Hemingway's Chair (1995 book)

Michael Palin is easily the most under-appreciated member of Monty Python (considering Graham had already done a lot by the time of his death). Michael was always pegged as the nice guy and according to sources out there he is not so pleased with it because it implies a weak will. But Palin did always seem the most self-sacrificing of the group at least when it come to the other's solo projects. To list
1) John Cleese's How To Irritate People 2) A Fish Called Wanda 3) Fierce Creatures 4) The Human Face (John Cleese documentary) 5) Jabberwocky 6) Time Bandits 7) Brazil 8) The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash 9) Bert Fegg's Nasty Book For Boys And Girls (a Terry Jones book) 10) Bert Fegg's Encyclopedia Of All World Knowledge (its sequel) 11) Secrets (a Terry Jones play) 12) The Box (a short film cowritten by Terry Jones) 13) Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (a Terry Jones film also featuring Cleese and Idle in larger roles)
And I mentioned all that deliberately with this book. You see the problem is Hemingway's Chair (one of his few personal achievements outside his children's books and legendary travel documentaries) just seems so autobiographical in this sense. I always related to Palin's characters and sketches better than any others from the Python gang and yet I consider myself fiercely independent. From Sir Galahad to Herbert Anchovy to Arthur Pewty he always the nice guy trying to do the right thing. But like Cardinal Richelieu, Adrian Bugsy Malone or Ken Pile he had a strong personality underneath all the social quirks. Plus Michael was an Oxford history grad who is speculated to have Asperger's Syndrome (also with Dan Aykroyd, Andy Kaufman, Charles Schulz, Woody Allen, Peter Tork, Jim Henson and Garrison Keillor just to mention the comedians). I have AS and I see relate able traits in him only seemingly more admirable in him. If Martin Sproale the main character in Hemingway's Chair is a reflection of himself I wish I could give Michael some encouragement. It was suppose to be humorous but the simple tragedies of the book seemed cruel to happen to a guy like Martin. Martin is an Ernest Hemingway fanatic (which I can't relate to but in Play It Again Sam Woody Allen idolized Humphrey Bogart which I didn't understand until I saw the film). He works at a post office in Theston for poor wages. His father died (presumably from suicide) when Martin was seventeen and shaped his interest in Hemingway but kept a small town docile lifestyle with a girlfriend whom he has not had sex with, quite. At age 37 he is expecting a promotion but not only not got it but the new boss wants to privatize the post office and make it run on profit not service (to Martin's great chagrin). Martin stays docile too long loses his girlfriend and loses the post office until he quits and falls off the grid. Luckily for most of the book he befriends a Hemingway scholar who helps him emotionally named Ruth Kohler. At the fall of his relationship with Elaine Rudge they start to heat up but she leaves for Oxford. In the end he sabotages things for his new boss Nick Marshall and goes to the Key West for a Hemingway festival seemingly happy but alone. I hope as Michael Palin himself goes traveling the world he remembers his loving wife, his good friends and his many admiring fans. The book however is still great if not looked at as solely an author's mirror image as there are good comical descriptions of mundane small town polite life where more class means less personality and/or character.