The Paris Wife
Book Title: The Paris Wife
Book Description: Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a quiet twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness—until she meets Ernest Hemingway. Following a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for Paris, where they become the golden couple in a lively and volatile group—the fabled “Lost Generation”—that includes Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Though deeply in love, the Hemingways are ill prepared for the hard-drinking, fast-living, and free-loving life of Jazz Age Paris. As Ernest struggles to find the voice that will earn him a place in history and pours himself into the novel that will become The Sun Also Rises, Hadley strives to hold on to her sense of self as her roles as wife, friend, and muse become more challenging. Eventually they find themselves facing the ultimate crisis of their marriage—a deception that will lead to the unraveling of everything they’ve fought so hard for. A heartbreaking portrayal of love and torn loyalty, The Paris Wife is all the more poignant because we know that, in the end, Hemingway wrote that he would rather have died than fallen in love with anyone but Hadley.
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Story Overall
(3)
Story moves a little too slow for me.
The Paris Wife by Paula McLain is a novel I was excited to read at first. It is historical fiction set in Paris during the 1920s. What intrigued me about this book in the first place was that the story is about the personal and romantic relationship between Ernest Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley Richardson as they move from the U.S. to Paris. The story is told from Hadley’s perspective, and, at the core, the novel is a story of love, loss, betrayal, and resilience. With detailed descriptions of the streets and city nights, readers might get a sense that they are in Paris in the 1920s. I would say that The Paris Wife is appropriate for ages 14 and up, as it contains some adult themes, language, and relationships. While I found the text to be carefully and artfully written, the pacing of the story was just too slow for me at times. I have this book in my library and will try reading it again in 10 years to see if my opinions change. I would give this 3 out of 5.
Overall
3