Nonfiction Review: Everybody Behaves Badly is a well researched, well written account of how Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) came to write his best book and the first popular modernist novel. Subtitled "The True Story Behind Hemingway's Masterpiece The Sun Also Rises," it's just that, and notes at the time it was considered virtually unpublishable and "morally sordid." Lesley Blume delves deep into the real people involved and the characters they became. She carefully explains (and insightfully speculates about) what is autobiographical and what isn't. Blume also analyzes the literary and historical significance of Hemingway's first serious novel, clarifying the "iceberg theory" and making the necessary connections to the First World War. She details the checkered publishing history that led up to the The Sun Also Rises, without sugar coating the author's habit of biting hands that he'd formerly kissed: "Hemingway had a little bit of poison for everyone during this time." She also addresses the shades of anti-Semitism prevalent at the time reflected in the novel. Everybody Behaves Badly is exhaustive, educational, and entertaining. Maintaining an all-too-rare level of journalistic integrity, Blume keeps the spotlight off herself while writing a virtual biography of Hemingway's early writing career. This book makes a fine companion to Mary Dearborn's revelatory, stereotype-shattering 2017 biography of the author. Blume notes Hemingway's willingness to "compromise ... an almost aggressively masculine image ... he would not hesitate to challenge that image if doing so would serve his art." Everybody Behaves Badly is an excellent next read for anyone who's recently finished The Sun Also Rises. This is nonfiction that gives the original a run for its money, while letting slip that Hemingway was just a big ol' gossip. [4★]
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