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whatmeaganreads 's review for:
The Paris Wife
by Paula McLain
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.”