High Hopes for Hadley Hemingway: The Paris Wife Review
This deeply rich and involved book comes to us from a spur of the moment inclination, as mentioned in the preview. We had very high hopes with the book jacket streaming great reviews along with an interesting angle of history that hadn’t been highlighted, Hadley Hemingway’s perspective.
After researching a bit, we found a lot of interesting things from Paula McLain’s website (the author). You can find anything from timelines to fun facts that relate to storyline. It also delves into her immense amount of analysis of the Hemingway era. We found it interesting that she quit her teaching position and wrote this book in a Starbucks in Cleveland, kind of a modern day technique of what Ernest Hemingway did in coffee shops anywhere from Chicago to Paris.
With that being said, we began this book quite interested. For starters, we were very excited to see that it is Hemingway fan fiction, as we are...big fans.
However, we ultimately struggled to get through this book. We read that McLain didn’t want to amplify the plot line with fictitious fluff, which we can appreciate, but it led to the book being drawn out in certain areas. Perhaps, she fell in love with every detail of Hadley, but the story may have benefitted from some more editing to finish off the novel.
It was nice to hear a new perspective in regards to Hemingway’s rather illustrious life. It was a lovely display of girl power with bringing out Hadley’s perspective, which we imagine is much forgotten as she is the first of four wives that Hemingway locks down. Plus, she is not exactly stealing the attention away from Hemingway, as he is the famous author in this duo. There are sparks of Ernest’s thoughts in some chapters, but you can expect the bulk of the book being dedicated to Hadley’s thoughts, feelings, actions and history.
Going through the story, the atmosphere is constantly capturing post-war society, whether that be in the states or abroad. The Roaring 20s, Jazz Age and the Prohibition make their mark as well in this story, which ironically make the characters drunk and foolish on the lifestyle. It was simply all consuming for everyone involved.
Most of the time, the research dominated the storyline as we progressed. It was almost as if the author loved the subject so much so that a detail couldn’t be spared. We both hit a wall around page 100, and struggled to trudge through to the actual betrayal, which didn’t happen until the very end.
We were very much rooting for Hadley, however her lack of confidence and zeal made it difficult. It generally reminded us of a travel diary, going through the motions, places, and people but not trying to impress or appeal to the reader. It simply is for the author’s own pleasure. With that said, it was fairly educational, but hardly entertaining. We were constantly waiting for something substantial to take place, and it took until the very end to deliver.
Perhaps we are just picky, or have low attentions spans, but we struggled with this one. We want to love it though and we see the potential, so please take this review in strides. There was a wonderful display of history, the ‘Is there? Isn’t there’ romance, geographical portrayals, but ultimately it comes down to the lull of married life, even if you’re married to Ernest Hemingway.
Better Read than Dead,
Addie & Geneva
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