A Hemingway Cocktail Companion

Getting ready to write about my trip to Key West and my day following in Hemingway’s footsteps, but my post-election brain is slightly foggy and disorganized, so for right now, here’s a link to a Washington Post article about a new cocktail book, To Have and Have Another: A Hemingway Cocktail Companion.

From the article:

Whatever one feels about the literary legacy of Hemingway, one thing is indisputable: The man was detailed and exacting in which drinks his characters imbibe, and the choice of drink is always important.

“We watched the beginning of the evening of the last night of the fiesta. The absinthe made everything seem better. I drank it without sugar in the dripping glass, and it was pleasantly bitter.” So says narrator Jake Barnes in the waning pages of The Sun Also Rises.

At this point in the novel, Jake’s friends have beaten the hell out of each other, and the girl has run away with the bullfighter. Jake’s decision to drink absinthe “without sugar in the dripping glass” is no small thing.

Well, yes.  As always, good writing is about the details.

If you’re feeling thirsty, here’s a recipe for “A Farewell to Hemingway.”