Hemingway and Ho Chi Minh in Paris: The Art of Resistance

by David Crowe

Overview

Two of the twentieth century's most fascinating figures, Ernest Hemingway and Ho Chi Minh, grappling with a world in which Western culture and their respective governments were failing them, came to Paris at the same time in the 1920s. Trained by their faiths to give their lives to and for others, each had survived a terrifying near-death experience, leading to the realization that this belief in service and sacrifice had been exploited for others' gain. They came to Paris to resist this violent heresy and learn what compassion could do.

In the City of Light, Ho and Hemingway found movements that resisted an overly aggressive Western culture that gave too little, both materially and spiritually, to its young people, to its struggling poor, and to the colonies it oppressed. They learned the arts of resistance, which involved psychologically realistic writing, hostility toward sexual and political repressions, a celebration of working people, the exposure of exploitations such as colonialism and militarism, and an ongoing struggle to determine whether violence was required to bring about a more just and nourishing civilization. Before leaving Paris, each began to gain an international reputation, Ho for documenting colonial ills and crafting political demands, Hemingway for writing parables of youthful survival amid rampant international violence.

Hemingway and Ho Chi Minh in Paris tells the untold, engrossing story of two young men who came to Paris to resist and left as two of their century's most famous figures.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781506455709
Publisher:	Augsburg Fortress, Publishers
Publication date:	05/05/2020
Pages:	350
Sales rank:	1,160,697
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

David Crowe is professor of English at Augustana College, where he has taught modern and contemporary American literature for thirty years. He is the author of Cosmic Defiance: Updike's Kierkegaard and the Maples Stories. He has happily lived in Davenport, Iowa, with his wife, Katie, for the past thirty years.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Joining the Resistance in Paris 1

Wounded Students of Empire: Thanh in 1908 and Hemingway in 1918 15

The Seed of Europe and Indochina: Thanh in Prewar Vietnam and Hemingway in Postwar America 29

Down and Out in London: Ba From 1911 to 1918 43

Labor Unrest in Chicago: Hemingway From 1918 to 1921 59

A Just and Lasting War: Quoc in 1918 and 1919 77

Fights and Foolishness: Quoc in 1919 and 1920 93

Choosing Paris: Quoc and Hemingway, Late 1920 to Late 1921 105

Pound and the Economy: Hemingway in Early 1922 143

Miss Stein and the Cezanne Secret: Hemingway in Early 1922 143

The Star Reporter: Hemingway in 1922 and Early 1923 159

Humanity and the Pariah: Quoc in 1922 and Early 1923 175

Switzerland and Peace in Our Time: Quoc and Hemingway in Late 1922 and Early 1923 189

Escape From Paris: Quoc in 1923 203

The American Dadas: Hemingway in 1923 219

A Crucible of Friends: Hemingway in 1924 233

The Miraculous Year: Hemingway in 1924 249

French Colonialism On Trial: Quoc In 1925 261

Buying The Farm: Hemingway in 1925 275

Leaving Paris to Create Something: Quoc and Hemingway From 1926 to 1928 291

What Should One Love? Quoc and Hemingway During and After Paris 313

Notes 327

Bibliography 345

Acknowledgments 351

Index 355

Editorial Reviews

"In this masterful treatise, meticulously researched and superbly written, David Crowe brings the artistic and intellectual similarities (and differences) of these two men into sharp focus. The prose flows beautifully, like a river in a George Seurat painting. This book is a gem." —Peter W. Marty, Publisher and Editor, The Christian Century

"I thought I knew Hemingway and Uncle Ho. Turns out I didn't know half the story. This book is a delight, Crowe's enthusiasm for his subject leaping from every page." —Paul Hanstedt, PhD, Director of the Center for Academic Resources and Pedagogical Excellence, Washington and Lee University

"David Crowe—part literary biographer, part cultural critic, wholly engaged with the deepest questions of human meaning and hope—draws readers in with this compelling account of Hemingway and Ho Chi Minh. This book is a lesson in the art of becoming fully human." —Jason A. Mahn, author of Becoming a Christian in Christendom

"In this well-researched and engaging book, literary scholar David Crowe paints a picture of the intellectual communities in Paris in the years immediately following the Great War and finds surprising similarities between the early thinking of these two men, whom most readers may not have previously considered together." —Marion Larson, Professor of English, Bethel University

"This book is a rare thing: it is a tremendous piece of skillful story-telling, erudite without being pedantic, written by someone who clearly loves to read, for people who love to read." —Jason Peters, Professor of English, Augustana College

From the Publisher

05/01/2020

Crowe (English, Augustana Coll., IL) is quick to point out that there is no record of novelist Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) and Vietnamese revolutionary Ho Chi Minh (1890–1969) ever having met. This book is not about their influence on each other but about how their time in Paris during the 1920s helped shape their values. Crowe draws a number of parallels between his subjects, including their Victorian upbringing, their early religious training, their work as journalists, and their reaction to violence—both observed and directly experienced. He argues that the "ferment of arts and ideas" in Paris, particularly Dada and surrealism, influenced their works, and that their embrace of modernism signaled a resistance to colonialism and the politics that led to World War I. Although the lives of the writer and former prime minister are chronicled, for the most part, in separate chapters, Crowe continues to highlight similarities, ranging from their multiple marriages to their attraction to Switzerland. While Crowe's research is well documented, he sometimes relies on supposition, introduced by words such as must have, probably, seems to. Generally credible, these suppositions are reasonable given the task Crow has set himself. VERDICT An interesting look at how two remarkable men, who came of age in Paris during the 1920s, developed a sympathy for the common man and a hatred of injustice. Recommended for general readers.—William Gargan, emeritus, Brooklyn Coll. Lib., CUNY

Library Journal