The Paris Wife

The Paris Wife
By Paula McLain
Ballantine Books, 2011. 320 pgs. Fiction

In The Paris Wife, Paula McLain opens a window for us into the private lives of a young Ernest Hemingway, his first wife, Hadley Richardson, and their expatriate writer and artist friends living in 1920s Paris, France. Though Hemingway and Hadley’s relationship was ultimately doomed, this novel takes a look at how this unlikely couple (Hadley was 28 when she met a 20-year-old Hemingway) met, fell in love, and stayed together through many problems such as destructive friendships, poverty, and drunkenness.

The hardest thing about reading this novel is that, as a character, Ernest is not an easy man to like. He is selfish, chauvinistic, bull-headed, judgmental, and rude. On the plus side, this is an interesting testament to the woman behind the man, and even more, is a very well written book. I just had a hard time getting past Ernest.

AJ