I enjoyed reading this first book club selection - and
look forward to more,
THE PARIS WIFE:
I don't normally like this genre because I fear
the author is taking too much 'poetic license' with conversations never really
heard. However, I have come to realize this author took great care and you
might enjoy reading these comments from her at: http://www.randomhouse.com/rhpg/features/paula_mclain/fact-vs-fiction/
While reading the book I researched some of the history of
Hemingway and his wife, Hadley. I knew nothing about her and enjoyed seeing the
photos and references to her and their life together. I have since read "A
Moveable Feast", the book he wrote about their time in Europe. It made me
like him a lot better and I plan to re-read some of his novels. His writing
style was so new and different compared to the more stilted writing of the
time. He could be compared to Van Gogh as a painter...controversial at the time
and yet changing the very nature of painting - as Hemingway (and others
of this time) changed writing. It was interesting to realize the influence
Gertrude Stein had on him.
I enjoyed the backgrounds very much (i.e.physical
settings, fashion, food, mores of the time, etc.) Their young marriage
ending in spite of the fact that she still wanted him, and and
his confirmation in A Moveable Feast that he made a mistake to not
recognize that she was the love of his life, was sad but sometimes it's hard to
understand the creative mind. Hadley did grow as a person and became
independent.
Barbara
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