After rereading The Paris Wife I decided it would be interesting to read Hemingway's account of the same period in his life. A Moveable Feast was one of the first books he wrote but it wasn't published until after his death. Because he wasn't quite through with it, it has been published in different versions with each editor making different choices of what to include from his notes and drafts. I read a version which was edited by his grandson, Sean Hemingway which claims to be "the original manuscript as the author intended it to be published".The book reads much like a collection of short stories with each chapter presenting a discrete event, most of which are very recognizable from The Paris Wife. Before I read Paris Wife, I knew very little about Hemingway beyond a thumbnail sketch of where he had lived, his love of fishing and his involvement in WWI and the Spanish Civil War. After my first read of Paris Wife, I really disliked him for his treatment of his wife, his alcohol abuse (which seems to have been the norm with artists in Paris in the 1920's) and his aparent shallowness. I saw more depth in his character on my second pass through Paris Wife and in Moveable Feast I finally came to rather like him. One of my favorite chapters is "THe Education of Mr. Bumby". In it his son Jack (nicknamed Bumby) is portrayed as a very precocious little boy. His age isn't specified but since Hemingway and Hadley were only together for five years, Jack can't have been more than about three. The following conversation takes place when Hemingway and Bumby are on their way to meet F. Scott Fitzgerald:(Bumby) "Will he be drinking so much?"(Hemingway) "No. He said we would not be drinking."(Bumby) "I will make an example."That afternoon when Scott and I met with Bumby at a neutral cafe Scott was not drinking and we each ordered a bottle of mineral water."For me a demi-blonde," Bumby said."Do you allow that child to drink beer?" Scott asked."Touton says that a little beer does no harm to a boy of my age," Bumby said. "But make it a ballon."A ballon was only a half glass of beer.....The talk was far over Bumby's head but he listened attentively and afterwards when we had talked of other things and Scott had left, full of mineral water and the resolve to write well and truly, I asked Bumby why he had ordered a beer. "Touton says that a man should first learn to control himself," he said. "I thought I could make an example."
Show lessAfter rereading The Paris Wife I decided it would be interesting to read Hemingway's account of the same period in his life. A Moveable Feast was one of the first books he wrote but it wasn't published until after his death. Because he wasn't quite through with it, it has been published in different versions with each editor making different choices of what to include from his notes and drafts. I read a version which was edited by his grandson, Sean Hemingway which claims to be "the original manuscript as the author intended it to be published".The book reads much like a collection of short stories with each chapter presenting a discrete event, most of which are very recognizable from The Paris Wife. Before I read Paris Wife, I knew very little about Hemingway beyond a thumbnail sketch of where he had lived, his love of fishing and his involvement in WWI and the Spanish Civil War. After my first read of Paris Wife, I really disliked him for his treatment of his wife, his alcohol abuse (which seems to have been the norm with artists in Paris in the 1920's) and his aparent shallowness. I saw more depth in his character on my second pass through Paris Wife and in Moveable Feast I finally came to rather like him. One of my favorite chapters is "THe Education of Mr. Bumby". In it his son Jack (nicknamed Bumby) is portrayed as a very precocious little boy. His age isn't specified but since Hemingway and Hadley were only together for five years, Jack can't have been more than about three. The following conversation takes place when Hemingway and Bumby are on their way to meet F. Scott Fitzgerald:(Bumby) "Will he be drinking so much?"(Hemingway) "No. He said we would not be drinking."(Bumby) "I will make an example."That afternoon when Scott and I met with Bumby at a neutral cafe Scott was not drinking and we each ordered a bottle of mineral water."For me a demi-blonde," Bumby said."Do you allow that child to drink beer?" Scott asked."Touton says that a little beer does no harm to a boy of my age," Bumby said. "But make it a ballon."A ballon was only a half glass of beer.....The talk was far over Bumby's head but he listened attentively and afterwards when we had talked of other things and Scott had left, full of mineral water and the resolve to write well and truly, I asked Bumby why he had ordered a beer. "Touton says that a man should first learn to control himself," he said. "I thought I could make an example."
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Hemingway's memoir of living in Paris among the ex-pats in the 1920's, written much later and published posthumously. It's a lovely read, presenting us with a gentle romantic picture of what life was like when you were young, in love and could live on next-to-nothing. Even though this is clearly based on his life with his first wife, and the people are all real and the names have not been changed (Fitzgerald, Joyce, Gertrude Stein, Sylvia Beach) the Scribner Classics edition contains this amazing disclaimer: "This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental." Hemingway himself, in the preface (written in 1960), puts it a bit differently: "If the reader prefers, this book may be regarded as fiction." Hemingway was a great one for the "truth" of things. So, did it all really happen the way he tells it, or didn't it? The principals are all dead now, so we'll never really know for sure. But isn't it pretty to think so?
Show lessHemingway's memoir of living in Paris among the ex-pats in the 1920's, written much later and published posthumously. It's a lovely read, presenting us with a gentle romantic picture of what life was like when you were young, in love and could live on next-to-nothing. Even though this is clearly based on his life with his first wife, and the people are all real and the names have not been changed (Fitzgerald, Joyce, Gertrude Stein, Sylvia Beach) the Scribner Classics edition contains this amazing disclaimer: "This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental." Hemingway himself, in the preface (written in 1960), puts it a bit differently: "If the reader prefers, this book may be regarded as fiction." Hemingway was a great one for the "truth" of things. So, did it all really happen the way he tells it, or didn't it? The principals are all dead now, so we'll never really know for sure. But isn't it pretty to think so?
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I'm not entirely sure what I think of this book. It's basically a series of essays about Hemingway's early years in Paris, but there's not much of a connection between most of them, and they're not all necessarily in chronological order. But given that I read the book while in Paris, it was enjoyable to read about streets and quarters that I've been in.
Show lessI'm not entirely sure what I think of this book. It's basically a series of essays about Hemingway's early years in Paris, but there's not much of a connection between most of them, and they're not all necessarily in chronological order. But given that I read the book while in Paris, it was enjoyable to read about streets and quarters that I've been in.
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