. These demons further haunted Hemingway due to his inherited hypomanic personality. DeBerg explores these demons and explains how each impacted his future writing career and personal life.
DeBerg skillfully shows that the majority of biographers and historians have it wrong. He makes a convincing case that it wasn’t the trauma from the shrapnel, blood, and gore, and that most tormented the young author. Rather, Hemingway was driven by fear that the awful truth would come out about what really happened. He was afraid that people would learn that he was, in large part, responsible for an Italian soldier's death.
But Hemingway, we know, told a different story. In his story, he was the hero. Living with such a lie would have weighed heavily on any man.
How could an up-and-coming writer like Hemingway cope with these demons?
By writing.
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Table of Contents
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