The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

Since our days of dating, my husband and I have debated over our two favorite authors, Hemingway and Fitzgerald.  They were wrote during the 1920s and both were expatriates in Paris - but their resemblance seems to end there.  Hemingway's writing reflects his history with journalism as he writes with short sentences and his stories lack superfluous details.  Fitzgerald, on the other hand, writes stories rich with symbolism and imagery.  I recently read The Sun Also Rises for the first time and found it, well, disappointing.  I kept throwing the book down and asking Jesse, "What's the point?!".  Honestly, I was bored.

After finishing it, I began The Paris Wife, a book someone mentioned to me over the summer.  And it was this book that made me interested in Ernest Hemingway while simultaneously refueling my love of Fitzgerald.

The Paris Wife is a popular nickname for Hadley Hemingway, Ernest Hemingway's first wife, because she is the woman to whom he was married while living in Paris and starting his writing career. This novel of the same name is written from Hadley's point of view and, although it's fiction, is based on factual events and correspondence between the Hemingways.  I found it thoroughly fascinating.

The book begins when Hadley meets Ernest and ends right after their divorce.  Shortly after their marriage, the two moved to Paris and started friendships with several other authors, including Gertrude Stein and the Fitzgeralds.  They struggle financially while Ernest tries to make a living of his writing, but they travel constantly.  

I had read that The Sun Also Rises was based on real events of Ernest's life, and this novel describes that trip from Paris to Spain and the friends upon whom Ernest based his novel.  It was interesting to read the "other side" immediately after reading the story.

The entire time I read The Paris Wife, I felt like it was an autobiography.  So much of the book sounded familiar to me from my studies of the Lost Generation writers.  I looked up Hadley Hemingway after finishing the book and discovered the book is based entirely on true events.  The only fictional part of the novel are the emotions of the characters and the conversations they have (although even some of those are based on real correspondences).

It's a great novel, especially for someone interested in the 20s, in Paris, in Spain... in reading.  Sure, it made me appreciate The Sun Also Rises, and I'm sure that after I research that novel more and I teach it, I'll grow to understand its significance in the literary world - but for now, I'd recommend The Paris Wife first.