The Paris Wife: Review by Carissa

When I first saw The Paris Wife I had been taken with the grouping of Gertrude Stein (& Alice B. Toklas), Picasso, Matisse, Hemingway, and The Fitzgerald's for quite some time.

I had recently seen a fascinating documentary called "Paris Was A Woman", which touched on Gertrude and Alice's relationship. A quote of Gertrude's that I love is “Eating and sleeping are not like loving and breathing."  I am an avid listener of The Moth's podcasts and really enjoyed hearing how Hemingway tricked his buddy into getting in the arena as a bull fighter, A.E. Hotchner's The Day I Became A Matador.  I revisited the classic The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and was fortunate enough to have been whisked into the 1920's via The Art Deco Society's Gatsby Summer Afternoon at Dunsmuir Mansion in Oakland, Ca.

Dunsmuir Mansion ~ Oakland, CA

DecoBelles

Me

Jennifer

After all of this...

 I picked The Paris Wife up as a gift for World Book Day, then lost and was reunited with it at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago so after all of this there was no way I was going to put this book down without reading it.

Wow, this has turned into quite a long non-review.

The Paris Wife: A Review by Carissa


What drew me to Ernest Hemingway was his lust for life.  He was quoted in the book as saying "You have to digest life.  You have to chew it up and love it all through."  What I naively ignored was how that would affect the people left in his wake.

Hadley was an interesting character, I felt immediately connected to her but throughout the story we grew apart.  As a young woman she was charming and remained true to herself in a time that was well ahead of her.  I find myself wishing she had more time to experience life on her own before getting swept up in the tornado of Ernest.  She may have stood a fighting chance.  I suppose it happens all the time though.  The lure of adventure along with the romantic tint that being young and free puts on everything would make that union nearly impossible to prevent.

The glimpse into the beginning of their relationship was beautiful.  They created a spark in one another.  It made me yearn for a less cluttered life where I could just focus on eating, sleeping, loving and breathing; as Gertrude points out are not the same thing.

  Once married, Hadley's time alone in Paris felt wasted,  She had the power to change that but chose not to which was frustrating for me having grown up post the feminist movement.  It took a while for me to remember that there some people who want nothing more of their lives than to be a loving support to their partner.  The fact that she was written expressing such raw honesty made it easier for me to understand how important it was to her, being that devoted, to tend to the honing of his craft.  The unfortunate thing is he ended up chewing her up and spitting her out.

There were a few moments in the book when Hadley recalls a situation or conversation which ends up being quite poignant.   Such as an interaction with Pound once she had announced her pregnancy.  She states "I didn't take him seriously that day.  I was far too optimistic about everything to heed any warnings, but years later his parting remarks would come back to me sharply."   I don't know how many times I've looked back and thought...if only I had realized the true depth of that moment things would be different.  It was powerful line to read.

Upon the entrance of Pauline in the story, when Ernest has become more blatant about his attraction to other women, Hadley says "Everyone laughed, and it was one of those domino moments.  That laugh would eventually set off an entire series of events, but not yet.  It just stood there in the room, tipping and tipping, but not falling.  Not falling yet.  Not quite."  I thought that was beautifully written.  It must have been awful to feel her world slipping through her fingers.  I don't know if it was fear, incredible strength or both that kept her there.  I wonder had her betrayal been by anyone but such a close friend if she would have forgiven it like she did everything else, eventually wasting away.  I am glad she found the courage to leave and love again.  It was time for her to shed the bad boy.  It was her turn to be cherished, protected and adored by someone safe and secure.

I really enjoyed this book and I would like to read more about this era, although I am less enamored with the shallow jet setters and playboys of the 1920's.

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As soon as I finished The Paris Wife one of my favorite shows The New Girl aired this episode in which Nick decides that in order to be a successful writer he needs to be more like Hemingway...

Nick Hemingway {The New Girl}