This post will be completely different than any other post I have written. I never really thought about doing book or movie reviews, but after my latest read I just had to share my opinion.
First off, I really did not know that much about Ernest Hemingway, just the basic facts that I had picked up over time. I will admit I have become somewhat fascinated with him since we visited Shakespeare and Co. in Paris. This is a little book store that was often visited by Hemingway, Fitzgerald and other great authors of their time.
I never knew anything about his marriages, other than he had several of them, but I was intrigued to read this story about his first wife Hadley, Hemingway's Paris Wife.
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| Hadley Richardson Hemingway |
I love the fact, that even though fiction, this book takes you through the intense love and passion that Ernest and Hadley held for one another. From the very beginning you can see that their relationship and marriage would be tested not just by others and family, but also by the Hemingways themselves.
Paula McLain does a fantastic job of bringing 1920's Paris to life. I could just feel myself walking around the streets of the city right alongside Hadley and Ernest. It brought back wonderful memories of our time there and presented what life was really like during the era of the Roaring Twenties. Paris was so different from the Mid-west United States that the Hemingways departed from and that Parisian life would not only test them, but would change them both.
The only issue I had with this novel was the use of some profanity. I can see that this is exactly how a man like Hemingway would have spoken, but I do believe the story could have been told just as well without it.
Overall I give the book four out of five stars. It is beautifully written and presents the story of a regular girl caught up in a romance for the ages.
"That's my 'two-cents worth', what's yours?"
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