"A Pursuit Race" is a 1927 short story by American writer
Ernest Hemingway. It was published in the collection ''
Men Without Women''.
Plot summary
"A Pursuit Race" tells the story of a man, William Campbell, involved in a "
pursuit race" with a
burlesque show
American burlesque is a genre of variety show derived from elements of Victorian burlesque, music hall and minstrel shows. Burlesque became popular in America in the late 1860s and slowly evolved to feature ribald comedy and female nudity. By the ...
. The story takes place within a single hotel room in
Kansas City
The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...
, where the racer's boss Mr. Turner finds him. It is first made to seem that the racer is drunk, but it is eventually established that the racer is high on
heroin
Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a potent opioid mainly used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects. Medical grade diamorphine is used as a pure hydrochloride salt. Various white and brow ...
, which is revealed when the racer shows his boss track marks on his arm. The boss attempts to help the racer, but eventually leaves the man alone in the hotel room.
Reviews
*
Tom Stoppard called the opening paragraph one of the best in English, he noted that "This is a piece of writing that mimics its subject matter. It is a paragraph in which a burlesque show is in a pursuit race with a metaphor. And what happens is that the burlesque show catches up on the metaphor and the metaphor has to get down from its bicycle and leave the page."
[Hemingway's Puzzling Pursuit Race]
Nolan, Charles J. Jr., Studies in Short Fiction, vol. 34, no. 4, fall 1997, p. 481. Retrieved 29/9/2022.
*Charles J. Jr. Nolan writing in ''Studies in Short Fiction'' (Vol. 34, Issue 4, Fall 1997) writes that it "has its charms. A close reading of the story, informed by our knowledge of the manuscripts, both reveals Hemingway's skill and gives us a new appreciation of this often neglected work.
[
]
Themes
William Campbell embodies the theme of a loser lost to alcohol and heroin. For him and all those like him, life itself has become a pursuit race.
Adaptation
The story appears as a scene in the 1962 film '' Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man'' with featuring Dan Dailey as Campbell and Fred Clark as Mr. Turner.Film Review
Retrieved 30/9/2022.
References
External links
Full text of "A Pursuit Race" at HathiTrust Digital Library
1927 short stories
Short stories by Ernest Hemingway
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