Here is a little video of the hotel then and now. At 0:59 there’s a grainy photo of the original monument. Google brings up no other works by this artist. Ironic that it lasted less than 20 years, but is immortalized by Hemingway, who doesn’t even describe it. https://youtu.be/xhLNQK69xoM
I read elsewhere that he wrote a "false start" while staying at the hotel, and a proper first draft a year later. Both versions would have been after Hadley had lost a suitcase containing all of his manuscripts.
Haha - I was thinking about this too. Wonder if the lost suitcase colored his characterization of the American wife. He put a lot of himself into his stories. Thanks for the vid - great find!
Ah! So grateful that you did this—I didn't even know the name of the town and suddenly, you made everything concrete and more vulnerable, and the writing even more mysterious—THANK YOU!
Haircut, and also her outfit looks like what boys aged around 12 wore in the 1920s - wide knickerbockers, mannish shirt, big belt, boots. It's a skirt, but it looks like knickers.
Mia! Great research — thank you for posting the link. How sad that the original monument was melted down — that fact makes the story even more compelling!
Thanks Mia, I even enjoyed feebly prolonging the story via the hotel reviews ("The staff are friendly and very helpful especially Lorenzo who was very informative and nothing was too much trouble." "The gentleman who looks after the desk is very good man and
very helpful specially for the vegetarian people.")
The first statue is erected to memorialize "Brotherly soldiers in the supreme sacrifice, gloriously joined, in the greatest Italian victory", and then "melted down for military hardware" in the next war less than two decades later. That seems like the core of a flash fiction story.
I love this shirt summation and interpretation of the story. It's in the link in the ascent. Thank you, Mia.
"As the central trope of "Cat in the Rain" the war monument is a mute reminder of the incomplete lives toward which the narrative's modalities point. Indeed, this concise little tale of a woman's thwarted yearnings coincides with the aborted dreams memorialized in the sculptures--both the "American girl" and the "fallen" Italian soldiers have been robbed of the natural fulfillment life might be expected to hold"
Yes, those visitors reaching out to touch their sons' names on the ossario might have last seen their boy when they walked him to the train, and saw his face, pale and laughing, among all those other boys being sent to the front for the disposal of war.
Thanks for finding and sharing this Mia. Inspiring to see the real view from the room in the video and think how Hemingway made a story partly from his experience at this hotel. While it’s fascinating in itself, it also somehow gives me hope in the opportunities that are open to us to include the specificity of real life in writing our fiction.
Here is a little video of the hotel then and now. At 0:59 there’s a grainy photo of the original monument. Google brings up no other works by this artist. Ironic that it lasted less than 20 years, but is immortalized by Hemingway, who doesn’t even describe it. https://youtu.be/xhLNQK69xoM
It says here that he wrote the story while staying at the hotel. And the video “shows” the view out, i.e., the first paragraph.
I read elsewhere that he wrote a "false start" while staying at the hotel, and a proper first draft a year later. Both versions would have been after Hadley had lost a suitcase containing all of his manuscripts.
Haha - I was thinking about this too. Wonder if the lost suitcase colored his characterization of the American wife. He put a lot of himself into his stories. Thanks for the vid - great find!
Mia: How did you find this?! Thank you: it was moving to see this, almost spooky. Life and fiction meet. That poor cat!
Googling Rapallo war monument. It's the first result. The video, by googling the name of the hotel.
Ah! So grateful that you did this—I didn't even know the name of the town and suddenly, you made everything concrete and more vulnerable, and the writing even more mysterious—THANK YOU!
Thanks for sharing this. So fascinating to see the hotel, the view, the monument (and Hadley's bobbed haircut!)
Fantastic video - thanks for this and Mia for the link. Look at Hedley's bobbed haircut too.
Haircut, and also her outfit looks like what boys aged around 12 wore in the 1920s - wide knickerbockers, mannish shirt, big belt, boots. It's a skirt, but it looks like knickers.
Thanks!!
I have stayed in Rapallo, researching Ezra Pound who moved there in 1924, but I don't think it was the same hotel!
Many thanks for this.
Lovely, Mia. Thank you 😊
Mia! Great research — thank you for posting the link. How sad that the original monument was melted down — that fact makes the story even more compelling!
Mia, thank you for the sleuthing.
Thanks so much for the video. I felt like it looked so much the way I imagined it when reading the story.
If you squint, you can see the cat!
haha :)
If you listen you know that it is not purring.
As a journalist, Hemingway would've been impressed by your sleuthing, Mia. I know I am!
This is yet another example of how this class rounds out the learning experience in new and fascinating ways. Thank you for sharing.
Oh wow, my family lives in a nearby town, Chiavari. I have to check out the hotel in the summer!
Love the "thought bubbles" !
Story Club field trip? George would get room 66.
Thanks Mia, I even enjoyed feebly prolonging the story via the hotel reviews ("The staff are friendly and very helpful especially Lorenzo who was very informative and nothing was too much trouble." "The gentleman who looks after the desk is very good man and
very helpful specially for the vegetarian people.")
"Our request for a kitty was promptly fulfilled."
The first statue is erected to memorialize "Brotherly soldiers in the supreme sacrifice, gloriously joined, in the greatest Italian victory", and then "melted down for military hardware" in the next war less than two decades later. That seems like the core of a flash fiction story.
I love this shirt summation and interpretation of the story. It's in the link in the ascent. Thank you, Mia.
"As the central trope of "Cat in the Rain" the war monument is a mute reminder of the incomplete lives toward which the narrative's modalities point. Indeed, this concise little tale of a woman's thwarted yearnings coincides with the aborted dreams memorialized in the sculptures--both the "American girl" and the "fallen" Italian soldiers have been robbed of the natural fulfillment life might be expected to hold"
Yes, those visitors reaching out to touch their sons' names on the ossario might have last seen their boy when they walked him to the train, and saw his face, pale and laughing, among all those other boys being sent to the front for the disposal of war.
What brilliant sleuthing, thanks, Mia. I'm with Vibeke – wouldn't it be great to have a Story Club tour of places like this?
I love me a mansard roof!
For another take on this relationship, try reading "The Paris Wife" by Paula McLain, a fictional memoir of Hemingway's first wife, Hadley Richardson.
One day maybe , we make a George Saunders Story Club excursion to that hotel
Thanks for finding and sharing this Mia. Inspiring to see the real view from the room in the video and think how Hemingway made a story partly from his experience at this hotel. While it’s fascinating in itself, it also somehow gives me hope in the opportunities that are open to us to include the specificity of real life in writing our fiction.
Fantastic! Thank you so much for sharing
It is so much--though a bit grander--as I pictured it, with the palms prominent. A great pre-war building.
Very impressive research!