Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
If only more historical fiction works could be written similar to this! It's a dynamite read! I can sense Hadley's passion for her ambitious husband, but his lack of morals is quite appalling. I sense her unhappiness as his affairs come to light. I sense her desires for things to be better because no one really wants to fail at marriage. I detest the other woman because she practically shoved Hadley out of her own marriage.
My impression of Ernest Hemingway is this: he's very self-centered. He cares about nothing but his own work and making his own name stand out in the literary world. His wife and child-bah! He can always divorce and remarry. But I will say that it's quite sad that he eventually committed suicide. The world will always wonder what other works he might have written. Perhaps he realized that he wasn't the man he thought he was.
It's a very good book overall and I think you'll be pleased with the writing style. I wish there wasn't so much drinking, but I'm afraid it was the norm in Europe during this time.
My impression of Ernest Hemingway is this: he's very self-centered. He cares about nothing but his own work and making his own name stand out in the literary world. His wife and child-bah! He can always divorce and remarry. But I will say that it's quite sad that he eventually committed suicide. The world will always wonder what other works he might have written. Perhaps he realized that he wasn't the man he thought he was.
It's a very good book overall and I think you'll be pleased with the writing style. I wish there wasn't so much drinking, but I'm afraid it was the norm in Europe during this time.
I have a love-hate relationship with this book similar to my love-hate relationship to the real Hemingway. I knew the marriage wouldn’t have a happy ending, but that didn’t make it hurt any less when it came. The background knowledge from teaching Hemingway definitely added a layer of enjoyment to my reading this book. And I could feel Paris from the very first page.
slow-paced
I don't know how, but despite this book being boring and frustrating, it was hard to stop reading. Ultimately, I could have skipped it and been fine. I enjoyed the depictions of life in Paris and the literary scene. However, I found myself curious to know how much speculation went into this account of Hadley and Ernest's relationship.
Full review at: Biblia Abiblia
It should be known that I have never read Ernest Hemingway’s work.
I mean, I’m not exactly proud to admit that, and I fully intend on eventually reading it, especially after reading this book. But still, I feel like my experience reading this novel is affected by the fact that I came into it knowing virtually nothing about the Hemingways or Hadley. Mostly, I came to this book because I was intrigued by a Famous Writer in early 20’s Paris.
Ah, Paris. I’ve never left the United States but reading gratuitous amounts literature about the city makes me feel like I’ve strolled down the boulevard Saint Michel. This book definitely indulged my idealism about Paris, and the Jazz Age! Surely this would be a book I’d tear through in just days. (Spoiler Alert: about midway through I had to muster myself to not skim!)
It should be known that I have never read Ernest Hemingway’s work.
I mean, I’m not exactly proud to admit that, and I fully intend on eventually reading it, especially after reading this book. But still, I feel like my experience reading this novel is affected by the fact that I came into it knowing virtually nothing about the Hemingways or Hadley. Mostly, I came to this book because I was intrigued by a Famous Writer in early 20’s Paris.
Ah, Paris. I’ve never left the United States but reading gratuitous amounts literature about the city makes me feel like I’ve strolled down the boulevard Saint Michel. This book definitely indulged my idealism about Paris, and the Jazz Age! Surely this would be a book I’d tear through in just days. (Spoiler Alert: about midway through I had to muster myself to not skim!)
beautiful and heartbreaking. especially interesting to read after "z: a novel of zelda fitzgerald." so funny to compare how their fictional versions described each other!
first read: september 2013, audiobook
second read: february 2018, print, to prepare for Paula McLain's visit to our library
first read: september 2013, audiobook
second read: february 2018, print, to prepare for Paula McLain's visit to our library
I was intrigued by the summary of this book given by a friend in a book club and just had to read it for myself. I however, have somewhat of a different idea on Ernest Hemingway and his first wife's story.
No doubt they both love each other but I wasn't swept away by his seeming love for Hadley. He came across as very direct and hard at times while Hadley seemed very accommodating and aloof. I understand too that this was in the 1920s and times have surely changed since then with the way women were supposed to act. One thing that baffled me so was how they supposedly never had money but they took week's long trips and some even longer than that, very often and were never without alcohol that I'm sure was even a luxury back then.
Another part of this story that really upset me and was never so much as mentioned that she acknowledged or ever knew about and that was his first "fling" when he went away. Add that to the way that she seemed to be okay with him and Pauline. I can't even fathom how you can even act normal and carry on "friend" duties once you know your husband and friend have been together.
Overall, I enjoyed following these characters around on their adventures and getting a front row seat to how they lived. There were spots in this book that were definitely hard to read but there were also some good ones. I loved Hadley's character and how she handled herself when she was finally able to get some things off of her chest. She really was too good of a person as he said. I learned many things about Hemingway and googled so much more because of this book.
"Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a quiet twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness—until she meets Ernest Hemingway and her life changes forever. Following a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for Paris, where they become the golden couple in a lively and volatile group—the fabled “Lost Generation”—that includes Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.
Though deeply in love, the Hemingways are ill prepared for the hard-drinking and fast-living life of Jazz Age Paris, which hardly values traditional notions of family and monogamy. Surrounded by beautiful women and competing egos, Ernest struggles to find the voice that will earn him a place in history, pouring all the richness and intensity of his life with Hadley and their circle of friends into the novel that will become The Sun Also Rises. Hadley, meanwhile, strives to hold on to her sense of self as the demands of life with Ernest grow costly and her roles as wife, friend, and muse become more challenging. Despite their extraordinary bond, they eventually find themselves facing the ultimate crisis of their marriage—a deception that will lead to the unraveling of everything they’ve fought so hard for.
A heartbreaking portrayal of love and torn loyalty, The Paris Wife is all the more poignant because we know that, in the end, Hemingway wrote that he would rather have died than fallen in love with anyone but Hadley."-Goodreads
“Sometimes I wish we could rub out all of our mistakes and start fresh, from the beginning,' I said. 'And sometimes I think there isn't anything to us but our mistakes.”
“People belong to each other only as long as they both believe. He stopped believing.”
“We knew what we had and what it meant, and though so much had happened since for both of us, there was nothing like those years in Paris, after the war. Life was painfully pure and simple and good, and I believed Ernest was his best self then. I got the very best of him. We got the best of each other.”
No doubt they both love each other but I wasn't swept away by his seeming love for Hadley. He came across as very direct and hard at times while Hadley seemed very accommodating and aloof. I understand too that this was in the 1920s and times have surely changed since then with the way women were supposed to act. One thing that baffled me so was how they supposedly never had money but they took week's long trips and some even longer than that, very often and were never without alcohol that I'm sure was even a luxury back then.
Another part of this story that really upset me and was never so much as mentioned that she acknowledged or ever knew about and that was his first "fling" when he went away. Add that to the way that she seemed to be okay with him and Pauline. I can't even fathom how you can even act normal and carry on "friend" duties once you know your husband and friend have been together.
Overall, I enjoyed following these characters around on their adventures and getting a front row seat to how they lived. There were spots in this book that were definitely hard to read but there were also some good ones. I loved Hadley's character and how she handled herself when she was finally able to get some things off of her chest. She really was too good of a person as he said. I learned many things about Hemingway and googled so much more because of this book.
"Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a quiet twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness—until she meets Ernest Hemingway and her life changes forever. Following a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for Paris, where they become the golden couple in a lively and volatile group—the fabled “Lost Generation”—that includes Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.
Though deeply in love, the Hemingways are ill prepared for the hard-drinking and fast-living life of Jazz Age Paris, which hardly values traditional notions of family and monogamy. Surrounded by beautiful women and competing egos, Ernest struggles to find the voice that will earn him a place in history, pouring all the richness and intensity of his life with Hadley and their circle of friends into the novel that will become The Sun Also Rises. Hadley, meanwhile, strives to hold on to her sense of self as the demands of life with Ernest grow costly and her roles as wife, friend, and muse become more challenging. Despite their extraordinary bond, they eventually find themselves facing the ultimate crisis of their marriage—a deception that will lead to the unraveling of everything they’ve fought so hard for.
A heartbreaking portrayal of love and torn loyalty, The Paris Wife is all the more poignant because we know that, in the end, Hemingway wrote that he would rather have died than fallen in love with anyone but Hadley."-Goodreads
“Sometimes I wish we could rub out all of our mistakes and start fresh, from the beginning,' I said. 'And sometimes I think there isn't anything to us but our mistakes.”
“People belong to each other only as long as they both believe. He stopped believing.”
“We knew what we had and what it meant, and though so much had happened since for both of us, there was nothing like those years in Paris, after the war. Life was painfully pure and simple and good, and I believed Ernest was his best self then. I got the very best of him. We got the best of each other.”
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book drawed me in from the beginning and finished it in only a few days which is really good for me. I caught myself googling the characters of the book to see what they looked like. The only thing I knew about the Hemingway family is that many of them had commited suicide so even with so little knowledge of the family it was still interesting. I've never read any of of Ernest's work but now considering it.
I'm always a little bit skeptical when reading historical fiction that deals so heavily with people who really existed. It's hard for me to just enjoy the book on its own terms without constantly wondering how much of it is true to life. I'm not very familiar with Hemingway's work except for some required high school reading that I don't remember much of, so I didn't have too many preconceptions. From a very cursory bit of online research that I did after finishing the book it sounds like the author had a lot of material to give her insight into Hadley's character, and it seems like this book may have been fairly true to her story. Well done and an enjoyable read.