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The Paris Wife

by Paula McLain (Goodreads Author), Carrington MacDuffie

3.74 of 5 stars 3.74 · rating details · 79,394 ratings · 10,813 reviews

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

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. Followi...more

Audio, 49 pages

Published February 22nd 2011 by Random House Audio

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Mar 24, 2012 Petra X rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Several lessons to be learned from Ernest Hemingway's first wife on how he got his second one:

1) If you can't be sweet and submissive at least be lively and rich.
2) If you still have post-pregnancy weight from a baby your husband didn't really want and have to stay in to look after it, then don't let the lively and rich (and better-dressed) woman come on holiday with you. Regularly.
3) If you wake up to find that you and your husband have been joined by a naked female on his side of the bed - wha...more

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Jan 03, 2013 Lena Hillbrand rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: see review

Shelves: audiobooks, believe-the-hype, books-that-taught-me-something

The Paris Wife made me remember why I love historical fiction so much. McLain not only captures the atmosphere, but she does it with striking prose. I was not surprised to learn she'd published a book of poetry prior to this.
I just finished this book and I'm a little overwhelmed by it, but I'll do my best to form coherent thoughts. First of all, I cannot stress enough what an amazing job the author did of capturing the atmosphere of post-war Paris. Not that I was there to experience it, but aft...more The Paris Wife made me remember why I love historical fiction so much. McLain not only captures the atmosphere, but she does it with striking prose. I was not surprised to learn she'd published a book of poetry prior to this.
I just finished this book and I'm a little overwhelmed by it, but I'll do my best to form coherent thoughts. First of all, I cannot stress enough what an amazing job the author did of capturing the atmosphere of post-war Paris. Not that I was there to experience it, but after reading this book, I feel like I was. Like I walked the streets, participated in the extravagance, the decadence, the debauchery, the fashions and fads of the time, the whiskey and wine, the cigarettes and smoke, the poverty and claustrophobia. The atmosphere of the book itself is enough to make me love it. And the fact that it's about a writer only made me adore it more. It made me want to be there, to throw myself into their world, to smoke and drink and ski and go fishing and fall in love and write a novel. The only thing it did not make me want to do was go to a bullfight, but that's only because I did not enjoy that experience myself. If I'd never been to one, I certainly would want to after reading McLain's novel.
Aside from the atmosphere, McLain also captures the personalities of her characters so well. I felt like I was Hadley while I read it. Her parts were so alive, so aching and beautiful. Hemingway's few sections were also wonderful, confused and tortured and with a quite distinct voice from his wife's. Even though I knew what was coming, I still held on with Hadley and ached for her, cried for her a few times, loved with her. Because who hasn't loved that man who is so wrong for you, but so swooningly right?
There were a few parts where it went so far I just cringed, too horrified to look but unable to stop. (view spoiler) Also, the part where Hadley loses Ernest's manuscripts. Being a writer myself, it just knocked the breath out of me. That must be every writer's worst nightmare. I was literally gasping to breathe at how terrible it would be, and McLain does a wonderful job showing that, even through the eyes of the wife instead of the writer himself.
Hemingway is captured well, too. I understood his artist mentality very well. McLain takes an age old story (the struggling artist, a nobody, falls in love with another nobody, they get married, she stays in love while he gets famous and becomes somebody, and suddenly, his nobody wife isn't enough for him) and makes it stand out in all its tragedy and romance. This isn't a romance novel, but possibly the most romantic book I've ever read--not only in Hadley and Ernest's love, but in Paris, and the sweeping scope of the novel, the lavishness, the beauty of language and description and location, of each event, each chapter of their love affair. Even their demise is poignant and heartbreaking and messy, but rings with absolute truth.
In the epilogue, when it goes into the history of Ernest's family, I got a bit of a shock. Of course I knew of Hemingway's death, but I didn't know about the rest of his family. It was so morbid, and tragic, and sad. I'm glad that Hadley lived a long and full life, despite the wild years of drinking and smoking and cavorting around Paris with her artist husband. And glad to learn that she went on to happiness, even if she couldn't help Ernest. Like so many tragic figures, you find that the ones who need help are the ones who refuse it the most vehemently. Warning: This novel does paint Hemingway in a very sympathetic light, despite his flaws and shortcomings.

Recommended for: anyone who's ever been in love, been betrayed, or been to Paris.(less)

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Jun 15, 2012 Clif Hostetler rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction

A storybook romance--a match made in heaven--surely it would last a lifetime, but it didn't. This is the story of Ernest Hemingway's first marriage that includes the years of his early writing career. It is told in the first person voice of Hadley, his first wife (first of four). The basic facts, movements and accomplishments of their relationship are well documented by previous biographies and memoirs. This book is written as historical fiction, and is thus able to make the story come alive in...more A storybook romance--a match made in heaven--surely it would last a lifetime, but it didn't. This is the story of Ernest Hemingway's first marriage that includes the years of his early writing career. It is told in the first person voice of Hadley, his first wife (first of four). The basic facts, movements and accomplishments of their relationship are well documented by previous biographies and memoirs. This book is written as historical fiction, and is thus able to make the story come alive in personal ways by reconstructing the probable thoughts, feelings and conversations in ways that can't be done in nonfiction writing.

The author has made the story an interesting and compelling romantic tale of his wife as inspirational muse, supporter and enabler, both emotionally and financially. Her income from a trust fund and inheritances enabled them to go to Paris in the first place. While in Europe they rubbed shoulders with the fabled "Lost Generation" that included Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. The experiences of life in Paris and their travels in Europe are so much a part of Hemingway's subsequent writing that it's unlikely that the literary world would have ever discovered Hemingway had they remained in Chicago.

Hemingway's personality as portrayed in this book confirms some of my impressions of him from other sources. He was probably bipolar, and in his manic state he was pretty full of himself. He probably considered himself to be God's gift to women, and there were plenty of women who agreed. It was this sort of arrogance that doomed his first marriage, and probably explains why his life ended up including a total of four wives. In his later years, and in what were probably depressive states of mind, he seems to have reflected on how he was responsible for ending a special and unique relationship when he split with Hadley.

In discussing this book it ultimately leads to the question of why their relationship didn't survive. The book suggests that Hemingway found his second wife to be more modern, interesting, and more astute regarding literary matters than Hadley. She also flattered his ego in an uncritical manner, whereas Hadley provided advice of a more objective nature.

I also couldn't help but notice that the second woman Ernest married was more wealthy than Hadley. This enabled him to comfortably set up shop in the Florida Keys. But the wealth of his second wife also allowed him to be generous to Hadley in the divorce settlement. He dedicated the income from the royalties of his novel, The Sun Also Rises, to Hadley as well as dedicating the book to her and their son.

As described in this book, Hemingway wrote about scenes and experiences he actually experienced. The added fictional veneer was just enough to provide a plot line. This book has given me an incentive to read The Sun Also Rises because he wrote that book while still married to Hadley and incorporated many of the activities they witnessed together. Many of the personalities of their acquaintances from that era can be recognized in the novel. However, Hadley is not one of the characters written into the plot--probably because she was too rational and practical (i.e. uninteresting).

This book, however, brought her to life in an interesting way. She was the steady rock that allowed Ernest to start his career. Once he tasted success, he jilted her. But she recovered, and entered into a second happy marriage that lasted for the rest of her long life. Her success in her second marriage is its own form of revenge.

The following is a short review from PageADay's Book Lover's Calendar for April 27-28, 2013:
For fans of Nancy Horan’s Loving Frank, here is another novel that imagines the life of a woman who had a greater influence than history might have fully acknowledged. In this case it’s Hadley Richardson, who fell madly in love with Ernest Hemingway and married him in short order. Despite their great love, other influences are at work that throw their marriage into crisis. An entertaining novel that offers bonus glimpses at the many famous members of the “Lost Generation.”
THE PARIS WIFE , by Paula McLain (Random House, 2011)(less)

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Nov 04, 2010 Karla (Mossy Love Grotto) rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: if you absolutely must read everything Hemingway

Shelves: historical-fiction, eras-early-20th-century, author-is-not-for-me, zzzzzz

ARC won on Goodreads Giveaway

Maybe a reader has to be a Hemingway fan to enjoy this book, but I've sometimes found the artist interesting even if I don't give a fig for their art. Sometimes an author has even given me a new appreciation for someone I was previously ambivalent about. This didn't happen here, and I found the prose so flat and uninvolving that I bailed on page 207. It didn't seem worth the time and effort to continue.

It's a straightforward novelization of Hadley Hemingway's life wi...more ARC won on Goodreads Giveaway

Maybe a reader has to be a Hemingway fan to enjoy this book, but I've sometimes found the artist interesting even if I don't give a fig for their art. Sometimes an author has even given me a new appreciation for someone I was previously ambivalent about. This didn't happen here, and I found the prose so flat and uninvolving that I bailed on page 207. It didn't seem worth the time and effort to continue.

It's a straightforward novelization of Hadley Hemingway's life with Ernest. Too straightforward. Most of the time, the research seems to dominate the storytelling, as if the author loves the subject so much that not a detail must be spared. It just felt a bit tedious to be told that Ernest reported for work in Toronto on September 10, and they heard on September 14 that Smyrna was burning in the Greco-Turkish war. There was too much of obsessing with "Who said what, and where" that the actual people in the story had all the dimension of a Wiki article. I didn't know what Hadley looked like (who can keep track of all those wives?), and it's not until quite a ways into the book that we're told of her facial features and hairstyle. It's as if the author assumes the reader is already right there beside her in the Hemingway knowledge and love. A paragraph about Hadley looking at the meats and vegetables at a Paris market is but an example of this saturation of minutae about the Hemingways and their travels and experiences. Riveting no doubt to a rabid fan, but for the casual reader, *yawn*.

There's lots of cameos by other Lost Generation members, but they have all the substance of cameos. I dunno, I think I'd much rather read non-fiction about somebody than a dull novel that reads like somebody took a biography and added dialogue to it. And that's what this one felt like. So I'd recommend it for the Hemingway fan who wants to read a book with moments where they can exclaim, "They've moved to Paris! Yay, we're at the part where Ernest and Gertrude Stein are falling out! Oh, and now they're meeting F. Scott and Zelda!"

Fine book for those who like that, but not for me. I'm not sure this is strict "literary fiction," more "literary crush fiction." And I like my historical fiction to be more meaty than this.

(Also, there are mega typos in this ARC. They'd better clean that up. It's Bach and Haydn, not Hayden.)(less)

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May 26, 2011 Brad rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical, kept-me-up-at-night, exceeded-my-expectations, reimagined-tales, with-marci

I've never been a fan of fictionalized works of authors' lives, and the fact that The Paris Wife recounts my favourite author's life during the writing of my favourite book of all time, The Sun Also Rises, antagonized the hell out of me. It didn't bode well.

But I promised my sister I'd give it a go; she wanted me to read it because we'd just read A Moveable Feast together, and she sent me the hardcover that she'd read for a recent book club. I couldn't say no.

Then, straight away, Paula McLain p...more I've never been a fan of fictionalized works of authors' lives, and the fact that The Paris Wife recounts my favourite author's life during the writing of my favourite book of all time, The Sun Also Rises, antagonized the hell out of me. It didn't bode well.

But I promised my sister I'd give it a go; she wanted me to read it because we'd just read A Moveable Feast together, and she sent me the hardcover that she'd read for a recent book club. I couldn't say no.

Then, straight away, Paula McLain pissed me off with some of her early writing in the book. They pulled me out of the immersion I prefer to give myself over to when I read; I would just start to lose myself in Hadley's Chicago, or Hemingway's Michigan cabin, and she'd do something inauthentic to break the spell. Things were getting worse.

Later on, my own personal feelings, connected to a long dead relationship of my own, a relationship I always thought of in terms of Hadley and Ernest, yanked me out of my immersion -- not once or twice but many times -- and I would be forced to take a break and try to immerse myself all over again. But I blamed myself and tried not to let my attitude spill onto McLain.

Around the same time, some clever moments marrying Papa's fictional writing with his "real" world were appearing, which had to be McLain's fault, and I asked myself: "Why do we even need books like this? If a book is just retelling the stories another author already told so well, fictional or autobiographical, surely a fiction that retells these already told tales is superfluous?"

The answer, I must admit, took me by surprise and changed my relationship with The Paris Wife. We need books like this because sometimes the finest stories are the ones we already know told from another direction by someone who loves the original stories and people just as much as we do. It seems obvious to me now, as I write it, but it wasn't at all obvious to me while I was reading.

It is beautiful the way McLain loves her subjects. She is fair to them all. She understands them in her own way, a way new and compelling to me, and she overcame all my prejudices, eventually suspending me in my immersion despite herself and her source material and me.

I wanted to hate this book. I set out to destroy it and tear it apart. I wanted to come on here and thrash it and Paula McLain. But I can't. I think this book is something special. And it will take its place on the right hand side of my Hemingway shelf, just this side of the biographies, and the Michael Palin Hemingway books. McLain's earned it.

Always read with a mind willing to open itself (even when you find it difficult to open your mind from the start). You never know what joys you'll find. (less)

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Oct 12, 2011 Jay F rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Jay F by: NPR Review

Shelves: literature-united-states

Often, timing is everything. At least it was for me when it came to Paula McLain’s The Paris Wife. I probably would have passed it by if I had not, several months after its debut, impulsively picket up a copy of The Old Man and the Sea on Barnes and Noble’s discount table.

When I first heard the review of The Paris Wife on NPR on March 1 2011, Hemingway and his works were distant encounters during my teen years in the 1950s. Although novels as The Sun Also Rises and For Whom the Bell Tolls were,...more

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Apr 23, 2012 Gary McTiernan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: my-ebooks

This is a very confounding novel to write about. Maybe it was intentionally dull for the first three quarters. It eventually achieved a level of conviction as the marriage between Hadley and Ernest Hemingway began to tank. It's as if Hadley couldn't reflect on her married life until it was lost to her.

It was like reading two separate books. The first part is filled with stilted prose and the daily drivel of everyday life. It isn't until she and Hemingway return to Spain- the inspiration for Th ...more

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Aug 22, 2012 David Hallman rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“Rings so true” – yes and no

On the dust jacket of Paula McLain’s entrancing novel “The Paris Wife” is a commendation congratulating McLain on creating a convincing portrait of Ernest Hemingway and the Paris in which he and his first wife Hadley lived—a portrait that “rings so true.”

I liked “The Paris Wife” for many reasons but that was not one of them.

In fact, my main reaction as I worked through this finely written novel was the disjuncture that I felt between the image that I have of Hemingwa...more

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Mar 24, 2013 Suzanne rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Hemmingway was a great writer and a star to his generation. As I read The Paris Wife I never understood why Hadley married a boy who had a fling with her best friend. The character Hadley is somewhat of a naive nebbish. She knows that she is robbing the cradle. She follows him; supports him: admires him; and does nothing herself. Her accidental pregnancy probably wasn't an accident.
The Hemingway's hung out with talented self centered people of means. Hadley lost herself and tried to morph into E...more

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Apr 07, 2013 Suzanne Stroh rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: paris-in-the-20s

I'm willing to admit my expectations were too high. But this was truly awful. As in practically unreadable. And look at the sales figures! Well, good for Paula McLain. Now for my review.

This is a classic case of historical fiction that stays too close to its source material, and then suffers under comparison with it. [I want to thank a reader with comments, below, who helped me clarify my judgment so that I could add that key sentence to this review.]

Having read everything by and about Hemingway...more I'm willing to admit my expectations were too high. But this was truly awful. As in practically unreadable. And look at the sales figures! Well, good for Paula McLain. Now for my review.

This is a classic case of historical fiction that stays too close to its source material, and then suffers under comparison with it. [I want to thank a reader with comments, below, who helped me clarify my judgment so that I could add that key sentence to this review.]

Having read everything by and about Hemingway, I turned to this fictionalized memoir by his first wife, Hadley, ready for a repeat of Ellis Avery's readable novel about the same period, The Last Nude, which I had enjoyed much more than expected.

Naturally, I was expecting something that could hold its own against A Moveable Feast which I highly recommend.

Ernest and Hadley met in Chicago after WWI, married and moved to Paris, where they lived the famously poor and glamorous life Hemingway recalls in great detail in his most entertaining book, A Moveable Feast. Two or three major events occurred during that time which were to foreshadow their divorce, and this book is the author's attempt to tell that story from Hadley's perspective.

It certainly didn't require much research, since both lives have long been thoroughly mined. But it did require enough talent, along with a literary fiction approach, so that this book would stand up to A Moveable Feast. It doesn't, and the general fiction approach McLain took dumbs it down further. There isn't a complex metaphor or a deft characterization in this book about a time, a place and a world where those things were what the characters lived, breathed, ate and drank, apart from absinthe. The lack of psychological insight, the lack of reflective depth, combined with the wooden writing, deepened my disappointment. Worse, I felt ripped off. By the end I felt like the author stole a best seller from me as a reader. If millions of readers think this was it, well...I guess that's that.

A book that any Hemingway scholar might feel he or she could have written with eyes closed and a few writing classes under the belt...somehow, and sadly, ruined by a kind of brain-dead, clueless, rudderless mindset that informs Hadley's voice, yet seems at odds with anyone's desire to read about her gutsy choice to give it all up for adventures with Ernesto.(less)

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Jun 01, 2012 E.c. Pollick rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

After watching Midnight in Paris, I found myself on a nostalgia kick. I rummaged through my bookshelves and pulled out everything I owned by T.S. Eliot, Fitzgerald and Hemingway. When I saw “The Paris Wife” by Paula McLain on the New York Times Bestseller’s List, I knew I had to read it while Hemingway’s material was still fresh in my mind.

Told through Hadley Hemingway’s perspective (Ernest’s first wife), the story starts with the couple’s meeting and continues to their eventual divorce six year...more After watching Midnight in Paris, I found myself on a nostalgia kick. I rummaged through my bookshelves and pulled out everything I owned by T.S. Eliot, Fitzgerald and Hemingway. When I saw “The Paris Wife” by Paula McLain on the New York Times Bestseller’s List, I knew I had to read it while Hemingway’s material was still fresh in my mind.

Told through Hadley Hemingway’s perspective (Ernest’s first wife), the story starts with the couple’s meeting and continues to their eventual divorce six years later. The book chronicles the Hemingways’ bohemian lifestyle in Paris as Hadley is exposed to fast life of the Jazz Age.

With supporting characters of great American expatriates like Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, and other literary greats, it’s hard for a classic book lover not to feel attached and excited as the story progresses.

What I loved most about the story was that it felt less of a Hemingway biography and more of authentic story telling by Hadley. I felt a deep sadness as Hadley conveyed her inner thoughts to the reader as she realized certain truths about Hemingway that she could never change: his angry temperament, his infidelity and how damaged the first World War had left him.

I’ve always been in love with Hemingway, but this book surprised me and made deeply attached to Hadley. The lovely way she spoke to the reader about the challenges as Hemingway’s wife utterly captivated me. I sympathized with her, cried with her, and rooted for her all along.

McLain says she got the idea to write in Hadley’s voice when she read Hemingway’s memoir, A Moveable Feast. In the final pages, he writes of Hadley, “I wished I had died before I ever loved anyone but her.” It prompted her to research Hadley’s life and the Hemingways’ first, brief marriage.

McLain does a remarkable job of interpreting the couple’s personal life and brings Hadley alive by giving her a genuine voice. “The Paris Wife” is a must read for nostalgia lovers, people who appreciate quality character development, and those who’ve read “The Old Man and the Sea” more times than they can remember.(less)

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Nov 11, 2011 Lauren rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Lauren by: Novel Ideas- November pick

Shelves: kindle, library

This one just wasn't really my cup of tea. The beginning was alright, but after Hadley and Ernest get married I lost interest. I really had an issue with Hadley's character and I wasn't sympathetic towards her at all. She was such a whiny pushover. Now that I think about it I don't know if she was just a product of the times- old fashioned and hell bent on staying married even though your husband is a complete prick- or just really that pathetic? Ernest was sort of a self absorbed, vain, asshole...more

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May 12, 2011 Rose rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: group-local-book-club

3 stars only because I didn't know much about them, so I learned some things.

To me, this book felt flat.

Like a travel diary with lots of name dropping.
We went _____, we met _____.

I didn't really feel for Hadley.
I didn't really feel for young Ernest.

She lost him to another woman.
She was better off anyway.

Favorite:
In the epilogue, Hadley, who's moved on with her life, described him as an "enigma - fine and strong and weak and cruel. An incomparable friend and a Sonofabitch".

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Jun 06, 2011 Kifah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really liked the first half of the book, but the second half confused me. I couldnt justify Hadley or Ernest's actions/reactions ( or lack of reaction). I wonder how close to reality the book actually is.

The lesson learned is not to completely dissolve into your marriage and to maintain your independence. its always discomforting to watch a marriage end. I also felt like little bumby was neglected.

This was an easy read and a good description of life in the 1920s.

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Mar 27, 2013 Maggie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A well-researched piece of work with nice portrait of events in general. However, the story is not thick enough as in the characters are not deeply depicted. It comes to me as mere events rather than real life. The union of the deplorable and the broken 2 selves, one craving for success under the sheer veil of shame and doubts and the other being so not independent who could only suck on other's hope to smile - was very much doomed. It was much foreseen. The fragility of the youth craving for ex...more

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Feb 13, 2012 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, recommend

Fascinating historical novel about Ernest Hemingway and his first wife (of four) Hadley Richardson. I didn't know much about Hemingway, their social circle of artists/writers (including F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein among others) in Paris, and their skewed "modern" views on marriage and life, so this intrigued me. This is partly a love story, but cannot be read for that, or one would walk away disappointed. As with most(?) brilliant creators, Hemingway was egotistical and loved his work...more

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Mar 23, 2013 Kim rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle

Hadley Richardson was the first of Ernest Hemingway’s four wives and this is her fictional memoir. It starts in Chicago, where the naïve Hadley meets and falls in love with Hemingway and ends with Hadley’s account of the last conversation she had with Hemingway before he committed suicide in 1961. The focus of the novel is on Hadley and Hemingway’s life in Paris in the 1920s as Hemingway pursued his dream of becoming a successful writer, and on the eventual breakdown of their relationship.

McLai...more
Hadley Richardson was the first of Ernest Hemingway’s four wives and this is her fictional memoir. It starts in Chicago, where the naïve Hadley meets and falls in love with Hemingway and ends with Hadley’s account of the last conversation she had with Hemingway before he committed suicide in 1961. The focus of the novel is on Hadley and Hemingway’s life in Paris in the 1920s as Hemingway pursued his dream of becoming a successful writer, and on the eventual breakdown of their relationship.

McLain appears to have done her research well. She lists her resources in an author’s note and, as far as I can tell from other things I've read, the novel is historically accurate. The prose is okay, although the dialogue is generally rather flat and there is some heavy-handed foreshadowing. What doesn’t work at all, in my opinion, are the occasional chapters told from Hemingway’s point of view. These chapters are in the third person, which is just as well, because McLain would not have been able to capture Hemingway’s voice. In any event, given that this is supposed to be Hadley’s story, the chapters add little to the narrative.

In the past, I’ve tended to avoid novels which feature historical figures as characters. This is because I’d rather read a biography based on primary sources than a novelist’s re-interpretation of biographical material. Reading Hilary Mantel’s novels about Thomas Cromwell (Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies) and the French Revolution (A Place of Greater Safety) made me re-think that position, at least in relation to historical figures from the more distant past. However this novel tends to reinforce it and I suspect that I would find a biography of Hadley Hemingway more interesting than this work. That said, I found it an engaging read in spite of its weaknesses and I finished it in a couple of sittings. It was just the book for me to read right now, immersed as I have been in reading about expatriate writers in 1920s Paris. It was also a very welcome gift from my lovely friend Jemidar.
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May 03, 2012 Lucy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have read one Ernest Hemingway book: For Whom The Bell Tolls. I liked it well enough but it was hard reading. Short, curt sentences. Bleak. Unemotional. Plus, there was a lot of formal spanish dialogue.

Reading about Hemingway was much simpler and more my cup of tea. I know novels are never as accurate as biographies or wikipedia articles (joke) but their delivery is so much more palatable, in my opinion. Novels that aren’t written by Hemingway, that is.

The Paris wife is a novelized account o...more I have read one Ernest Hemingway book: For Whom The Bell Tolls. I liked it well enough but it was hard reading. Short, curt sentences. Bleak. Unemotional. Plus, there was a lot of formal spanish dialogue.

Reading about Hemingway was much simpler and more my cup of tea. I know novels are never as accurate as biographies or wikipedia articles (joke) but their delivery is so much more palatable, in my opinion. Novels that aren’t written by Hemingway, that is.

The Paris wife is a novelized account of Ernest Hemingway’s first wife, Hadley, and the years they lived in Paris before and during his rise to literature stardom. I found Hadley and Ernest Hemingway and their relationship as depicted in The Paris Wife to be quite believable. They felt like whole people to me. Both were flawed, Ernest far more so, but as we were told the story through Hadley’s perspective, it felt right to see her as more of the victim of an ambitious and selfish man.

What a time period! I admit, I watched Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris” and barely enjoyed it. Not knowing any of the legends depicted except the most famous (Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Dali, Porter), I didn’t finish that movie with a sense that life in Paris during the 20s was all that spectacular. This book both confirmed and corrected my attitude. Paris was filled with what would become the all-stars of American Literature. It was an interesting time in an interesting place. The Great War, World War I, had recently ended. Many of those living in Paris either fought in the war or witnessed its atrocities. The world was recovering from what probably nobody thought could have ever happened. So much death. So much destruction. So little reason. Thus, the free and lose values of these young and provocative artists created an atmosphere almost akin to the Renaissance. It was another rebirth.

The rebirth came at a cost, however. Drugs, sexual promiscuity and an enlarged sense of lassez-faire may have created epic works of art and timeless literature, but it ripped away any kind of foundation for family life. Hadley Hemingway learned this the humiliating and painful way as her husband’s ego and success grew.

What detracted from the book were the rushed histories on both ends of the main story. Hadley’s childhood, while certainly necessary to understand her character, felt one-dimensional. Her younger self barely looked like her married self. Likewise, the tidying up at the end with both her and Ernests’s later histories satisfied some curiosity but, again, didn’t match up. I ended up reading wikipedia to get more explanation. :)

An interesting story of marriage, however. Fascinating really.(less)

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Sep 11, 2011 Corri rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It took me a long time to get into this book and it really wasn't until the 2nd half that I was hooked...or at least understood what a really amazing job the author did in this fictionalized "memoir" of Hemingway's first wife's years with him.

I did find a couple of things to be lacking. First, in the book, Hadley Richardson seems to take their lifestyle for granted. While they live in near poverty, they are able to afford a great deal of travel throughout Europe, employing domestic help, and oft...more

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Mar 31, 2011 JoAnne Pulcino rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adult-fiction, adult-fiction-and-e-book, book-club-selection

The PARIS WIFE is a mesmerizing novel about Paris in the 1920’s featuring the bohemian “Lost Generation”. It is the touching and heartbreaking story of the love affair and marriage of literature’s original “bad boy” Ernest Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley Richardson Hemingway.
Following a whirlwind courtship and wedding , the deeply in love couple sail to Paris where they become the golden couple in a lively and volatile group that includes Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound and F. Scott and Zelda Fi...more

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Mar 19, 2012 Beej rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Lookie there. There's something I don't do often; I gave this book a five star rating. And it deserved it. This is the story of the Paris wife. Hadley Hemingway. But more than that, it's the story of Ernest before he became larger than life, when he was the young newlywed, planning on a great life with a beautiful and charming bride. Planning on writing THE novel, planning on becoming THE writer, which he did. But as soon as his talent became well respected, his personna and his personal life be...more

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Jul 05, 2012 Rachel Thomas rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I didn't get this book read before my book club discussion, and I was surprised to find that everyone loved the book. I figured I'd keep reading because it must get better, and I spent time in Cuba and toured Hemingway's home and favorite bars and now somehow feel closer to him. I have been sadly disappointed in the book, however, and committed to finishing the book to figure out what I don't like about it.

While I enjoy the story of Ernest Hemingway and the socio-historic context, I don't feel c...more

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Apr 27, 2013 Sheila rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club, france, historical-fiction

Dear Hadley Richardson,

I will admit that having just finished this historical novel about your marriage to Ernest Hemingway, I have now googled you and read a wikipedia article about your life. I am happy to read that you apparently lived happily ever after with your second husband out of the limelight, and died an old woman at the age of 87.

But I just have to say, Hadley, when you were asleep naked in bed with your husband Ernest, and Pauline crawled into his side of the bed with him, why in th...more

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Apr 16, 2013 Jana rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club

UPDATE 4/15/13:
I got to meet Paula McLain and hear her speak at a couple of events this last weekend. She is a lovely person! She shared her story of struggling at the time she wrote the book, and that she was unable to go to Paris for research. Someone asked her if she finally was able to visit and how that was. Her response was that it was indeed wonderful, but "I had already been there". That is what I most love about books. When I visit Guernica, I will have already been there. I'm not going...more

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Feb 20, 2013 Marla rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, book-club

I'm not a big fan of Hemingway as I've always found his approach to be so 'manly' and his interests (hunting, fishing, boxing, bullfights, etc.) to be so male that I couldn't (and can't) feel any kind of affinity to his outlook on life. I've also always found his strong and brave and true and honest approach to writing to be somewhat too plain for me. Thus, I approached this book with a little bit of trepidation and also not a huge amount of interest.

I was surprised, therefore, to find myself wh...more

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Apr 29, 2012 Laura Leaney rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I did not love or hate this book. The writing was nice and clean, but the voice of Hadley, Hemingway’s first wife, moved me not at all. Her small joys and trembling anxieties about her marriage bored me terribly, even though I have a fairly strong suspicion that the real Hadley was a warm, intelligent, beautiful human being. And, in fact, the end of the book shows Hadley more and more this way, the way I wish I’d felt about her all the way through. The way Hemingway had to have felt about her wh...more I did not love or hate this book. The writing was nice and clean, but the voice of Hadley, Hemingway’s first wife, moved me not at all. Her small joys and trembling anxieties about her marriage bored me terribly, even though I have a fairly strong suspicion that the real Hadley was a warm, intelligent, beautiful human being. And, in fact, the end of the book shows Hadley more and more this way, the way I wish I’d felt about her all the way through. The way Hemingway had to have felt about her when he married her.

The other issue I have with the book is that the domestic issues dominate, which seems natural given that it’s from Hadley’s point of view; but none of the electricity of the times is evoked. You’d have to read “A Moveable Feast” for that. All the stars (Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, et cetera) are flat one-dimensional characters. Pauline, who steals Hemingway from Hadley, feels like a caricature. Even Hemingway doesn’t have much depth, although he certainly is a rather terrific jerk in this book………oh wait, he’s kind of a jerk in every book. It’s strange, I always admired the clarity of Hemingway’s artistic vision and the largeness of his living, yet this novel has him so embroiled in the machinations of women that the reader never sees much of that unique spirit.

Part of my negative response is an innate repulsion for passive easily dominated women (or men, for that matter). So I blame myself for the lack of enthusiasm. When Pauline actually slips between the sheets, while Hadley is “asleep” on one side of Hem, I KNEW nothing would happen. Hadley pretends to sleep. Psychologically, I understand. I do. I just didn’t want to read any more pages of it. Damn me, get a spine woman! But part of me does empathize. Hadley, to her credit, is nothing like Pauline. Physically she’s of generous strong proportions, while Pauline is like a slim-hipped boy. Hadley reads the novels of Henry James, while Pauline is current on all the new and modern books. Hadley loved her Victorian bun more than her newly bobbed hair; and she’s a marvelous mother. She is a woman for the last century – and I felt frustrated for her.

Still, the book revealed another way to look at Hemingway and the life that maybe shaped his writing.

(less)

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Mar 06, 2013 Chelsea rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2013

I listened to this book on tape and must first say that it was one of the best books on tape I have ever heard. The reader did an excellent job of using voices for each character and really portraying varying emotions as events unfolded. I loved the character development of Hadly who tells most of the story. I also loved getting a glimpse inside the "art's circle" in Paris in the 1920s. I would like to know more about the research that went into this book though and know what is documented truth...more

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Mar 10, 2012 Alessandra rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“’Love is a beautiful liar,’” mused a young Ernest Hemingway in Paula McLain’s latest work, The Paris Wife: A Novel. It is a fitting theme for a book that explores the unraveling of a remarkable marriage between Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley. Hadley narrates the slow dissolution of their relationship, meanwhile offering rich glimpses into the cacophony of 1920s Paris—a city rife with ex-patriot notables such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, and Ezra Pound.
The Paris Wife adds to th...more “’Love is a beautiful liar,’” mused a young Ernest Hemingway in Paula McLain’s latest work, The Paris Wife: A Novel. It is a fitting theme for a book that explores the unraveling of a remarkable marriage between Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley. Hadley narrates the slow dissolution of their relationship, meanwhile offering rich glimpses into the cacophony of 1920s Paris—a city rife with ex-patriot notables such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, and Ezra Pound.
The Paris Wife adds to the existing Hemingway scholarship by coloring his early life and only briefly discussing his later years and eventual suicide. McLain also reorients the traditional narrative by including the perspective of an equally notable figure: Hadley Hemingway. This choice of protagonist avoids the more conventional, singularizing accounts of great American men. By placing Hadley at the center of the story, McLain reminds us that underdeveloped historical characters can provide important additions to our understanding of the past.

Born and raised in St. Louis, Hadley eventually escaped her Victorian upbringing and entered into an unconventional world full of martinis, music, and ambitious artists—“‘The accordion and the whores and the wretching,’ he [Ernest] said. ‘That’s our music.’” From seaside bike rides in the south of France to near-death experiences at Pamplona’s running of the bulls, Hadley and Ernest tested their marriage on unfamiliar and ever-shifting terrain. Into this environment they introduced a baby boy, Bumby. His entrance is the linchpin of the narrative, where the freedoms of a vagabond-style “tour de Europe” confronted a sudden need for domesticity and order. Hadley stood in the middle of this discord, grappling with her identity was a woman, wife, and mother—attempting to find meaning in a generation contemporaries now consider “lost.”

McLain places the Hemingway marriage in the middle of a social and sexual revolution; a revolution revealed in the lives of the Hemingways’s friends. Gertrude Stein, an American author, shared her life with another woman, Alice, while Ezra Pound swore off children and courted numerous women at once. Within a social milieu that championed autonomy above all else, Hadley and Ernest labored to delineate the boundaries of their marriage and their identities. Hadley struggled to support Ernest through his fitful efforts to write what ultimately became The Sun Also Rises. After the book’s publication, however, the temptation of unrelenting freedom finally enveloped Ernest:

“He would never again be unknown. We would never again be this happy.”

As a work of historical fiction, McLain takes the reader into the speculative, albeit convincing, inner life between Hadley and Ernest. The Paris Wife possesses an uncanny ability to draw the reader into the intimate machinations of a couple struggling to define themselves in a kaleidoscopic world—a world bent on challenging normativity and rebelling against Victorian America. Hadley also provides an important gendered perspective. She confronts numerous women challenging gender norms in the early twentieth century; women who traded marriage for work and “freedom.”

The Paris Wife is rife with simple, straightforward rhetoric, unmistakably mirroring the prose of Hemingway himself. Loaded phrases are condensed into short, stout sentences. McLain provides a moving introspective into the life and death of a marriage, while sketching an intimate portrait of the Lost Generation’s dissonant world. Pick it up!(less)

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May 13, 2012 CD rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone

Recommended to CD by: My librarian

Shelves: american-literature, fiction, books-about-hemingway, favorite

Paula McLain can flat out write. She has 'the stuff'. Did she channel 'Papa' is not a question worth considering because she tells a story that is unique and her own. A few more readings and it will undoubtedly become a ' favorite '.

Being intrigued by works about Hemingway in the past few years more than an actual connoisseur of his writing, this work within the first two pages fell into that and other sub-genre's. It is extraordinarily well done Hemingway-esque writing about E.H. and his first...more

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Dec 06, 2011 Deanna rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I struggled to finish this book. That is very unusual for me. It was interesting to view the life and actions of artists/writers that are still admired today. That was all. The writing was tedious. She should have taken some pointers from Hemmingway's style of writing. I did not like anyone in this book, especially his wife, the subject of this book. She was an accomplished pianist, but she did NOTHING. She drank and partied. They could only aford a small one bed-room apt. in Paris. They shared...more

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About Paula McLain

Paula McLain has published two collections of poetry, “Less of Her” and “Stumble, Gorgeous,” both from New Issues Poetry Press, and a memoir entitled “Like Family: Growing Up in Other People's Houses” (Little, Brown, 2003). “A Ticket to Ride,” is her debut novel from Ecco/HarperCollins. She received her MFA in poetry from the University of Michigan in 1996, and has since been a writer-in-residence...more

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Like Family: Growing Up in Other People's Houses: A Memoir

The Dirty Napkin (Volume 1.2, Spring 2008)

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“It gave me a sharp kind of sadness to think that no matter how much I loved him and tried to put him back together again, he might stay broken forever.” — 45 people liked it

“Why is it every other person you meet says they're an artist? A real artist doesn't need to gas on about it, he doesn't have time. He does his work and sweats it out in silence, and no one can help him at all.” — 35 people liked it

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