Product Details

• Published on: 1991
• Format: Import
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Customer Reviews

If you like alternate Time-lines...
... You should read this book. John Baird, a Hemmingway scholar in something of a bind, agrees to produce a forgery of a "lost" work of the great master. Since this would radically change his earth's future, a sort of inter-dimensional hitman is dispatched to kill him. Which he does. Sort of. Instead Baird finds himself in another, just so SLIGHTLY different alternate universe, where everything takes a somewhat different turn - Until everything ends in a rather grim, if not unsatisfying ending. You should do yourself the favor of reading it.

Not his best, but worth a read
While _Hoax_ doesn't have the bite and originality that _Forever_War_ does, it is an interesting premise. Haldeman definitely has a way with characters who are hard to love, and there are several in _Hoax_. If you like his other works, particularly his short stories, you will probably find _The_Hemingway_Hoax_ well worth your time.

Fascinating beginning, weak middle, pitiful ending
A genre-bending fantasy about a plan to forge some lost stories by Ernest Hemingway. This book starts off realistically enough, and stays interesting even after it becomes clear that the plan has attracted the attention of some non-human entities. But then Haldeman digresses into some tawdry sexual maneuvers that seem to be leading the plot in another direction entirely. Then after the protagonist is killed, all focus is lost and the plot just rambles down one incomprehensible blind alley after another. The novel is mercifully brief, but there're no real explanations of any of the major plot points, characters change radically with each new venue, we never do find out exactly who the "Others" are, or what's so special about our protagonist, or even how and why the hoax is so critical in human history. Changing the rules in mid-stride is just weak storytelling, and failing to tie up the ending is like telling a joke and leaving off the punch line. This may be a common enough trend in contemporary fiction-writing (see the work of Haruki Murakami, for example) but this old-school reader doesn't care for it one bit.