The Paris Wife

Hello all you Hemingway fans - this is a must read! The Paris Wife is a fictionalized memoir of Ernest Hemingway's first wife, Hadley, and their years together in Paris. Paula McLain really did her research, and she writes a compelling and believable account of the author and his wife's turbulent marriage.

If you have read A Moveable Feast, which is Hemingway's actual memoir of his time in Paris, then you will recognize the characters and events that populate this novel. You'll also recognize the actual people Hemingway based some of his characters on, particularly those in The Sun Also Rises. I even found a few of F. Scott Fitzgerald's characters on these pages... Anyway, if you HAVEN'T read A Moveable Feast I recommend it highly, and I'll even lend it to you - it's a good follow-up to this novel.

McLain is a gifted writer, and she really made me feel like this was Hadley's story. I highly recommend this book, even if you aren't a Hemingway fan, just for the way it captures a time and place in our literary history.

The Paris Wife: A Novel