In 1956 Ernest Hemingway struggled to find inspiration for something to write. His muse had abandoned him. He sought adventure and he drank heavily all day long but still nothing would suggest itself to his genius. When one his good drinking buddies was found in the bay with a harpoon rammed clear through his chest, not just any harpoon but one of those big ones that was fired from a cannon in the last century of whaling, it gave some purpose to Papa Hemingway. The dead man was a drunkard and a bum living on his decrepit old fishing boat that he used for smuggling and no one cared much who killed him or why, least of all the authorities.
Key West was still a pretty wild and lawless piece of the country at this time. The local police would rather sweep the case under the carpet and forget about it since he had no family and no one cared very much. So, when Ernest began looking around and asking questions it was not welcomed.
Hemingway discovers in his investigation that the murder involves the growing revolution headed by Fidel Castro against the U.S. supported corrupt dictator, Batista. The FBI and the CIA would like Ernest to stop digging around and they make every effort, including threats of grave injury to both Hemingway and his wife Mary in Cuba. But Papa is a stubborn and fighting man and refuses to be brushed aside.
As he digs he finds that his dead drinking buddy was involved in trying to smuggle a good amount of Uranium to Fidel Castro so that Fidel could threaten Batista with a “Dirty Bomb” (which Ernest learns Castro could never have produced). The drunken bum friend of Papa’s was trying to cheat both Castro and the U.S. crook brokering the deal into paying more than the original $100,000 agreed upon and the crook had him murdered.
In the final scene Hemingway and a friend are out on a little skiff on the Gulf. They located the old boat upon which the Uranium was hidden and had to fight it out with a couple of gangsters to defend it. They succeeded and managed to turn the Uranium over to US authorities. Hemingway saved the world (maybe..) In the process this story gives us a rollicking look at a most colorful and almost mythical figure in Papa Ernest Hemingway. It is well written and deserves a 7 of 10 on the Weaver meter.
