Book Review: The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

 

Title: The Paris Wife

Author: Paula McLain

Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance

About the 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. (from Goodreads)

My thoughts: I did like this book but somewhere in the middle it started to become really long for me.  I thought the author did a good job of describing the relationship between Hadley and Ernest and especially their introduction to life in Paris. The whole lifestyle and the traveling that they did was incredible and I couldn't imagine living like that.  Hadley had a really hard time fitting in, as she was more content with family than the fast life that Ernest seemed to be drawn too.  Had this been a different environment or a different time, maybe her and Ernest would have been able to survive it - however, we may not have gotten some of the Hemingway books that are around today. 

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain - Book Giveaway!!!

The Paris Wife

by Paula McLain

A deeply evocative story of ambition and betrayal, The Paris Wife captures a remarkable period of time -- Paris in the twenties -- and an extraordinary love affair between two unforgettable people: Ernest Hemingway and his wife Hadley.

In Chicago in 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 finds herself captivated by his good looks, intensity, and passionate desire to write.  Following a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for Paris, where they become the golden couple in a lively and volatile group of expatriates that includes Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.

But the hard-drinking and fast-living cafe life does not celebrate traditional notions of family and monogamy.  As Hadley struggles with jealousy and self-doubt and Ernest wrestles with his burgeoning writing career, they must confront a deception that could prove the undoing of one of the great romances in literary history.

Praise for THE PARIS WIFE

“THE PARIS WIFE is mesmerizing. Hadley Hemingway’s voice, lean and lyrical, kept me in my seat, unable to take my eyes and ears away from these young lovers. Paula McLain is a first-rate writer who creates a world you don’t want to leave. I loved this book.”

—Nancy Horan, New York Times bestselling author of Loving Frank

“Despite all that has been written about Hemingway by others and by the man himself, the magic of THE PARIS WIFE is that this Hemingway and this Paris, as imagined by Paula McLain, ring so true I felt as if I was eavesdropping on something new. As seen by the sure and steady eye of his first wife, Hadley, here is the spectacle of the man becoming the legend set against the bright jazzed heat of Paris in the 20s. As much about life and how we try and catch it

as it is about love even as it vanishes, this is

an utterly absorbing novel.”

—Sarah Blake, New York Times bestselling author of The Postmistress

“After nearly a century, there is a reason that the Lost Generation and Paris in the 1920’s still fascinate. It was a unique intersection of time and place, people and inspiration, romance and intrigue, betrayal and tragedy. THE PARIS WIFE brings that era to life through the eyes of Hadley Richardson Hemingway, who steps out of the shadows as the first wife of Ernest, and into the reader’s mind, as beautiful and as luminous as those extraordinary days in Paris after the Great War.”

—Mary Chapin Carpenter, singer and writer of the song “Mrs. Hemingway”

About the Author: PAULA MCLAIN received an MFA in poetry from the University of Michigan and has been awarded fellowships from Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, and the National Endowment for the Arts. She is the author of two collections of poetry as well as a memoir, Like Family: Growing Up in Other People’s Houses, and a first novel, A Ticket to Ride. She lives with her family in Cleveland.

The Paris Wife: A Novel

By Paula McLain

A Ballantine Books Hardcover * February 22, 2011

978-0-345-52130-9 * $25.00 * 336 pp

www.ballantinebooks.com

www.ParisWife.com

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