Reviewed by Mary Hortman
The Paris Wife
by Paula McLain
I just finished reading The Paris Wife, I'm happy to say. When I love a book, I'm mildly depressed when I finish it. When I don't altogether love a book, I'm happy to be done with it. Not that I didn't enjoy it...to a point. It's a fictionalized story about the marriage of Ernest Hemingway and his first wife Hadley, and their life in 1920s Paris. I can't totally dismiss a book that is set in 1920s Paris, especially if it includes Gertrude Stein, Hemingway, and the Fitzgerald clan. Love those Fitzgeralds.
That concludes my positive thoughts. Now for the negatives (I should admit that criticism comes naturally for me - just ask my kids). I would think that one of the challenges in writing about real people is that one has to stick to true events...at least for the most part. Therefore, this is a purely character-driven story. Even though they are interesting characters, there's not much in the way of surprising plot twists - especially if you've ever read anything about Hemingway and his cohorts. They drink a lot. They stay up too late. They cheat on their spouses. They're assholes. They're "tortured souls". Shockingly, their marriages don't usually pan out.
I also found certain things annoying. For example, these two have an endless stockpile of pet names for one another. Tatie. Tiny. Kate...I'm not sure how he derived Kate from Hadley, nor do I get why she would call him Tiny, but I digress. And Hadley (the narrator) is always making references to how little money they have, yet they always somehow manage to have a cook/housekeeper, and later cook/housekeeper must also be a nanny.
Perhaps these nitpicky thoughts are masking the greater disappointment. I suppose it's always a letdown to find that the artistic geniuses to whom we look upon with awe and reverence are really just flawed human beings. Selfish. Egotistic. Excessive. Entitled. Horribly flawed human beings.*
I want to end on a positive note. Despite these possibly-nitpicky criticisms, I would still recommend the book for those who are drawn to that time and place. I enjoyed imagining the smells and sights of Paris. I loved listening in my head to the sounds of snorting bulls in the arena as our young writer watches and internalizes everything before him. You know where it's leading, but you still want to go along for the ride.
*Apologies to my English teacher friends...I enjoy an occasional fragmented sentence.
I also found certain things annoying. For example, these two have an endless stockpile of pet names for one another. Tatie. Tiny. Kate...I'm not sure how he derived Kate from Hadley, nor do I get why she would call him Tiny, but I digress. And Hadley (the narrator) is always making references to how little money they have, yet they always somehow manage to have a cook/housekeeper, and later cook/housekeeper must also be a nanny.
Perhaps these nitpicky thoughts are masking the greater disappointment. I suppose it's always a letdown to find that the artistic geniuses to whom we look upon with awe and reverence are really just flawed human beings. Selfish. Egotistic. Excessive. Entitled. Horribly flawed human beings.*
I want to end on a positive note. Despite these possibly-nitpicky criticisms, I would still recommend the book for those who are drawn to that time and place. I enjoyed imagining the smells and sights of Paris. I loved listening in my head to the sounds of snorting bulls in the arena as our young writer watches and internalizes everything before him. You know where it's leading, but you still want to go along for the ride.
*Apologies to my English teacher friends...I enjoy an occasional fragmented sentence.
I found The Paris Wife to be a light but entertaining read. If I could time travel, this is the first time and place I would visit. I'm fascinated by the characters--especially the American ex-pats--that she writes about. I realize it's fiction, but she did an enormous amount of research, so at least it's informed fiction. I'm looking forward to reading McLain's new book, Circling the Sun, a historical novel about Beryl Markham, an interesting female pilot in the -20s.
ReplyDeleteOoh...that does sound interesting. Something about the 20s...
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