Historical Fictionistas discussion

This is the thread for August’s pick: A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway. As a reminder, we are trying out having just one thread so if you have a spoiler please mark it so. If you don't know how, click on the (some html is ok) button on the right and it will explain to you how to mark spoilers. Happy Reading.

Hemingway's memories of his life as an unknown writer living in Paris in the twenties are deeply personal, warmly affectionate, and full of wit. Looking back not only at his own much younger self, but also at the other writers who shared Paris with him - James Joyce, Wyndham Lewis, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald - he recalls the time when, poor, happy, and writing in cafes, he discovered his vocation. Written during the last years of Hemingway's life, his memoir is a lively and powerful reflection of his genius that scintillates with the romance of the city.

Just finished, and I liked it a lot less than I did as a callow teen aspiring to write. It does evoke a mood and bring to life a particular place and time, but Hemingway’s writing style and views are so revolting to me that I could not fall into the mood.

I don’t want to spoil the experience for others, so don’t read my caustic review until you’ve read the book: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....

Abigail wrote: "Just finished, and I liked it a lot less than I did as a callow teen aspiring to write. It does evoke a mood and bring to life a particular place and time, but Hemingway’s writing style and views a..."

I loved your review, Abigail...exactly what I was thinking as I read this. But you articulated my thoughts much better than I would have! I remember loving this in my younger days. This time around I too struggled to catch the mood. I did enjoy some of it, but I feel like this one has not stood the test of time very well.

Glad I’m not alone in this, Charlene! I take a lot of heat for loathing Hemingway.

It was a 4-star read for me.
LINK to my review

I haven't read this on the grounds that I HATE (with a passion) Hemingway, but you guys are certainly making me feel like I'm not missing much.

LOL, Jasmine, when I was in high school I made my views so well known that when my English teacher passed out a list of potential term paper topics, he included one just for me: Why Hemingway should not have won the Nobel Prize.

Abigail wrote: "LOL, Jasmine, when I was in high school I made my views so well known that when my English teacher passed out a list of potential term paper topics, he included one just for me: Why Hemingway shoul..."

I love that!

This is my first book with the group. I have never read anything by Hemingway by choice. I enjoyed the book, it felt a little but like a more mature and grounded Kerouac. I really enjoyed his description of his time with Fitzgerald, returning to the abandoned car to get it back to Paris. It was a quick, almost biographical account of a snapshot in time. In fact. It made me want to take on Hemingway again. I’ve pulled out my dusty “Farewell to Arms”, and will begin to tackle that soon.

I enjoyed trying to visualize him sitting in a café, sipping a latté, or a stiffer drink. Notebook open, pen scratching the surface. Ideas filtering around, with no assistant of electronic devices.

It made me sad that that world is over, pen to paper. So, I was not disappointed reading this. I was enchanted by
the nostalgia, the graceful naïveté of the beginning of the beatniks,paving the way for free will and peace to rise in the 60’s.

So glad you enjoyed it, Stacey! It does invoke a vanished world, one I can distantly remember. And don’t count pen and paper out! Some of us still work that way and find it opens different pathways in the brain. 😉

Yes, this was the only book of Fitzgerald’s I really liked, but even though I only read it a few years ago, it did not make me want to re-read his others.