staceyleedee 's review for:

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

5.0

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This is the 2009 reprint of the 1964 version I read and wrote about in the 1990s: the additions add much to the sketches reflecting parts of Hemingway's life in Paris in the 1920. He is more sympathetic, somehow, as is his portrait of Fitzgerald. But the best parts of this memoir are the descriptions of the streets, cafes, and food in Paris. His style works best when describing things and emotions and observed conversations, or even conversations between himself and those he dislikes or admires--it fails, to me, when he is attempting intimate dialogue. This reading, more than any other, makes me want to read the biography of Hadley (and no, not The Paris Wife, which was just silly). Paris: I'm ready to visit the streets and café Hemingway meticulously notes in this memoir! (And it looks like Hemingway's favorite café, Le Closerie des Lilas, exists, in full touristy splendor, though I'm surprised it is in the 6th arr. rather than the 5th: http://www.closeriedeslilas.fr/)