Mariel faces up to the Hemingway curse
Famous family troubled by drug abuse, alcoholism and suicide
Many remember Mariel Hemingway as the sweet teenager Tracy in Woody Allen’s Manhattan, where she delivered the film’s uplifting closing line: “You have to have a little faith in people.”
But Hemingway, then only 16, was living a life filled with darkness; her family was plagued by alcoholism, drug addiction and mental illness. And suicide. Seven family members have taken their own lives, including her famous grandfather, Ernest Hemingway, in 1961, and sister Margaux, the former supermodel, in 1996.
Hemingway, now 53, has written two new memoirs, Out Came the Sun and a young adult version, Invisible Girl, in which she frankly recounts her family’s struggles. She sat down with The Associated Press to discuss the new books.
Q You write about alcoholism, drug addiction, mental illness and suicide in your family. You feel these things are connected?
A Yes, especially in my family. Look at my grandfather, Ernest Hemingway, the greatest writer of the 20th century. He was self- medicating pain with a lot of drinking. Then I look at my oldest sister ( Muffet), who is wonderful, but ... I think her schizophrenia and mental health issues were triggered by drug addiction. My other sister, she was a major alcoholic. It’s a chemical. It changes your brain. In my family, it was never one glass of wine. It was a bottle. And it changes people.
Q Seven people in your family committed suicide. You’ve been involved in suicide prevention efforts. Do we have a lot to learn about suicide?
A Suicide is complex. It can be planned for 20 years, or it can happen out of the blue. We need to talk more about it because there’s tremendous shame around suicide. It was a long healing process for me, to understand how my own sister could commit suicide. I thought she was doing really well. You see that in many situations.
Q In the 2013 documentary, Running From Crazy, and now in your book, you mention some disturbing suspicions you had that your father was sexual with your two older sisters.
A It felt like there was inappropriate stuff going on that I never saw. I wasn’t witness to anything horrible — but what I DO know is that my father drank, and when he drank, he changed. I watched it with both my parents. With my sisters. By the fourth glass of wine they weren’t the same people, a darkness sort of overcame them.
Q Why did you write the young adult book?
A Because that’s ( the age) when I was the most scared. When I was the most confused. You don’t know it’s not normal. I thought that when parents fought and there was broken glass and blood on the wall, you cleaned it up because this was your job.