Paula McLain, The Paris Wife
Featured Book
Hemingway's first marriage — from her point of view
This fictionalized account of Ernest Hemingway’s first marriage, to Hadley Richardson from 1921-27, is a companion of sorts to his memoir A Moveable Feast. Only, McLain’s book is told through the scorned wife’s point of view. After meeting in Chicago through mutual friends, Hadley becomes Mrs. Hemingway and follows the aspiring author to Paris, where they fall in with a coterie of bohemians, flappers, and artists, including Gertrude Stein, the Fitzgeralds, Ezra Pound, and others — the epicenter of Parisian artistic culture. The hard-drinking couple, who call each other “Tatie,” soon meet conflict in the form of Hemingway’s temper, his frustrations with his career, and an ambivalence toward the arrival of their first child. But it’s the machinations of a seductive fashion editor named Pauline Pfeiffer who tests their loyalty to one another. As Papa entrenches himself in the publishing firmament, Hadley — sweet and dignified to the last — loses her hold on her Paris husband. Strewn with clever references to Hemingway’s and his friends’ work, The Paris Wife is a fresh spin on literary history, giving the missus the last word.
