The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

I finished “The Paris Wife” by Paula McLain. This is a story told from the perspective of Ernest Hemingway’s first wife, Hadley Richardson. It is a fictional account of what their life was like. The author did study their history and the story was based on fact, but of course it was not actually written by Hadley, so fictional. I am guessing the author injected what she thought Hadley’s thoughts may have been about his behavior and her experiences. To be honest, I don’t know that much about Hemingway himself, so I am not sure exactly what I was expecting from the book. I guess I thought it would be a romantic story about the two of them in a bohemian Parisian adventure. There were those aspects in the book, but it also shown some negative light on that lifestyle. We were introduced to some of the people and places they visited during their time together.

As far as the writing, I felt the relationship between Hadley and Ernest was very superficial. The way they would talk to each other, they seemed to be acquaintances, not two people with an intimate relationship. When we knew what Hadley was thinking, she would think about how close they were, so the characters thought they were close, but the language and interactions between the two fell a little flat.

Hemingway seems like some piece of work. I sure would not have put up with him for as long as she did. I am guessing some of his personality traits were based on research and were accurate. He was not a nice guy, that’s for sure. The story was interesting, and looking at it from a viewpoint on Hadley rather than their relationship it was more interesting. The time in history that this took place, there were a lot of changes for women. Many of them were becoming more independent and she herself went through a lot of changes.

3/5