Ernest Hemingway. (actual physical book)
I picked up this book because I was watching the first few episodes of ’The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ and was thoroughly enjoying the Paris escape of Rose Weissman to find herself again after years as a proper Jewish housewife. ‘A moveable feast’ happened to be sitting under the coffee table because I bought it a few months ago as an example of food writing that I wanted to read and I suddenly wanted to read more about Americans in Paris. When presented with obvious literary serendipity, I try to follow the path presented. I read it on our (now) annual trip to Portland to go to Powell’s Bookstore. The genesis of this year of reading is multi-varied – but at heart is the fact that I have too many books in my home that I haven’t read. I am going to spend the year going through my book backlog. I will allow myself to include the books bought in the current Portland trip and free books from my Kindle Unlimited and public domain books, but the goal is to not buy any new books for the year. These reviews are just an attempt to document the journey and force myself to contemplate and process what I have just read. I can read very quickly and often miss the details and the craft of writing in my rush to read the narrative. One of my other goals is to focus and be more introspective about what I am reading. The writing is just a bonus.
Speaking of writing, I can see why Hemingway caused such a stir with his work. His writing is spare, but always seems to hint at some other deeper meaning that you wish you were astute and clever enough to understand. It seems very naturalistic, but closer examination and his own writing about his process reveals that he has honed down his sentences until they are like milky opals. His descriptions of life with his wife, talking with his son, growing his hair out to the same length as his wife so that they can cut it together, are so evocative that they seem like prose poems. But Hemingway’s other descriptions of Gertrude Stein, Scott Fitzgerald , descriptions of Shakespeare and Company and the sympathetic bookseller willing to loan money or books to penniless authors are more journalistic and natural in their tone and approach. I realize that these are not new observations, but I had never really looked at his voice and the style in this manner. I need to see if his tone is different in Hemingway’s other books or if this style is limited to this memoir of life in Paris. I can definitely see why his memoir defined the cultural American experience of Paris for generations. It is very romantic and seductive.
Between Hemingway and Mrs. Maisel, I do want to visit Paris again and vicariously absorb the remaining romantic energy of the city. I understand that the current reality is different and I have been generally ignored and treated like a non-entity by the French but one of the curses of being a transnational minority is that we romanticize the stories of the dominant cultural elite. I will re-read The Sweet Life of Paris by David Leibovitz and one of David Sedaris’ books about moving to France if I can find a copy on my bookshelves.
I also will try to read something by Turgenev because Hemingway speaks so highly of his work and I have never read him. I will also get around to rereading F. Scott Fitzgerald and see if I have a better impression of The Great Gatsby than I did the first time I read it.
I did try reading some of Gertrude Stein’s poetry in the bookstore but I found it exasperating and annoying. I prefer Alice B. Toklas and her cookbook. I do not know if there is any real worth to Gertrude Stein that I am just too dense and uninformed to appreciate or if she is all flash and theory that has beguiled the literary community for decades.
It has been about a week since I finished the book and I started writing this. I will look back through and see if I can figure some additional thoughts on the book. I realize that if I am going to write and reflect on a book, I will need to do more intentional reading and take notes and write down what I am thinking while I am reading. Annotation of the text would probably be a good thing as well. Things that they tell you to do in school but you don’t really do when you just read for yourself.
Takeaways:
There is something about Paris that inspires a lot of people to be creative and be themselves.
A literary voice is important and needs to be consistent and clear throughout the work.
You have to work hard to make something look effortless.
I should learn more about the context of writing in the period where Hemingway developed his style. I am not sure about the era. I read about his reading of George Sand, Turgenev and others but I am not sure where they all are historically.
Hemingway was born in 1899. George Sand was born in 1804. Ivan Turgenev was born in 1818. Jane Austen is my touchstone for the modern novel. She was born in 1775.
The year of reading 