The Paris Wife

Chicago 1920: Hadley Richardson is a shy twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness when she meets Ernest Hemingway and is captivated by his energy, intensity and burning ambition. After a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for France. But glamorous Jazz Age Paris, full of artists and writers, fuelled by alcohol and gossip, is no place for family life and fidelity. Ernest and Hadley's marriage begins to founder, and the birth of a beloved son only drives them further apart. Then, at last, Ernest's ferocious literary endeavours bring him recognition - not least from a woman intent on making him her own...


I have just finished reading The Paris Wife by Paula McLain. It's an English literature student's dream, really - full of authors and artists and about the trials and tribulations of writing and being with someone who writes. I never fail to be sucked in by the Jazz Age and the new lease of life it seemed to give the otherwise war-ravaged world.

For anyone who has seen Midnight in Paris (see my MIP post here) and enjoyed it, this is the same time period, same people, but with a more personal touch as the whole book is told through the eyes of Hemingway's wife, who until now has been largely ignored. Hadley Richardson, however, almost becomes every 'average' woman's idol in this. She's not conventionally attractive, she isn't 'cool', and yet she somehow she gets adopted by this bunch of interesting, albeit slightly eccentric, group of trendy intellectuals and ends up marrying the man at the very centre, who just happens to be hot as hell. She gets whisked off to Paris, Rome, Madrid, Austria and taken to glam absynthe-fuelled parties and now I just want to be desperately cool and smoke expensive cigarettes in quaint Parisian cafes.

Paula McLain certainly gets across the spontaneity of it all with the first few chapters in particular moving very quickly. Cleverly, McLain slows everything down when it comes to the less exciting reality of this almost nomadic existence. Loneliness, jealousy, exclusion all creep up and the pace drops so that the reader can take it all in and live through it with their protagonist. There's a desperation to the characters in this book that is endearing and yet frustrating as you see it expressed. The end is far more touching than frustrating, though, and I found myself caring for both Ernest and Hadley in their own ways and together.

There's a lot to talk about with this book, be it gender, war, love, marriage, culture, fashion, responsibility, right and wrong... the list goes on. Probably would be a good book club book, should anyone want to try.

All in all, as you can see, I feel positively about this book but while I was expecting to fall in love with it, I just didn't quite get there. The scene with the missing suitcase, however, genuinely made me panic. Some of my friends will laugh at this because I'm known to have 30 second panics where I'm convinced I've lost something - namely my phone - so I sympathise with Hadley here!

Despite the slight disappointment, it gets a very credible 7/10