false 4631 48 In the preface to <I>A Moveable Feast</I>, Hemingway remarks casually that "if the reader prefers, this book may be regarded as fiction"--and, indeed, fact or fiction, it doesn't matter, for his slim memoir of Paris in the 1920s is as enchanting as anything made up and has become the stuff of legend. Paris in the '20s! Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley, lived happily on $5 a day and still had money for drinks at the Closerie des Lilas, skiing in the Alps, and fishing trips to Spain. On every corner and at every café table, there were the most extraordinary people living wonderful lives and telling fantastic stories. Gertrude Stein invited Hemingway to come every afternoon and sip "fragrant, colorless alcohols" and chat admid her great pictures. He taught Ezra Pound how to box, gossiped with James Joyce, caroused with the fatally insecure Scott Fitzgerald (the acid portraits of him and his wife, Zelda, are notorious). Meanwhile, Hemingway invented a new way of writing based on this simple premise: "All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know."<p> Hemingway beautifully captures the fragile magic of a special time and place, and he manages to be nostalgic without hitting any false notes of sentimentality. "This is how Paris was in the early days when we were very poor and very happy," he concludes. Originally published in 1964, three years after his suicide, <I>A Moveable Feast</I> was the first of his posthumous books and remains the best. <I>--David Laskin</I> A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway In a series of wonderfully evocative vignettes Hemingway captures day-to-day life in Paris where he lived with his first wife Hadley in the early 1920’s. Despite being very poor he paints an irresistibly appealing account of that period. He was energized, optimistic, a very disciplined writer and seemed to relish his struggles to survive and make a name for himself. In twenty chronologically organized chapters he captures the Bohemian ethos of Paris life; provides insights to his writing process; states some style preferences; reveals his penchant for boxing, gambling, bicycle racing and skiing; specifies what he ate and drank on innumerable occasions; describes interactions with his friends and acquaintances and sometimes cruelly betrays them by revealing confidences and intimate details of their lives. His tone is both high spirited and mean spirited. With the exception of gambling he seems mostly unaware of/unconcerned about his personal excesses. 2459084 book 1960 A Moveable Feast total:8986|5:3355|4:3434|3:1741|2:368|1:88| 8986 36558 12123 954 4 12 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Jan 01 09:41:11 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 03 09:10:17 -0800 2008 A Moveable Feast was a strange combination of pure pleasure and pure torture for me. On one hand, what could be better than reading a pseudo-memoir written by the unabashedly self-absorbed, and yet enduringly charming, Hemingway--all white wine, manliness, and burgeoning craft, with an exces...more...]]> 5 8 false false Tue Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 1989 Tue Dec 11 18:42:03 -0800 2007 Tue Dec 11 18:42:03 -0800 2007 jackass bar brawler tells me that Hemingway lost it after THE SUN ALSO RISES or (being generous) A FAREWELL TO ARMS, I say: read this book. There are moments of vile approbation. It saddens me infinitely to hear EH bang on Gertrude and Sc...more...]]> 4 3 false false Tue Aug 12 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 11 11:53:33 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 12 10:08:11 -0700 2008 The competition between Hemingway and Fitzgerald has been immortalized for a long time. I always sided with Fitzgera...more...]]> 1 4 false false Wed Oct 08 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Oct 10 10:53:40 -0700 2008 Fri Oct 10 11:05:21 -0700 2008 2X I've never really ...more...]]> 4 2 false false Thu May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 30 06:33:43 -0700 2008 Mon May 05 17:34:41 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 3 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Wed Jan 30 15:17:48 -0800 2008 Sat May 10 20:41:24 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 3 false false Mon Dec 08 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Nov 24 07:54:45 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 08 21:16:02 -0800 2008 1
¤ Write until you know what comes next, then you won't worry about what to write about the next day.
¤ Transplant yourself.

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I'll start with my problems with this b...more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 11 05:25:54 -0800 2008 Tue Jun 03 13:49:53 -0700 2008
I read it for the first time a couple of years ago in Paris (I actually found it on one of the bookshelves on the quay, not knowing that such a book by Hemingway existed. What a find!) I read a lot, so I'd like to think I...more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Apr 01 13:48:50 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 01 13:53:41 -0700 2009
My favorite part was that I read a copy of the book printed in 1970. On the back cover it states, "Over 275,000 copies sold in the US in hard...more...]]> 3 1 false false Wed Feb 11 10:41:16 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 11 10:47:30 -0800 2009 5 1 false false Fri Aug 03 14:28:16 -0700 2007 Fri Aug 03 14:38:25 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Mar 06 14:58:00 -0800 2007 Tue Mar 06 14:58:19 -0800 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Jan 06 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Mar 04 14:01:01 -0800 2009 Wed Mar 04 14:01:42 -0800 2009
Hemingway relates ...more...]]> 3 0 false true Thu Aug 06 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 07 11:52:48 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 07 12:39:09 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 01 12:41:49 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 01 12:48:03 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 2 false false Thu Jul 02 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 21 12:27:08 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 21 12:35:38 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Jun 04 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 11 09:15:20 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 11 09:40:36 -0700 2009
Actually, the book is a collection of stories about Hemingway's time in Paris, when he was just getting started in...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Dec 28 20:01:37 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 30 19:21:00 -0800 2008 If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.
Ernest Hemingway
to a friend, 1950

This book was a feast. Hemingway writes about living in Paris with his new wife and...more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Jul 27 18:18:44 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 29 00:26:09 -0700 2009
In a series of wonderfully evocative vignettes Hemingway captures day-to-day life in Paris where he lived with his first wife Hadley in the early 1920’s. Despite being very poor he paints an irresistibly appealing portrait of that period. He was en...more...]]>