US News & World Report, April 1999
byline - Bruce A. Auster
The only things Ernest Hemingway and Michael Palin have in common are a serious case of wanderlust and a fondness for drink. The quintessential American writer lived most of his adult life away from America. The British comedian has retraced his steps, from Paris to Pamplona.
Since his days as the cutup composer of Monty Python sketches - he is very proud of the Fish-Slapping Dance - Palin has reinvented himself as serious novelist and world traveler. His Hemingway adventure, which will air on PBS May 3, is his fourth overseas marathon. He says he learned in his travels "that it is possible for someone without any particular expertise to go around the world and entertain an audience simply by getting rather ill now and then."
Palin is not quite that inept, but close. He tries, without much success, to land a marlin, play matador, and hunt ducks. But animal rightists need not worry: While chasing Papa, Palin harmed no living thing. He is now at work on a second novel, and he is studying a lot of maps, plotting his next adventure. But rule out a Monty Python reunion. And blame it on Hemingway: "We can't ever go back to old things," the young author wrote in 1923. "It's a very salutary caution," says Palin. "There was an energy we had; we were in our late 20's when we did Python. We wouldn't be the same."
