In his earliest novels, the part of Hemingway was played by a character he called Nick Adams.

In The Garden of Eden, he is David Bourne. And also metaphorically Adam, the first man. Bourne’s new wife is the serpent or devil–a Lilith figure to be sure. Later, they meet Eve.

Hemingway started this book in 1946 and continued to work on it until his death, at which time the versions of it consisted of “three irreconcilable drafts of varying lengths, the longest of which was chosen to be the basis for the published text”. What we have to read, published 1986, is one version, and less than half the length of the source texts combined

And, it is brilliant anyway. Even if the Hemingway they gave you to read in school bored you, as it did me.

Apparently they made a movie of it in 2008, but the print work is still impacting me enough that I don’t want to watch a movie right now.

***

Watching a bird at the feeder or among the violets is a beautiful thing, but watching them in groups is more often a depressing reminder of John Cage’s maxim.

Free as a bird? They’re not free. They’re fighting over bits of food.

Or to be more precise:

I put that together for myself and you, and then I went outside again and saw three very different beautiful birds getting along just fine. There was a big brown one, and a little black and white one that wasn’t a magpie, and a blue one called a piñon jay. A reminder that this isn’t New York, nor a city, nor a park at all. Just like he is blue, and a jay, but not a bluejay.

But still. Four bookstores in a mile of walking. Three distinct lovely birds at the feeder. Two major grocery stores in addition to the organic co-op. And one man at the end of days, Adam, bourne again.