A Moveable Feast

I read this book after reading In Our Time and it’s fascinating, unbelievable really, to see how Hemingway struggled to see his stories in the early days. This is the author’s memoir of his days as a young writer in Paris. He describes the struggle he had to sell his stories, and when you read In Our Time you wonder what publishers and readers were looking for in those days. It seems to me that the stories in In Our Time would do credit to a much more mature writer than Hemingway was when he wrote them. Yet, at the time he was writing them he and his wife were struggling to pay the bills, counting every penny, skipping meals. And meals are very important to Hemingway. Along with alcohol. As with much of his fiction, when Hemingway has the money, he really digs in and there are plenty of alcohol-fuelled encounters with poets, painters and novelists here. Perhaps the most memorable is a hilarious encounter with F Scott Fitzgerald. They arrange to go to Lyons together to collect Fitzgerald’s car which he and his wife had abandoned there. Despite Hemingway’s careful arrangements, they end up going down to Lyons on different trains and staying in different hotels. Eventually they meet up and collect the car, which turns out to have no roof; and this was the reason they abandoned it as they had no waterproofs either. After a couple of stiff drinks they set off for Paris with Fitzgerald at the wheel, and of course it rains several times and they get completely soaked. They take refuge in a hotel where Fitzgerald turns out to be a flaky hypochondriac. He takes to his bed demanding that Hemingway goes out and finds a thermometer and aspirin, believing he’s now terminally ill with pneumonia and needs to get to an American hospital asap as he can’t trust French doctors. Hemingway, of course, prescribes whisky, which works. I’ll say no more. This is a brilliant memoir, written in Hemingway’s characteristically terse, lean style. It’s poignant when you think about the whole of Hemingway’s career and realise that those early poverty-stricken years when he was struggling to make his name as a writer were probably his happiest and best years, personally and professionally.

This was my first read of anything by Hemingway and he builds up a vivid picture of life in Paris back in the 1920's. I was amazed to see so many places that I had stayed and visited within the city mentioned as Hemingways home was in the same area. There are some fascinating stories such as the poor life of a writer and his relationship with F. Scott Fitzgerald. All in all a decent read.

Not just a memoir, but like walking through Paris in the 1920s and meeting legends before they were legends. It left me with dreamy eyes and the feeling that I'm overdue for a trip to Paris. As E.H says, Paris is always worth it.

Why are Americans so crazy about Paris? One of the reasons is Ernest Hemingway and this little book with its name dropping and taut style that takes no prisoners. I don't know if anyone actually reads Hemingway anymore (outside the US) or even if he is a good novelist. However, I do know that he was certainly good for the tourism industry in a number of places such as Paris*, Venice, Cuba and Key West where many people make a living out of bars where Hemingway spent his time apparently churning out masterpieces. (Meanwhile across town at Les Deux Magots, Jean-Paul Sartre was writing about the meaning of meaning - or was it the meaningless of meaning?) Those were the days! This book is a series of sketches in which Hemingway looked back at his early days when he, his wife and their baby son, named with tender loving affection "Mr Bumby", lived in poor circumstances in Paris. I doubt whether many young people today have heard of some of the characters portrayed, such as Gertrude Stein, Hilaire Belloc, Alastair Crowley, Ezra Pound, Wyndham Lewis or even Scott Fitzgerald** or are aware of their influence. It is quite a good read but contains the kind of sentimental nonsense one expects when an old man looks back on his younger days or, dare I say, when an American sets foot in Paris. Everything was "wonderful" and Hemingway was "friends" with everyone. No-one could disagree that "eating was wonderful" or that beer was "wonderful to drink" but could a professional writer not have been just a teeny bit more original, nest-ce pas mon petit choux? This wonderful world of Ernest Hemingway comes together most harmoniously in the case of James Joyce with whom Hem was "friends in this wonderful period after the finishing of Ulysses". Hemingway was also always hungry and, in line with any book written about France by a foreigner, pages are devoted to food, washed down with drink. Here are couple of quotes that will give you an idea of how hunger is very bad for a writer's style: "Memory is hunger", "I saw the plat du jour was cassoulet. It made me hungry to read the name." and my favorite: "I learned to understand Cezanne much better when I was hungry". Bon appétit. Enjoy your read! * Remember "Harry's New York Bar. Just say: Sank Roo Doe Noo."? **Who was apparently so unsure of himself that he wanted to know if Hemingway thought his weenie was big enough.

Hemingway in reflective mood very near the end of his life. An insight to his thinking on people around him in his early days in Paris and Europe. Although a slim volume, an easy read and very good bedtime reading. A very personal account, almost a diary with some highly critical observations about others, particularly Fitzgerald. The nature of the work made me feel he was talking directly to me. It is not a once only read, but one for me that I will return to from time to time. I will consider this alongside writings by others, on their thoughts about him and find out if they were as critical of him as he was of them. A point in time when many of the great creative minds merged into a group that are now remembered not only for their writing but also for the free lifestyle they created for themselves and were copied by others in the 20th century and beyond.

There can be no doubt that Ernest Hemingway was a very very very fine writer. But I don't think he was a very very very nice man. This is an account of his early years as a writer in Paris, with Hadley his wife and, a bit later, little Bumbly their blond haired rosy cheeked son. This was Paris in the 20s - we now know it was between the Wars - and there were ex-pat writers filling up every cafe terrace. This is Hemingway struggling to get going, single-minded, driven, increasingly obsessed by his Art and by himself as a writer. This is him determined for success, pushing his way forward, clambering over everything, grabbing at anything. No, not a very nice man. But the writing's superb, even if his accounts of fellow writers - Gertrude Stein, Scott Fitzgerald, Ford Madox Ford, Ezra Pound - do err on the side of the ungenerous, even if you wonder where his devoted anchor of a wife is most of the time, even if little Bumby gets hardly a mention; there's no denying the writing's fine. This is Hemingway going for it, really going for it, before success comes and, well, that's a whole different story.

… love the prose and the short chapters and the insights into the talents of the time. A lovely read.

The introduction makes clear that this is a collection of chapters/sketches relating to Ernest Hemingway's time in Paris between the wars. Chronology is at best variable; arranging the order seems to have been somewhat arbitary. What emerges is a multi-layered portrait of a city at an interesting period of artistic life; of a few famous people who lived there; and of a marriage that progresses from tranquil happiness to disintegration. Hadley, the author's first wife, is the victim; much of the book reads like a remorseful apology for his part in the failure. The incidental recreation of Paris in the 1920's - the cafés, the race tracks, the apartment above the sawmill where the Hemingways lived - yields some vivid vignettes. The goatherd driving his goats through the street, pausing to milk one for a customer, calls for a readjustment of one's Parisian preconceptions. Of the people, there are insights into Gertrud Stein, James Joyce, Ezra Pound and especially Scott Fitgerald. The boxer Larry Gains appears and, with him, the macho Hemingway, showing off what he knows about the fight game. There is also the sentimental Tatie - the dialogue that accompanies his hair-growing contest with Hadley is almost too embarrassing to read. But through it all there is Hemingway wrestling with the business of writing, frequently returning to the conviction that what is left out reinforces what remains - a philosophy that can be seen in some of the better sketches. Of course, the book is uneven but as the long sentences unroll, held together with multiple conjunctions and a minimum of punctuation, the master's hand is apparent.

Just amazing and arrived in great condition!

Solo con Amazon è possibile acquistare libri in lingua inglese in perfette condizioni,com’è questo di Hemingway

Para mi uno de los mejores libros de Ernest Hemingway, en los que habla de su vida en Paris de los años 20. La película Midnight in Paris de Woody Allen, está inspirada en este libro, que en castellano se traduce a “París era una fiesta”. Con eso se dice todo.

Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast is a timeless classic that provides a glimpse into the life of one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. The book is a memoir of Hemingway's time as a young writer in Paris in the 1920s, and it is filled with vivid descriptions of the city and the people he knew. The writing is masterful, as one would expect from Hemingway, and the book is a joy to read. The author's love for Paris and the bohemian lifestyle of the expat community shines through on every page, making the reader feel as if they are right there with him. The book also provides an interesting look into the artistic and literary scene of Paris in the 1920s, and the interactions of Hemingway with other writers and artists of that time. I particularly enjoyed the author's reflections on the craft of writing and the struggles of a young writer. Hemingway's insights and advice are as relevant today as they were when the book was first published. Overall, I highly recommend A Moveable Feast to anyone interested in literature, Paris, or the life of Ernest Hemingway. It is a beautifully written, evocative, and thought-provoking book that will stay with you long after you finish reading it.

The first time I read A Moveable Feast was on an over crowded ship from Pireus to Ios and ending up giving a Mexican girl with beautiful long red hair my book. Now many years later I finally get to read this book again. Highly recommended!