June 1

The Paris Wife
By Paula McLain

Fictionalized biographies seem to be a new literary genre in recent years.  Are they fiction when all of the facts are correct but only the conversation and thoughts are imagined?  I've read several, and Pat Nixon, Laura Bush, and Consuelo Vanderbilt are among recent subjects.

The Paris Wife chronicles the imagined interior life of Hadley Hemingway, the first of Ernest's four wives. Based on research, this "novel" appears to include all of the known events of Hadley and Ernest's life together.  Both come from broken families torn by suicide.  Originally from Chicago, they move to Paris where they live a happy, bohemian life among the Paris literati (Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald).  Hemingway is just starting his career as a writer and they travel to locations like Pamplona, where they hang out with a group of American and British expatriates, and Switzerland, which will play roles in some of his future novels.  Hadley is his ardent supporter and is with him when his first two books (In Our Time and The Sun Also Rises) are published.  Their son Jack is born during their Paris years, and they happily take him along on their travels.  As Hemingway's star rises, however, another woman (Hadley's close friend) intervenes, and their marriage falls apart.  Hadley is a real lady, and Ernest appears to still love her, but he chooses to be unfaithful and pursues a new woman.

Among the fictionalized biographies, Hadley Hemingway is perhaps the least known subject, yet her story is the one that has been the most successful.  These books tend to be very readable, rather than burdened by the footnotes and dry details one finds in a straightforward biography.  Perhaps that is because the reader has the advantage of getting into the subject's thoughts, even if they may not be actual thoughts.  In any case, this book was a good window into both Ernest and Hadley's marriage, and was also a good lead-in to The Sun Also Rises.