Book Club reading review for the Paris Wife.

 

A small but enthusiastic group of members met at The Black Horse Public House on American Independence day for our regular meeting,  The fact that it was  July the fourth had no real significance other than the book we were about to discuss was about the first marriage of celebrated American author Ernest Hemmingway. 

Our regular meeting place is currently undergoing refurbishment so we had to find an alternative. This popular pub was suggested by one of our Book Group as its central but unfortunately the large lounge area does not open until 7.15 our meetings start at 6.30 and the bar area was full. So as the first arrival I took up position in the outside area as a light mizzle of rain started to fall. We did eventually manage to secure a table and seats in the bar area.

A lot of our regular members were unable to attend as they were enjoying summer breaks in a variety of venues. However an amazing six of us managed to attend and most had either finished reading the book or were almost finished so we could have a reasonable discussion. 

Emma had kindly sent her views via our chat group, which I read out in full.

 The line “But when I wake again, the sentences are there waiting for me, shouting at me to be set down”: page 277. Emma remarked that this really resonated with her as a writer.  Sometimes everything just flows and it’s all there in my head and doesn’t take any effort to write. Sometimes it’s a bit harder.

This book was more unusual than our regular choices as it was fiction but the plot involved real people and real events.  I think Pauline’s comment summed it up for me:

 “It was neither nowt nor summit “Perhaps that reflects the fact that it was a mix of fact and fiction and as such did not measure up for either genre?

Debb was unable to attend but sent her comments;

 “ I found it difficult to empathise with the characters as they led such a privileged, affected lifestyle, but enjoyed dipping my toe into that era “

Most of us did agree that it was not a difficult book to read, Linda commenting that she had really enjoyed it. One incident being particularly memorable.  This was when Hadley cut her hair into the more fashionable shorter style in Paris. She then regretted it and didn’t like it but Hemingway did. The Jazz Era was successfully depicted and the contrast between these fast living, hard drinking liberated types and the stay at home domesticated wife was well portrayed.

The Paris wife is narrated obviously from Hadley’s point of view. Chronicling the five year marriage to the novelist, who was in fact eight years her junior. She is whisked away from her quiet, spinsterish life to live amongst the literary glitterati of the day.  These included Gertrude Stein, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and Ezra Pound. Even if you were completely unaware of Hemingway’s numerous marriages I think it would not have taken too much guesswork to see where this partnership was heading. Hadley comes across as a perfectly decent person who loved her husband and their child but became the discarded first wife of a man who seemed to treat her badly. To the extent that at one point he actually complained to her for not understanding why he was cheating on her with her glamourous friend Pauline!

I think the writer has displayed Hadley’s character with dignity and you do sympathise with her as she loses everything she loves. If she had not been married to Hemingway she would just have been another devoted wife who’s boorish and self-centred husband trades in for a new one.

There was a lot of supplementary discussion around Hemingway himself. I suppose that was inevitable given his legacy of literature and lifestyle. It also transpired that most of the assembled members had not actually read any of his novels. I was surprised by this as we could name a lot of titles, but I suppose some have been made into films too. It did however encourage us to go back and read some of his work. In fact, Hemingway did write about this particular period of his life in A Moveable Feast in which he describes it as:

“How Paris was in the early days when we were very poor and very happy”.

It’s a shame he didn’t realise this at the time.

We scored this book 3.5 out of 5.

August Book is The Tent the Bucket and ME by Emma Kennedy

 

                               

The Book we have chosen for September is Milkman by Anna Burns.

Pauline has agreed to compile the next list.

Our next Book Club meeting will be Thursday 1^st August, hopefully at the re-opened Aletaster/ Crown