Once again I picked up the challenge to read a chick lit book for the reading challenge set by Samantha at Chicklitplus. This month’s book was a bit more work as I went for historical fiction that focused on the relationship between Ernest Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley. It is the second novel by Paula McLain called The Paris Wife.
Here is the description from Better World Books:
In Chicago in 1920, Hadley Richardson, a quiet 28-year-old, meets Ernest Hemingway. Following a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for Paris and become the golden couple in a lively group of expats, including Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and Gerald and Sara Murphy. But the hard-drinking and fast-living cafe life doesn’t celebrate traditional notions of family and monogamy. As Hadley struggles with self-doubt and jealousy and Ernest wrestles with his burgeoning writing career, they must confront a deception that could prove the undoing of one of the greatest romances in history.
Image from Better World Books.com
So we get to see inside the life of Hemingway and his first wife who had a few inheritances that provided for their life overseas. This allowed Hemingway to work without having to earn a living most of the time. He did work for a few publications but his temperament was not made for working in an office and playing politics.
What we see is Hadley’s viewpoint as a woman who believed that her love had real talent that needed to be worked at and tempered. As they move to Paris and begin to meet other writers, Ernest shares some of his conversation with Hadley about literature. That part is fascinating for me to see how Gertrude Stein influenced him.
What is heart-breaking is to see how Hemingway did not value Hadley as the story moves on. I could not tell if he actually felt guilt for the affairs, the crushes, the heartbreak he would cause Hadley. Then again, I am not sure he thought about much else than his own needs and wants.
Hadley describes how the man changes over the years that they are in Paris, how he goes from being neat and clean-shaven to a man proud to be in his shabby jacket and long hair. Perhaps by this time he felt like a real ex-patriot and therefore had to dress/look the part. she is not comfortable with these changes but realizes that he is exploring a new persona as he develops his talent and grows in success.
Photo by Bob Perkoski, Image from Freshwatercleveland.com
This book is supposed to be about Hadley, her thoughts and feelings during her time as ‘the Paris wife.’ But what I found it to be was more about what Hadley thought about Ernest, how he did everything, how he saw things, how he was the center of her world. And that includes life after Bumbly was born.
But I have to keep reminding myself in what era this book was written. Women were not expected to have a ‘life’ outside of marriage. Considering the years Hadley spent being depressed after the death of a favorite sister and the suicide of her father followed by taking care of a sick mother, I am surprised she had any will left at all.
Strangely enough, once she meets Ernest and they fall in love, Hadley has the will the drive to live differently than what would have been expected of her by her family.
Paula McLain has written a book that captures the time period, the players, the emotions of the time. We can hear the music, taste the alcohol, and see the running of the bulls. In the beginning, we see how these two crazy kids fall for each other as they have both come from families with difficult histories.
While slow at times, I found the book to be very interesting as I entered a world I had studied but never quite understood while I was in school. The wildness of the era, the constant drinking, the need to be ‘bohemian,’ the talent that constantly flowed like a springtime mountain stream.
To be honest, I would read this book again. That is the highest compliment I can give it.
Some books I don’t care if I ever see again after the initial reading. This one makes me want to explore it again while listening to music from that era. Afterwards, I will find Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris just so I can look for the references I missed the first time.
Who wants to join me for a trip back to 1920s Paris?
Editor’s Note: While researching more about Hemingway and Hadley, I also read boards on “Hemingway and Gellhorn” which is a movie about his third marriage to the legendary war correspondent. One poster stated that all of Hemingway’s wives latched onto to him for his fame and money. However, in the case of Hadley, it was Hemingway who latched on to her. She had some money and an emotional stability to help settle him while he was beginning his craft. She believed in his talent before he was published as a novelist or knew Stein, Ezra Pound or even Sherwood Anderson.
I realize that Hemingway is a hero to many but he was a pill to live with – as we see in this novel and other biographical anecdotes. Maybe the later wives ‘latched on’ to him but it did not take much persuading either.
Notes from Rumbly Cottage 
Sad how the women of these men suffered from neglect and lack of respect for their femininity (out of bed). Count another sad story. The love affair of Angelina Beloff and Diego Rivera. They never married yet shared 10 years together. They had a child who died. He left her. Then she desperately tried to follow him back to Mexico. In Mexico at the Palacio de Bellas Artes attending a function, they passed by each other by chance, and he didn’t even recognize her. Elena Poniatowska writes about them.
I need to put that on my list of books to read. He was married to Freda Kahlo, wasn’t he?.
Yes, he was married to Frida Kahlo twice. Angelina Beloff, a Russian expat in Paris, came before her. Angelina and Diego’s decade together was their first long relationship in a conjugal sense.
Great review. I can understand why the book was supposed to be about Hadley but seemed more about Hemingway. He was probably the center of her world, as he was the center of his world. The author understood that and wrote it true to both the time period and the relationship with such an egocentric man.
She was fascinating in her own way. What Hadley lacked was glamour and it makes me wonder if being glamorous cannot mix with emotional stability.
That’s an interesting question. I wonder that, too.
The pressures that society places on you (and you place on yourself) if you are glamorous must be enormous. It’s hard to stay centered when there is so much pushing and pulling going on inside and outside of you… Of course, I wouldn’t know about that from direct experience. I’m only conjecturing! 😉
and always looked gorgeous. However, she died after a particularly nasty fight with Ernest years after they were divorced. Apparently, she had some illness that made her adrenaline rush in greater amounts than usual. This fight about a son who was a cross dresser literally did her in.
I’ve seen this on the library shelves – will pick it up after your review. These have to be read with an understanding of the era and roles of the time – which is one good reason these must be read by those today: to recognize the changes of values and expectations. Interesting people forget she had the money ( and personality) – which enabled him to achieve.
Enjoyed the post!
He later stated regret that he had left her. Apparently, people in their group of friends thought she was a little too stodgy and not modern enough to take him to the next level. But she was his rock as the other wives could never be. I almost feel sorry for wife #4 who thought she was getting a viral celebrity and ended up taking care of an aging alcoholic.
Enjoyed reading your take on this book. It is one of my book club’s selections for later this year.
I would like to hear what you and others think about the book.
I’ll try to remember to report in…however, we won’t be reading it till spring.
Those are the book showing us the past stories of sad lovely women. At some times, they are telling me that it was happened so that I could not be more disappointed with my love life. At some times, they are discouraging me to believe if there is any good man who’s worthy to love.
I should tell you what happened to Hadley after the divorce. After a short return to the U.S., she came back to Paris with Bumbly. She met another of Ernst’s colleagues in the newspaper business, Paul. He wooed her for five years before they married but finally she did so, partially because he treated Bumbly so well. Hadley and Paul were married for over 30 years. So she had the exciting love marriage and an enduring marriage that was quite happy.