Paul Hendrickson and William Kennedy then proceeded to give two of the best readings I have ever heard. Hendrickson read from Hemingway's Boat with a wondrous rhythmic passion. I remember thinking that his prose sounded exactly as I had heard it in my mind's ear while I was reading the book.
Kennedy's reading style was different, but no less effective. He has an uncanny knack for suggesting, with just the slightest change in inflection, different voices for different characters. One of the characters in his latest book, Chango's Beads and Two-Toned Shoes, is Ernest Hemingway. Kennedy managed to sound a lot like Hemingway does on the recordings we have of him.
As if the readings weren't enough, they were followed by what was mostly a conversation that Hendrickson and Kennedy had on stage about Papa. Both think highly of Hemingway without turning a blind eye to his flaws. Hendrickson noted that it took real courage for the prematurely aged and multiply diseased Hemingway to keep at the writing day after day even when a day yielded only a sentence, if that. And Kennedy noted that Hemingway's style is easy to imitate, but well-nigh impossible match.
A great evening for lovers of good writing.
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