Blurb:

‘If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.’ Hemingway’s memories of his life as an unknown writer living in Paris in the 1920s are deeply personal, warmly affectionate and full of wit. Looking back not only at his own much younger self, but also at the other writers who shared Paris with him – literary ‘stars’ like James Joyce, Wyndham Lewis, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein – he recalls the time when, poor, happy and writing in cafes, he discovered his vocation.

 

---

In a nutshell:

I liked it:  x  Yes       No

For people who like: Hemingway, Paris, the 1920s, biographies 

---

 

My thoughts: 

It took me quite some time to read this, but not because I didn’t like it. It’s just that biographical writing never keeps my attention as much as fiction, no idea why. So I read a lot of stuff in between.

This was fascinating. Ernest Hemingway describes a time and a lifestyle that is lost. He and his wife  Hadley were living a lifestyle that sounds unbelievably bohemian and almost romantic. It seems life in Paris in the 1920 cost buttons. He was poor, still they had money to go to the races, drink every day at various cafés, go skiing in Austria, go to Spain for the bull fights…..Working somehow seemed to get done in passing.

Hemingway met a lot of interesting people, all American expats, and what he has to say about them is not always flattering, but always interesting. I know nothing about Gertrude Stein, but what I learned about her here makes me want to go and find out more. The same with Ezra Pound. I particularly enjoyed reading Hemingway’s descriptions and observations about F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda.

If you like reading about past times that everyone wishes back, then this is the book for you. Don’t we all want a moveable feast in our lives?

Image: Ernest Hemingway’s passport photo in 1923. Source: Wikipedia

Product info and buy link :

Title	A moveable feast
Author	Ernest Hemingway
Publisher	Scribner
ISBN	978-0684833637
Buy link	Buy A Moveable Feast

Have you read this book? What did you think of it? I would love to hear other opinions.

Sakura’s review at chasing bawa

Lakeside Musing

Bookstore bingo