The Paris Wife by Paula Mclain

The Paris Wife by Paula Mclain

{Unabridged Audio Book Version}

This is the fictionalized story of Ernest Hemingway and his first wife (he had four, and its easy to see why from this account), Hadley. It tells of how they met in Chicago and corresponded long-distance between Chicago and St. Louis - interesting since these are two cities I am so familiar with. Their romance was short and sweet and then they married and moved pretty quickly afterward to Paris so Ernest could write - I guess that's what all of the serious "artists" were doing those days, flocking to Paris to do their work.

Honestly, it was quite a sweetly, melancholy story. Ernest was sort of a narcissistic, needy type; always needing to be reassured in some way or another about his manhood, his ability to write great literature, his place in Hadley's heart. (There are people in my life that remind me of him and his self-focused ways...not naming any names but, boy, would that be a hard type to live with!) I wouldn't have put up with it for 2 seconds, personally, but Hadley was an angel.

They travelled from Paris to Spain quite a bit. To mountains to ski and vacation and it was really quite a charmed life they were living if it hadn't been for the dysfunction.

When Ernest took a mistress (after much flirting and a few affairs with other women) about 4 1/2 years into their marriage, he fully expected Hadley to go along with the idea and for everyone to become one big happy family. To witness the falling apart of their marriage (via the novel) was heartbreaking and Mclain did a lovely job making it real and raw.