I recently reread Moveable Feast, which I understand better in my dotage, and so I decided to listen to the audio book version of The Paris Wife. The acting in this audio book is strong; the French is spot-on.

I have mixed feelings about the text, though. Chapters 2 & 3, the history of how Hadley and Ernest hung out in Chicago, contain a lot of gritty Chicago stories. I knew about Hemingway's Michigan connections from the Nick Adams stories, but I did not know all this Chicago stuff. Hadley wasn't Chicago-born; she was from St. Louis, but Midwest is Midwest. It feels right, Midwesterners feeling their way into Modernism, but the "romantic" dialog in this book is often cheesy, at least to my ear.

The ending when things really go to hell was goodish, probably because there was so little dialog and am now, for dessert, finishing up a reread The Sun Also Rises. This stuff is better as social history than literature I find, but I enjoy it.

A wonderful account of Ernst Hemingway and his time in Paris with his first wife.

Good narrator, I just never became involved, despite such high recommendations from friends at publication. Maybe one has to be a Hemingway fan.

very good

Good read. Very interesting about his life and how he was inspired. After reading this, I want to read more of his novels.

I would like to listen to this again someday.

loved it.

As a person who has not read any Hemingway's work yet - I found the story of Hadley interesting and challenging as she tries to support her husband and his work. Paris seemed to be the place for writers during this time and proved to have intrigued what all went on during this hey-day. As well as, raise his child while trying to be true to herself. Sad to hear of what happens to Hemingway, but felt empathy towards Hadley's character, while Pauline intervened into their lives. It seemed Hemingway had many ghosts in his closet and internalizing some of his issues/past. Overall good read.