A Moveable Feast

Rating:
Summary: When he was the finest writer in the world.
Review: Hemingway is by now an American archetype, in his case the primal American male, warrior, artist, sensationally strong and brilliant. Like all lives, his had many rebirths, u-turns and abandonments. The Feast always struck me as coming from one of his less desperate, forced periods; literary and lived. He wrote without his boxing gloves on, one might say, free to capture and illuminate 'scenes,' that have resisted time. The Austrian ski experience is the quintessential skier's paradise. It has stayed with me, a non-skier- for the solitary unmarked Alpine splendor, sans mechanical lifts, lines and pervasive adolescent snowboarders, no this was an effortless slide off the earth into another realm.

The gossip, doesn't survive with as much brilliance, and that is probably best. The Fitzgeralds are familiar even to non-readers, they've become part of our popular culture. Let's let them stay there.

Hemingway, I would argue, achieved every writer's dream of subordinating and then transcending words replaced in the reader's mind with "sight." This book is recalled as a series of scenes. The end of the volume, not only did that, but enjoined and lent empathy to the reader's own inner, similarly sad, experiences. The foreshadowed end of what had been a deep love-based marriage, has never been written, in my experience, so perfectly. There are some who were offended by this inclusion, as they were, no doubt by Hemingway's betrayal of Hadley. However, I believe the betrayal is mythic, and part the fall from grace, by which we suffer. Hemingway learned one of the gravest lessons of the human condition, that is, that love doesn't last, romantic love eventually, and cruelly dies.

Despite the many years between the first readings of this classic, I always remembered that scene when forced to reckon in the same way with my own evaporating loves. That picture, a shamed, adulterer watching the woman he would hurt, still wrapped in what she believed was a certain marriage never fails to take my breath away.

And I can subordinate the macho, hard drinking, overkill bravado, of the later Hemingway to the younger author. The equally innocent younger man, not yet dependent upon booze and blood sports, used for the real battle, i.e. with major and disabling depression. He lost that one, to suicide. One of the tenderest books- from he who would strive for the darker side of delicacy.

Rating:
Summary: Immersed in Paris
Review: Other than his short stories, I have never read much by Ernest Hemingway. When I picked this one up, I was intrigued. It was well worth the time!
A Moveable Feast is a lush account of life in Paris in the early 20s. Hemingway writes about life as a young writer struggling to hone his craft.
His descriptions of life in the cafes, at the race track, and traveling through Europe are vivid and full of life. He loved his life as a poor, struggling writer, and this comes through so honestly.

Name dropping is taken to a new level as he talks about his friendships with Stein, Picasso, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
This is an excellent introduction to Hemingway, and also to Fitzgerald, as reading A Moveable Feast helped me to understand Fitzgerald in greater depth.

Rating:
Summary: Infinitely interesting.
Review: Anyone who enjoys twentieth-century Western literature will dig A Moveable Feast. It's simply inevitable. Hemingway knew and hung out with pretty much all the major American literary players of the early twentieth century - James Joyce, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound. It gives some background behind all those books you've read, and it gives real human faces to their authors (as opposed to just entries in encyclopedias). And there's something infinitely cool about the fact that at some point, all of these people were poor, struggling to get by, destined to become great, and all knew and talked to each other. They're all brought to life on these pages by Hemingway's infectious enthusiasm, making this autobiography as good as any novel.

In a sense, this book is the effective culmination of where the author had been going towards the end. In his later books, such as Across the River and Into the Trees (also very highly recommended by me), Hemingway showed a sort of quiet, elegiac nostalgia for the past. His characters increasingly lived in the past, reliving old memories until the line between past and present became blurred in their minds. (Recall how Santiago kept reminiscing about his youth, or how Richard Cantwell kept coming back to his wars.) Well, that's most likely because Hemingway himself was longing for the days when "we were very poor and very happy." Now he finally stops masking his feelings by putting them into fictional characters and writes in the genuine first person. And the emotional weight of his longing, finally met completely head-on, is what makes A Moveable Feast such a great, visceral read.

Of course, what helps is the number of interesting characters he interacted with - and his very witty caricatures of some of them. The beat-down of Gertrude Stein is absolutely hilarious, and doubly so for anyone who, like me, cares little for her asinine "works." Hemingway isn't afraid to deride anyone who he thinks was phony or pretentious (and there are many such people), and this makes for great entertainment. But others are treated with more respect. Take, for instance, F. Scott Fitzgerald. The editorial review says that Hemingway's portrait of him was "acidic." Nothing of the kind. True, Hemingway points out his embarrassing character flaws like his poor handling of spirituous beverages and his conduct while intoxicated, but he always makes sure to reiterate that Fitzgerald was a brilliant writer. He praises The Great Gatsby to the skies, and he bitterly laments the fact that Fitzgerald didn't entirely fulfill his enormous potential. Moreover, he calls Fitzgerald a great friend, at one point even his only friend. Now, his opinion of Fitzgerald's wife Zelda is completely different, and _that's_ where the "acidic" part really comes in. Clearly he felt that she was unworthy of Fitzgerald, that she dragged him away from his writing, and that she was a loon, and he blames her for what happened to her husband.

Then, at the ending, after all the jokes and anecdotes and observations, something very extraordinary happens. Hemingway tells a final story about how he and his first wife travelled into the mountains and skied at a resort. And here, all the book's wistfulness and melancholy suddenly disappears to reveal an undercurrent of very bitter longing, as Hemingway drops several extremely biting comments about idle rich people who addle the brains of young writers with their excessive praise, and some absolutely brutal remarks about various lying "friends" who think nothing of breaking up couples, stealing wives or leading away husbands. And then he concludes with his remark about being very poor and very happy, and only then, in the book's last sentence, do we realize the full extent of just how much this time meant to him. And when we do realize it, the way he ended his life should come as no surprise to any of us.

Rating:
Summary: Not bad for Hemingway
Review: Written almost in the fashion of a journal, he tells stories of his days in Paris. The stories are delightful rememberances of things that most likely did occur. Honest, entertaining, beautiful. I hate Hemingway, but I love this book.

Rating:
Summary: A way of living
Review: Reading 'A moveable feast' was a very rewarding activity. Why ?
It created a special new frame of mind inside of me, which lasted weeks after reading the book. This is pretty rare and even thought it has faded now, I know this story is something I will carry with me through further life, and it will bring me good things.
I think one can rightfully call Hemingway the 'master of small happiness', because this is the frame of mind I am talking about. The taste of oysters, wine and café-creme, the feeling of being in your favorite café, the feeling of writing and reading and -most important of all- the delight in discovering what people are like and the intense motivation to keep on making new discoveries: a boxer without teeth can provide you with an equally intresting evening/life lesson as a skilled poet can. What this book told me is: keep the eyes open,for incredibly intresting things are happening all around you every second, and always here and now.
How Hemingway achieved this, is a mystery to me. His writing is very simple, as if he's writing some kind of diary AND he puts in a lot of names I have never heard before. Usually, this isn't the ingredient for a good book as far as I am concerned.
Yet I was swept away and will surely buy more of his work. I can't wait to read how he describes Africa.
The way I see it: if somebody can bring out the same message in a simple story as A Huxley did in an incredibly complicated one, he deserves a lot of attention. As far as I am concerned, he will get it.

Rating:
Summary: Isn't it pretty to think so
Review: This is a much mellowed Hemingway looking back late in his life at his young days in Paris with first wife Hadley. And it is such a beautiful portrait both of Paris and of his first marriage that no one can resist it. There is some really good writing here, especially the portraits of his fellow expatriots but its a personal memoir and as most writers will he makes it all seem so festive which it probably was but compare this to his novel Sun Also Rises or any of his several collections of stories and you are comparing mere reminiscences with substantial work. Still one imagines Hemingway enjoyed writing this and that last line of the book will kill you. Hemingway sentimental, here he is. But thats the charm of it. Its nice to see this side of him even though one knows this is a selectively imagined past minus the demons that drove him.

Rating:
Summary: Hemingway's Best!
Review: My favorite of all Hemingway's works...in fact, it was the first I read and inspired me to become a devotee of the author. It's always a pleasure to re-read this charming little book and my dog-eared old copy is a prized possession. You can almost taste the wine...the oysters...hears the bells of Notre Dame! The skinny on F. Scott Fitzgerald is laugh-out-loud funny. A real classic and a great way to introduce Papa to the novice.

Rating:
Summary: A Beautifully Evocative Prose Piece
Review: This is Hemingway's memoir of Paris in the twenties. He and his first wife live cheap and poor, but are rich in their associations with people of creative genius everywhere, and in their love for each other, and in Hemingway's just blossoming talent and genius.

It is a heart-felt narration, and a moving account Hemingway's life in Paris before he became the famous Hemingway. This is a beautiful memoir, full of interesting details, and fascinating people of creative genius.

I highly recommend this memoir to everybody.

Rating:
Summary: Picture perfect
Review: After reading The Old Man and the Sea as a freshman in high school I was totally put off by Hemingway...that is, until I picked up this book. Hemingway's description of Paris in the 1920's is alluring and captivating. Every description no matter how small is vivid and alive. Everything from the taste of oysters to stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein seem to jump right off the page and haul you into Hem's world.

I would recommend this book to anyone, whether they be an avid Hemingway fan or someone who sits at the opposite end of the spectrum. Hemingway's philosophy of always writing the truth, just writing one true sentence...the truth brings Hemingway to life.

Rating:
Summary: A Beautiful Feast...
Review: This being the first Hemingway book I ever read, of course I'm partial to it. I fell in love with Hemingway after reading the first word of the book. His descriptions of things, and the way he pours what he knows into the paragraphs of this book are amazing. I remember reading the chapter Scott Fitzgerald, and having a perfect picture of Fitzgerald in my mind through Hem's description of him; then getting to the next chapter and seeing the picture of Scott Fitzgerald and having to take a moment to breath, because it was the perfect image I had of him. These are the things that make Hemingway unique, the way he brings out the details of his characters. I fell in love with every word of this book, and I feel extremely lucky to have recieved it from my grandfather to read. It's a beautiful book. Read it and savor it. Afterall, it's Hemingway, and Hemingway is a feast for a reader.