Hemingway's Chair

In this witty first novel by former Monty Python member Palin, thirtysomething Martin Sproale, the assistant postmaster in an English coastal village, seems a mousy, harmless bloke. But Martin’s secret obsession with Ernest Hemingway leads him to compose curt prose on a vintage typewriter and collect Hem memorabilia like old boxing gloves. When a smooth city suit full of nefarious modernizing schemes receives the promotion to head postmaster that Martin deserved, our hero — with ”Papa” as muse — learns how to swagger for what he believes in. Throughout, Palin’s empathetic humor informs Hemingway’s Chair, a perceptive tribute to the art of manliness. A-