The Paris Wife

I've seen The Paris Wife by Paula McClain pop up on a number of places on my book radar lately. When I saw it on the "New Acquisitions" shelf at the library, I checked it out. The shelf isn't really called that. In fact, it's not labeled at all." I classed it up by giving it that name. Sweet, huh?

The Paris Wife chronicles Ernest Hemingway's first marriage to Hadley during the 1920's. Hadley and Ernest moved to Paris so that he could immerse himself in writing and be surrounded by other now-well-known writers from that era such as Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald etc. Hadley experienced first-hand the erratic Hemingway and his fly by the seat of your pants attitude regarding life, career, and women. At this point, he was not a known author although during the course of the story he did become more and more published. Unfortunately, the marriage suffered at the expense of Hemingway's search for fame.

This wasn't my favorite. I didn't relate to any of the characters. While I did feel some sympathy for Hadley, she stuck around way too long in the shambles of this marriage. Maybe I didn't really like it because I'm not very familiar with Hemingway's works. It just didn't resonate with me.

Rating: * * 1/2