Little fork

There's a little satisfaction in having outlived the great Hemingway and at last understanding why he did what he did and died in the end.

It's sad and most likely compounded by the alcohol, but you don't have to read between the lines to see that Hemingway lived until his living began to lose its magic and became a business like anything else.

Outliving Hemingway though is fraught with philosophical baggage, especially when you come to the place where he can't help but feel that his life has followed a certain pattern, unrelated to God's Will or even to a belief in good or bad fortune, ascribable solely to heredity, to the forefathers and all that was poured into him before he became who he was.

Elio Vittorini, writer, made his living translating English and American writers, including Hemingway, to support his own writing. His book, "In Sicily," was discovered several years ago by a very intelligent woman at a used-book sale at the public library in Cody, Wyoming.

"In Sicily" is an extraordinary book, outliving both men, Hemingway and Vittorini.