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3.93 AVERAGE
3.93 AVERAGE
I read this book after reading In Our Time and it’s fascinating, unbelievable really, to see how Hemingway struggled to see his stories in the early days. This is the author’s memoir of his days as a young writer in Paris. He describes the struggle he had to sell his stories, and when you read In Our Time you wonder what publishers and readers were looking for in those days. It seems to me that the stories in In Our Time would do credit to a much more mature writer than Hemingway was when he wrote them. Yet, at the time he was writing them he and his wife were struggling to pay the bills, counting every penny, skipping meals. And meals are very important to Hemingway. Along with alcohol. As with much of his fiction, when Hemingway has the money, he really digs in and there are plenty of alcohol-fuelled encounters with poets, painters and novelists here. Perhaps the most memorable is a hilarious encounter with F Scott Fitzgerald. They arrange to go to Lyons together to collect Fitzgerald’s car which he and his wife had abandoned there. Despite Hemingway’s careful arrangements, they end up going down to Lyons on different trains and staying in different hotels. Eventually they meet up and collect the car, which turns out to have no roof; and this was the reason they abandoned it as they had no waterproofs either. After a couple of stiff drinks they set off for Paris with Fitzgerald at the wheel, and of course it rains several times and they get completely soaked. They take refuge in a hotel where Fitzgerald turns out to be a flaky hypochondriac. He takes to his bed demanding that Hemingway goes out and finds a thermometer and aspirin, believing he’s now terminally ill with pneumonia and needs to get to an American hospital asap as he can’t trust French doctors. Hemingway, of course, prescribes whisky, which works. I’ll say no more. This is a brilliant memoir, written in Hemingway’s characteristically terse, lean style. It’s poignant when you think about the whole of Hemingway’s career and realise that those early poverty-stricken years when he was struggling to make his name as a writer were probably his happiest and best years, personally and professionally.
Sketches from Hemingway's days in Paris. Scenes from a favorite cafe, lots of streets and places he knew, big names in literature. They're all snapshots of a time that will never be again.
I read 'A Moveable Feast' so I could compare his life to my own and despite sharing little of Hemingway's personality I find his observations to be useful. Ultimately, these snapshots will blur into a background tone for future readings of his fiction. Valuable but not individually memorable.
I read 'A Moveable Feast' so I could compare his life to my own and despite sharing little of Hemingway's personality I find his observations to be useful. Ultimately, these snapshots will blur into a background tone for future readings of his fiction. Valuable but not individually memorable.
In my teens and 20s I had a fanatical love for Hemingway, but I only read The Sun Also Rises, the short stories, and his letters. I read The Sun Also Rises at least 10 times, maybe more. But when I tried to read For Whom the Bell Tolls I couldn't stomach it, and then I had no ambition to read the other books, so I just read The Sun Also Rises again and again.
I've been thinking I'd like to read this book, and Death in the Afternoon, and then maybe someday I'll try one of the other novels. Anyway, this came into my hands and I devoured it, even though the writing is often like a parody of Hemingway's writing and it almost made me want to laugh. There's a lovely, sweet nostalgia in this. I didn't realize he'd written it more than 30 years after Paris. Here we have the pain-racked older Hemingway remembering the years when he was young and married to his first wife. They were poor and very happy together.
Here also are Gertrude Stein and Scott Fitzgerald and Ezra Pound (who sounds really wonderful) and some others I don't know much about, and a little name-dropping such as now and then he sees James Joyce in a restaurant. Part of the fun is all of them, and the star at the center of their orbits is Paris. The love affair of Hemingway and his wife, though, is what really glows and shines. Their happiness is the molten core and all the warmth and loveliness of Paris in this story is coming from that. The book on its surface is not about them, and their sweet relationship — it is about Paris and that time and Hemingway himself and his own orbit among the writers who lived there then.
I've been thinking I'd like to read this book, and Death in the Afternoon, and then maybe someday I'll try one of the other novels. Anyway, this came into my hands and I devoured it, even though the writing is often like a parody of Hemingway's writing and it almost made me want to laugh. There's a lovely, sweet nostalgia in this. I didn't realize he'd written it more than 30 years after Paris. Here we have the pain-racked older Hemingway remembering the years when he was young and married to his first wife. They were poor and very happy together.
Here also are Gertrude Stein and Scott Fitzgerald and Ezra Pound (who sounds really wonderful) and some others I don't know much about, and a little name-dropping such as now and then he sees James Joyce in a restaurant. Part of the fun is all of them, and the star at the center of their orbits is Paris. The love affair of Hemingway and his wife, though, is what really glows and shines. Their happiness is the molten core and all the warmth and loveliness of Paris in this story is coming from that. The book on its surface is not about them, and their sweet relationship — it is about Paris and that time and Hemingway himself and his own orbit among the writers who lived there then.
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
A beautiful glimpse into a moment, a place, which will never be repeated. Sure, Hemingway is delusional, and unable or unwilling to grasp his responsibility for everything, but that doesn't make the story less.
8/10. This was my first time reading Hemingway and, damn, that man can write. It's not hard to see why this little book holds such an iconic status. It is a portal into the culture of inter-war Paris; a celebration of many of the era's literary giants; a snapshot of philia; a loose collection of thoughts on the writing process; and an exemplar of wit and wry humor. This was one of those rare books that actually make me chuckle, and compelled me to dog-ear corners so I can easily refer to some of Hemingway's most compelling musings from time to time.
Each chapter is packed with references and riffs that I'm sure make this popular assigned reading in many literature and history courses. The only downside for me personally was that I feel some of the more subtle references may have escaped me having never read Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Stein, etc.
For some reason, I found Hemingway's sharp prose and wit most effective in his descriptions and analyses of things and people he does not like. For example, telling someone you find annoying that the only reason you won't shoot them is because there's a law against it absolutely savage.
This maybe wasn't the most obvious entry point into Hemingway's catalogue, but now I'm definitely looking forward to eventually reading his greatest works.
Each chapter is packed with references and riffs that I'm sure make this popular assigned reading in many literature and history courses. The only downside for me personally was that I feel some of the more subtle references may have escaped me having never read Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Stein, etc.
For some reason, I found Hemingway's sharp prose and wit most effective in his descriptions and analyses of things and people he does not like. For example, telling someone you find annoying that the only reason you won't shoot them is because there's a law against it absolutely savage.
This maybe wasn't the most obvious entry point into Hemingway's catalogue, but now I'm definitely looking forward to eventually reading his greatest works.
File under books I would have liked when I was a pretentious teen.
Hemingway's memoir of Paris in the years when he was becoming Hemingway. A great read.
Comment n'ai-je pas lu Hemingway plus tôt ?! Je n'en sais rien... Du coup, quelle bonne idée d'entrer dans son œuvre par ses souvenirs de sa vie à Paris (et ailleurs) dans les années 1920 !
Je découvre l'homme dont quelques amis, irréductibles fans de l'auteur, m'ont tant parlé ces 5 dernières années, par moi-même et au début de sa carrière, alors qu'il est, selon ses propres mots, jeune, pauvre et heureux.
Un merveilleux voyage ponctué de réflexion sur l'écriture et des anecdotes sur les artistes de l'époque qu'il croise, côtoie ou se voit mentionner. Découverte de certaines figures essentielles de la littérature et des arts, redécouverte sous un jour un peu moins favorable pour certains. Et toujours l'écriture, le métier d'écrivain, l'attitude d'Hemingway face à ses propres écrits, ceux des autres et la manière à la fois abrupte et pudique avec laquelle il fait face à certains aspects de la vie.
Une excellente découverte avant de m'engager dans ma lecture "obligatoire" mais néanmoins volontaire, pour un séminaire sur le Modernisme Américain, de "The Sun Also Rises", mentionné à la fin de "A Moveable Feast".
Le début d'une nouvelle histoire d'amour?
Je découvre l'homme dont quelques amis, irréductibles fans de l'auteur, m'ont tant parlé ces 5 dernières années, par moi-même et au début de sa carrière, alors qu'il est, selon ses propres mots, jeune, pauvre et heureux.
Un merveilleux voyage ponctué de réflexion sur l'écriture et des anecdotes sur les artistes de l'époque qu'il croise, côtoie ou se voit mentionner. Découverte de certaines figures essentielles de la littérature et des arts, redécouverte sous un jour un peu moins favorable pour certains. Et toujours l'écriture, le métier d'écrivain, l'attitude d'Hemingway face à ses propres écrits, ceux des autres et la manière à la fois abrupte et pudique avec laquelle il fait face à certains aspects de la vie.
Une excellente découverte avant de m'engager dans ma lecture "obligatoire" mais néanmoins volontaire, pour un séminaire sur le Modernisme Américain, de "The Sun Also Rises", mentionné à la fin de "A Moveable Feast".
Le début d'une nouvelle histoire d'amour?