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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
Read for Faculty/Staff Bookgroup. This got better as it went along, and left me wanting to go back to reading nonfiction about the writers and other artists in Paris at the time.
I couldn't finish this book. I tried forcing myself but really it was just dreary and dreadful the whole time.
I almost didn’t finish this one. The beginning (and the majority) of the book is rather slow and tedious. I did enjoy the story and its close tie with real events. I chose to read this because I love Hemingway’s work and thought a depiction of him could be insightful.
I briefly hated men after reading this book. While it is a fictionalized account about Ernest Hemingway's first wife, Hadley, I felt so bad for Hadley when her marriage to Ernest was falling apart, and I wanted to punch Ernest in the face (I wanted to punch Paula too). McLain really brought Hadley to life and provided an interesting perspective on Ernest and on 1920s Paris and on the Hemingway's famous friends and their lifestyles.
If you love Hemingway you will love this book. I'm not in that camp so it was just mildly enjoyable.
I had been warned that this was not great literature, but it was a book group pick so I had to give it a try. I agree that it's not the greatest historical fiction I've ever read but I enjoyed it on several levels. There was a time that I read a lot about the lost generation, Paris in the 1920s, etc. and this brought back many memories. I'm pretty sure that I saw The Sun Also Rises in 1957! When I was reading the scenes about Pamplona, I could see Ava Gardner's face. If it were available streaming, I'd be watching it now.
I read a comment about the cover art and now it bothers me as well. The stylish woman in the picture is wearing a 1940s style suit. That's wrong on so many levels.
The breaking up scenes in the book were depressing so I had to run to Wikipedia and learn that Hadley did remarry and seems to have had a nice life.
I read a comment about the cover art and now it bothers me as well. The stylish woman in the picture is wearing a 1940s style suit. That's wrong on so many levels.
The breaking up scenes in the book were depressing so I had to run to Wikipedia and learn that Hadley did remarry and seems to have had a nice life.
This is my September book club selection. After I read approximately 20 pages, I could not put this book down. What a life Ernest and Hadley had together! The times were extraordinary.
This book is exceptional. The book that makes me ask "will I enjoy reading other books now?" The whirlwind love and marriage between Hadley and Ernest Hemingway is written in a compelling way. McLain paints a portrait of 1920's Paris in all its glory and damnation. It is a world I've entered through Edith Wharton's time there, but her 1920's Paris was one of the established elite - making fun of the up-and-coming literary icons dressing bohemian and writing in cafes. In the midst of this stands Hadley, as a character written by McLain AND as a solid, flesh-and-blood woman, who was in the culture but not of it. And though the relationship between Hadley and Ernest ended in a devastating way, the gritty truth of love and life that it reveals is lasting and powerful. I'm so glad that McLain was captivated by the Hemmingway's story, and in turn shared that fascination in such a wonderful novel. Now I'm curious to read some Hemminway, as I don't recall having read any before.
I loved this. It was beautifully written and I felt like the author, while fictionalizing the lives of Hadley and Ernest Hemingway, it’s so true to what I have always read. I love that she finds her voice in a time and lifestyle that would have been challenging to use. Team Zetta after Z and team Hadley after The Paris Wife. It was one I didn’t want to put down and showed the loyalty Hadley had for a struggling writer.
“To marry was to say you believed in the future and the past, too— that history and tradition and hope could stay knit together to hold you up.”
“Because it’s not always easy to know how to live.”
“He didn’t know how love managed to be a garden one moment and a war the next.”
“No one you truly love is ever lost.”
“To marry was to say you believed in the future and the past, too— that history and tradition and hope could stay knit together to hold you up.”
“Because it’s not always easy to know how to live.”
“He didn’t know how love managed to be a garden one moment and a war the next.”
“No one you truly love is ever lost.”