I think it's lamentable that Hemingway didn't get to edit this himself, but I also think that Mary Hemingway has been maligned by critics and scholars who think that they could have done a better job editing it than she did. Maybe they could have, but there would still be doubts as to whether or not it was true to Hemingway's vision. Gerry Brenner gives strong evidence to show that Hemingway was not finished with this memoir at the time of his death, even though Mary states otherwise, and it is well-known that Hemingway didn't want anyone to "put his cotton-picking typewriter to work on" his writing.

I never really liked his writing until I read this memoir, and it has definitely changed my mind about both him and his writing. He seems to me, more than many artists, someone whom people think they know intimately after coming into contact with his work. I've always thought this was an interesting phenomenon, and maybe something to be wary of.

Despite what I said above about thinking that one knows him through his writing, I wonder if there is anything to the fact that he killed himself before he could publish his memoir?