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The Ambulance Drivers
- Hemingway, Dos Passos, and a Friendship Made and Lost in War
- Narrated by: Dean Temple
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Biographies & Memoirs, Art & Literature
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Publisher's Summary
After meeting for the first time on the front lines of World War I, two aspiring writers forge an intense 20-year friendship and write some of America's greatest novels, giving voice to a "lost generation" shaken by war. Eager to find his way in life and words, John Dos Passos first witnessed the horror of trench warfare in France as a volunteer ambulance driver retrieving the dead and seriously wounded from the front line. Later in the war, he briefly met another young writer, Ernest Hemingway, who was just arriving for his service in the ambulance corps. When the war was over, both men knew they had to write about it; they had to give voice to what they felt about war and life. Their friendship and collaboration developed through the peace of the 1920s and 1930s, as Hemingway's novels soared to success while Dos Passos penned the greatest antiwar novel of his generation, Three Soldiers.
In war, Hemingway found adventure, women, and a cause. Dos Passos saw only oppression and futility. Their different visions eventually turned their private friendship into a bitter public fight, fueled by money, jealousy, and lust. Rich in evocative detail - from Paris cafes to the Austrian Alps, from the streets of Pamplona to the waters of Key West - The Ambulance Drivers is a biography of a turbulent friendship between two of the century's greatest writers, and an illustration of how war both inspires and destroys, unites, and divides.
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Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- NMwritergal
- 04-08-17
Morris always delivers interesting biographies...
...that I might not normally read--and this is another one. I first read/listened to The Rose Man of Sing Sing (which remains my favorite), something I'd have never found on my own but it was recommended to me so I listened! Now, if Morris writes it, I'll read it right away.
I knew little about Hemingway (other than reading some of his work) and even less about Dos Passos, so not only did I learn about the two men, but what I always appreciate about Morris is how he puts everything into the wider historical context.
There's a little bit of everything in this book: War, friendship, rivalry, marriage, what it means to be a writer, history, etc. I was really fascinated by the ambulance drivers in general; it's a part of WW1 that I knew nothing about!
1 person found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Eggs Ackley
- 01-28-18
Lifeless writing, lifeless narration
What disappointed you about The Ambulance Drivers?
Sorry, but I couldn't get past the feeling that the narrator was bored with what he was reading. The longer he read, the more I lost whatever interest I had in the book.
Would you be willing to try another one of Dean Temple’s performances?
Let me put it this way: no.
1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Marti Timmons
- 08-28-17
Narrator drops the end of each sentence.
Rich stories of two important writers and their tangled friendship spanning two world wars and the Spanish Civil War. Their shifting and conflicting ideology, romances, adventures and writing assignments are set on a world stage.
Enjoyable.
1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Scott Free
- 07-15-19
insights into two very important authors
I appreciated the detail and the letters that went into analyzing the relationship between Hemingway and Dos Passos I thought that the description about Hemingway was a little lacking having studied Hemingway more and also Dos Passos Hemingway I think had additional associations that were not revealed in this audiobook or book where Hemingway probably had connections with the CIA or the OSS or you know elements of the deep state in the u.s. government which explains a lot of his politics at the end and possibly also explains his suicide and Dos Passos is fleeing from the stalinist in Spain that story is actually quite gripping and it was quite skipped over in this version otherwise I really enjoyed the book and I thought the reader did an excellent job