September 7, 2003

Hans B. Bremer is a freelance columnist who has worked for the BBC worldwide radio service for thirteen years and is now busy working for the PTV world news network

“I HAVE always been a keen reader,” he says “this interest was sparked at an early age by my grandfather, who was a great storyteller. I remember, particularly amongst my childhood memories, of listening to those stories with a lot of excitement. Generally, I like reading classics and poetry too, as I am into poetry writing myself.”

Married to Surraiya Shahab, a popular Pakistani newscaster of her time, Hans recently started reading Love in the Time of Cholera by Nobel Prize winner, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but lost interest after the first 150 pages.

“Although it was a good translation (from Spanish), I found it had rather a bit too much of ‘magic realism’ which is a style of writing that many contemporary Latin American writers use. I am much more comfortable reading standard prose.”

Currently, Bremer is reading True at First Light by legendary author, Ernest Hemmingway. Published posthumously, this book is a fascinating account of an African safari and game-hunting trip that Hemmingway took in 1953, with his fourth wife, Mary.

“I enjoyed reading True at First Light as it is a blend of fiction and biography, written in the classic Hemmingway style. It has beautiful passages of description and lots of interesting dialogue.”

The last of Hemmingway’s work, this book has been edited from the late author’s journals, and compiled by his son Gregory, who edited all of Hemmingway’s manuscripts from the 1953 safari. Although not critically acclaimed as one of his best, its descriptive passages of the vast African landscape and the thrill of hunting, are enough to mesmerize any reader. The story revolves around Hemmingway and his wife in the midst of the Kenyan jungle, chasing a lion that his wife desperately wants to shoot, and mingling with the tribesmen and women — especially ‘Debba’, an African tribeswoman, to whom Hemmingway becomes quite attracted, and repeatedly refers to as his fiancé — much to the annoyance of his wife.

“I suppose what I really liked about the book was that even though the concept of game hunting does not actually appeal to me, it has been presented in such a manner by Hemmingway that it succeeded in capturing my interest. Bullfighting is also a sport that I would never read about by any author other than Hemmingway.” As Hemmingway is one of Bremer’s preferred authors, he has read almost all of his works, and his favourites include A Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls.

“What I usually do when I want to start a new book is to go to a local bookstore, check out the latest arrivals, or I look up a book which has had an interesting review. I usually read in the evenings, but nowadays I don’t feel that I get as much time as I would like to devote to reading, which has always been an important part of my life.”

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