Tuesday, October 15, 2019

A MOVEABLE FEAST


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A Moveable Feast, The Restored Edition, Ernest Hemingway, Scribner, 1964/2009, 225 pp
 
I have a mixed relationship with Ernest Hemingway. I have only read four of his novels. For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) was my favorite and I liked The Sun Also Rises (1926) pretty well. Across the River and Into the Trees (1950) was a bit misogynistic and repetitive for me. The Old Man and the Sea (1952) won a Pulitzer Prize, is revered by critics, literature professors and other serious readers. I was underwhelmed by a story that told an eternal tale about life being tough with the only fun being hunting/overcoming the elements.
 
I have also read Paula Hawkins's The Paris Wife, in which she paints him as a cold-hearted, self-involved womanizer. So why should I take this guy seriously?

A Moveable Feast is another book loved by Hemingway fans but when it came up on my 1964 list I was going to blow it off. I am glad I didn't.

It is a memoir, published posthumously after the author's suicide in 1961. His working title had been "The Paris Sketches," written between 1957 and 1959. He was looking back on his early years as a writer in Paris during the 1920s.

When Hemingway died his publishers at Scribner were still awaiting an introduction and the final chapter. So A Moveable Feast as it was originally published in 1964 was compiled by editors. I read the later "Restored Edition" with omitted material reinserted by Patrick Hemingway, a son from one of the author's four wives, and Sean Hemingway, a grandson.

Who knows what Ernest himself really wanted in the book? He opted out by ending his own life.

I am glad I read it though because I got at least a version of Hemingway's own and how he felt about those years. He had regrets about his treatment of all his wives, admitting that he was deficient as a husband. He includes what to me are revealing accounts of his friendships and acquaintances in the Paris years: Gertrude Stein, Sylvia Beach (founder of Shakespeare and Company Bookstore), Ford Maddox Ford, Ezra Pound, F Scott Fitzgerald and others. 

He goes into detail about his writing process in those years and the many, many books he read. It was easier to live in poverty then, he thought. Well, I feel that way about the late 1960s. It is always easier to live in poverty when one is young, in love, and not yet a parent. 
 
But I saw that he and his first wife Hadley were quite in love, even though he did use her as a bed partner, a secretary and almost a servant. They had fun skiing in the Alps back when there were no chair lifts. Hemingway believed that climbing up those mountains made one's legs so strong that you could not possibly break them skiing down!

I am still not sure I trust the man but reading A Moveable Feast reminded me that behind or inside every artist is just a human being with weaknesses, foibles, self-doubts, and mistakes made. Most people merely live the best they can (or don't.) Artists rise above all that and produce lasting creations that attempt to make sense of it for the rest of us.

19 comments:

  1. My wife read this and liked it. The only Hemingway novel that I have read is For Whom the Bell Tolls. I liked it. I have read most of his short stories, many of which I thought were brilliant. A lot of people say that his best work was found in his short stories. I guess that like many famous writers, he was not a great guy.

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    1. I have not read his short stories. I am glad you found them brilliant. Like many people, famous or otherwise, he was not my kind of guy. Lots of guys think he was great.

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  2. i thought he was great, too, when i read most of his books in my teens... later, not so much. i just can't recall whether i read this or not; maybe i'll take a look. effective and balanced review, tx...

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  3. So glad you enjoyed it! This is the only book by Hemingway that I really like

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    1. Nothing beats reading an author's own words about himself, always keeping in mind that we are all often deluded about ourselves.

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  4. I have only read one book by Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms, and didn't like his writing style so haven't tried any of his others. Maybe I should give him another chance. This book sounds interesting.

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    1. If you do try another novel make it For Whom the Bell Tolls.

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  5. I was never a big Hemingway fan either, although I've read three (that I can recall) of his books. Never read A Moveable Feast though we've had a copy on our bookshelves, lo these many years. Like Brian, I liked his short stories better, even though, in general, I don't particularly care for short stories. Maybe he's easier to take in small doses. I especially remember one called "A Clean, Well-lighted Place".

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    1. Maybe that is another reason I liked this book. It is small doses. That's pretty good that you remember the name of the story.

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  6. I've never actually read any of Hemingway's work but I really should change that. I know he's beloved by so many people.

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    1. I feel that Hemingway's great contribution was to start a more direct, less wordy style of writing that did away with the wordy and dense style of the literature of the 19th century. His influence over literature in the Western cultures was huge.

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  7. I have only read The Old Man and the Sea, which I liked, and several of his short stories, which we analyzed in Lit class in college. The short story 'The Cat in the Rain' I remember vividly. Growing up I liked his larger-than-life persona, but I didn't read anything on him to sway my mind either way. As a husband it seems he was pretty lousy; he seems to have been a better friend, at least it was so with the celebrities of his age, literary or otherwise. I'm not even sure it was his fault. Sometimes larger-than-life personalities don't do well in most things except what they are really good at.

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    1. Carmen, I am blessed by your presence today! You are certainly right about larger-than-life personalities.

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  8. Great review! I've only read The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway. I was so underwhelmed by this novella, that I never bothered to read another book by Hemingway. A Moveable Feast does sound like book worthy of a read, so will add it to my ever growing reading wishlist.

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    1. Thanks, Lisa. I wonder what you will think when you read it.

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  9. I have liked Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Sun Also Rises, and Moveable Feast, though I've heard he wasn't a great person to say the least etc. I'm still curious about his world. I recall really liking Moveable Feast at the time but it's been a long while now .... so it's due for a reread sometime.

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    1. I started Farewell to Arms once when I was pressed for time so put it aside. Should I give it another go?

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  10. Oh gosh it's been awhile. But I'd say yes. I liked the 4 I read of his

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