Comment

Nov 06, 2017
The author’s rich storytelling successfully brings out the emotional complexity of Ernest Hemingway’s first marriage, told from the perspective of his wife, Hadley. She sympathetically and honestly portrays both characters in a way that helps us understand why it was a challenge to have a solid marriage, and paints a vivid picture of those heady, chaotic times in Paris 1920s with F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein and Alice B.Toklas, Ezra Pound and his harem, and others with similar drunken, rebellious-artist attitudes of the day. At times I wanted to judge Hadley as a doormat from my 21st century perspective, for her chosen role as supporter of Ernest’s self-absorbed writing career and the denial of her own sense of self (even when *the mistress* entered the scene). But I think the reader needs to see this in the context of their trying-to-be-outrageous circle of friends in 1920s Paris, full of love triangles. I was reminded how some things don’t change, how many people still keep up appearances pretending how perfectly good life is regardless of life’s messes. McLain uses a very apt metaphor tied in with the bike riding activity of Hadley, Ernest and his lover, Pauline (I’ve condensed it): "Three bicycles stood on their stands. If you looked at them one way they looked very solid, like sculpture with afternoon light glinting off the chrome handlebars. If you looked another way, you could see how thin each kickstand was under the weight of the heavy frame, and how they were poised to fall like dominoes or skeletons of elephants or like love itself."