The discussion was lively and diverse when we met Friday to discuss Paula McLain's book The Paris Wife. Everyone in attendance had great things about the book. McLain covered all the bases, it appears, in discovering and depicting this portion of Ernest Hemingway's life. They are all there, his friends, acquaintances, and his first wife Hadley Richardson. The people who loved him, the people who trusted him, the people who used him and the people he used all make their appearances. The list reads like a guide to literature: Ezra Pound, Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Sherwood Anderson and many more.
As a young teenager the people included in this book were more real to me than the students who passed me in the hallways at school. They returned as I read, each as amazing and flawed as I had remembered them.
While this is a novel it is a wonderful way to discover the feel and lifeblood of Jazz Age Paris. Literature was growing,developing and re-inventing leaving a lasting stamp on what we believe and read today.
If you love Hemingway--read this book. If you know very little about the man Hemingway--read this book. If you ever wondered what the art and literary explosion in Paris during this time was really like--read this book. The popularity of The Paris Wife by Paula McLain is not a fluke. You might as well save yourself a trip to the library or book store and get a copy of Hemingway's A Movable Feast while you are at it. You'll want to read that as well!
No comments:
Post a Comment