The old man at Finca La Vigia

So visiting Finca La Vigía, as I talked about yesterday, was kind of depressing. I just hated to see the old boy looking so down and out. But then again, it kind of suits the whole Hemingway persona. It made me think about the slim, masculine Papa that first arrived at the Finca in 1939 and the bloated, tired-looking old man who left there for the last time a year before his suicide in 1961. I guess what it comes down to is that the Finca, while not looking its best these days, does reflect the worn-out author who obsessively marked his daily weight on his bathroom wall.

This made me think that maybe I’d put together a short video documenting Hemingway and his time at the Finca. Usually I’d use Cuban music to put something like this together, but instead I was inclined to use a somewhat elegiac song by the British group Elbow called “The River.” This is from their relatively new CD, Build a Rocket Boy.

Watch this short video and tell me if you don’t think it rather perfectly matches the mood of a declining Ernest Hemingway living in Cuba.

Tags: ,

2 comments

  1. Fred Harwood’s avatar

    Who could say, who knew him?

  2. david’s avatar

    You’re right, Fred. He was an enigma in his old age, even to his last wife.

Comments are now closed.