Rating: 
Summary: A Full Stomach
Review: Of all things that we huddle dear to our heart, it is the memories that are never quite shed, and Hem had such memories that it would have seemed absurd not to share them.Fortunately, he did, because once read, you're dizzied by an array of his personal experiences with artists and nature and plain, moveable life. It is not an accurate, historical memoir, but it was never intended as one.
As any recount of memory, it is usually fragmented and replaced by preconceptions Hem had, or is added upon to make it more interesting, but, in no way, do these alterations by a fine tailor diminish the powerful message prevalent throughout the entirety of the book. The message being, Paris, what it represented, and the life lived during, was a moveable feast.
And it was.
Paris in the twenties, recounted by Hem, was that sound you heard when you put seashells to your ear, the sound of rushing blood. And more. By his eyes, we lived in an epoch of seminal dreams and apparitions; a world so young and happy it took on a fantastical percept.
Paris was a beacon to the great writers of the time, at that time, and Joyce could be met up with at Sylvia's bookstore sometime in the late afternoon, or eating with his family at Michaud's, or coming out of some matinee; Gertrude Stein was at her studio, making speeches and liqueurs; Fitzgerald was around, somewhere, partying. There, maybe?
All these sketches painted a life that would be envied by anyone, because it was a life so full and robust, it exploded each day into another day which would explode into another and...
"Memory is hunger," says Hadley, Hem's first wife. Did she really say that? Who knows? But does it matter when it's true.
Rating: 
Summary: Visit Paris and then read this book on the plane trip home..
Review: Only then can you capture the magic of this book. I can't imagine anyone "getting" this book unless they've been to the City of Lights, it will seem like much ado about nothing if read for any other purpose.
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: This is a great book, with breezy writing that looks deceptively simple. It does have Hemingway's quirks. For one thing he misleads the reader into thinking that Fitzgerald never helped him edit THE SUN ALSO RISES. But that's Hemingway's ego not wanting to acknowledge a competitor. Fitzgerald DID in fact help Hemingway edit SUN, and on his advice, Hemingway cut a long section about Brett Ashley's background, that the book started with, and started it, instead, with the background on Robert Cohn. And Dunc Chaplin, the baseball player wasn't even in Paris when Hemingway says he was with Fitzgerald when they met. He also cuts people down, and to mitigate his bitchiness toward them, he goes overboard in his praise of Ezra Pound, as though to convince the reader that he wasn't all bitchiness. These aren't really criticisms of the book, they are actually part of it's catty charm. Hemingway's humor comes through, in probably the only book of his that shows humor other than THE SUN ALSO RISES. A great memoir. One of the best.
Rating: 
Summary: Hemingway - Wise Sage? I think not!
Review: I had high hopes for this book, having heard that it was one of Hemingway's best and would undoubtedly cause some sort of spiritual experience that would change my life. Or so, everyone claimed! Instead I found a "memoir" which seemed unbelievably petty at times, since a good majority of the book seems to be taking pot shots at other writers.
This book cannot even be claimed to be a true "memoir," since Hemingway wrote completely different versions of "scenes" with other writers (particularly Fitzgerald). He had written the book with expectactions of eventually publishing it, thus I could not read it believing that it was a true, and completely subjective, memoir of his years in Paris.
Hemingway was a bitter, unhappy man, and I think that this really comes across in his treatment of other writers in this book. I would recommend it simply because it is a traditional part of any serious reading list, but would advise readers not to buy into Hemingway's heavily edited, heavily re-written, version of "history."
Rating:
Summary: The Ability to Create Contentment
Review: I bought "A Moveable Feast" for the mere reason that the title was fascinating to me. What a brilliantly simple yet eternally poignant title it is--and that's just the title, for what's inside is truly sublime.
I am sorry for Hemingway, in a way, that his private musings were published for all the world to see after he took his own life. I am joyous, nevertheless, that they were. Imagine, for instance, the delicious details that no one would have known about the real lives of some of the greatest writers of the 20th century...I am especially fond of his caricatures of Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald. These are sure to be enjoyable to most any reader. Hemingway offers candid, thoughtful snapshots and reflections of Fitzgerald that forever change the way we think of the creator of one of the most famous and widely read novels of the last century, "The Great Gatsby." This masterpiece is a wonderful bridge for those who think they "don't care for Hemingway." That said, not everone who picks it up will automatically be changed by it because the reader must be in a certain place of his or her life for these reflections to speak to his or her heart. Peering into Hemingway's mind is not for the light-hearted or simple-minded. It is for the reflective soul. This book is a sincere revelation of the pure joy that we can summon when we reflect on and revel in our experiences of the beauty of life. In the same way that Paris, his friendships, his unique antecdotes about seemingly mundane situations, and the like were "moveable feasts" to Hemingway, so too can beautiful joys in our own lives be with us at all times and in all places. I only wish that Hemingway had remembered to bring his feasts with him the fateful day that he took his genius from the world.
Rating:
Summary: !!!
Review: This book was really amazing. I was interested when I watched "City of Angels" and this book was in the movie. I will never regret reading this. Hemingway is a very good writing. Everything he writes uses your senses. You can see what he is saying. I love writers like that. Hemingway is now my favourite. Currently I am reading "The Garden of Eden" and it's just as good as "A Moveable Feast". Read it, it's good.
Rating:
Summary: Charming, Charming, Charming.
Review: I was never a big Hemingway fan until I read 'The Sun Also Rises' for the second time in my thirties and was able to appreciate it. This book allows you to feel what he felt and live what he lived in Paris in his day. My heart nearly broke for him at the very end, because of the loveliness of his relationship with his first wife, Hadley. The ordinariness of their relationship, and the transcendence, are hard to hear in their simple truth.
Hemingway says, "When I saw my wife again standing by the tracks as the train came in by the piled logs at the station, I wished I had died before I ever loved anyone but her."
Rating:
Summary: PAPA, ON PAPA, BEFORE HE WAS PAPA
Review: A MOVEABLE FEAST is many things to many people. First of all it is, as my title suggests, Papa Hemingway, near the end of his life, reminiscing about himself at the beginning of his writing career. Next, it is a commentary on a group of young American expatriates who came to be known as "the lost generation." Finally, though perhaps unintentionally, it is a physical guide for those of us who would like to explore the Paris of the 1920's.
I have no way of knowing whether or not the young Hemingway was ever as naive as he is painted by the older Hemingway. In scene after scene, Hemingway takes the most outlandish utterances at face value. As an example refer to his luncheon conversation with Ford Madux Ford. I won't ruin your fun by giving you the details. Along these same questionable lines, he describes his first wife, Hadley, as being a rather mild creature who follows his lead in everything without ever expressing a contrary opinion or desire. Fact, or tricks of an older man's memory? Who knows?
Regarding "the lost generation," we are treated to an anecdote wherein Gertrude Stein's mechanic first coins the phrase. We are also introduced to the likes of Ezra Pound, James Joyce, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Sylvia Beach, owner of Shakespeare and Company book store and publisher of Joyce's "Ulysses," and, of course, Gertrude Stein and her companion who remains nameless in this book. In the early years, Hemingway liked Stein and Hadley detested her nameless companion whose function was to "talk to the wives."
Now to my favorite part; A MOVEABLE FEAST as a guide to Paris as it was, and mostly, still is. On my last trip to Paris, I carried a copy of A MOVEABLE FEAST with me, and, with it, spent a couple of enjoyable afternoons on the trail of Hemingway, Stein, Pound, et al.
Since the book opens with the Hemingways living on the Rue Mouffetard, it was the beginning of my "lost generation tour of discovery." Rue Mouffetard is still there, not too far from the Latin Quarter and the River Seine. It isn't much changed from Hemingway's day with the possible exception of a modern underground bowling alley. One still sees meat display cases featuring pig snouts and ears, and skinned rabbits.
Many of the rest of the locations mentioned in the book are in Montparnasse within just a few minutes of each other, and again on the left bank, only a few minutes walk from the Seine. I started with Hemingway's apartment. The sawmill beneath it is gone, but the building still stands there. A few hundred yards up the street, Ezra Pound's house still stands. We were able to locate Gertrude Stein's apartment from the address given in the book, and sat in her courtyard waiting for Hemingway, Joyce, and perhaps Picasso to drop by.
Again, only a few hundred yards from Hemingway's apartment, we visited the Closerie des Lilas, Hemingway's "home cafe," where he could be found many mornings doing his writing. The only change is in the prices. These are only a few of Hemingway's haunts that can be located by using A MOVEABLE FEAST as your guide book.
In summary, for me, A MOVEABLE FEAST is a mini guide to my favorite city and a mini history of my favorite era in that city.
Rating:
Summary: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Review: First and foremost I have a natural bias for Ernest Hemingway because I simply love his writing, but if you too like Hemingway and his broad body of work you'll enjoy this as well. I enjoyed this 'fictional memoir' because it gives you an inside look into the grand expatriate experience that was Paris in the 20's. It leaves you in awe at all of the great literary and artistic minds that rubbed elbows in Paris at the time. Furthermore, it's interesting to read Hemingway's retelling of his experiences with the different individuals(i.e. James Joyce, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso, Ford Madox Ford, Ezra Pound, etc) and how his relationships with them changed, for better or worse, throughout his years in Paris. The picture he paints of Paris gives you a vivid depiction of the time and people living their, makes it a fascinating reading experience. Also, he doesn't really glamourize it he just presents the reader with a first-hand account of his everyday life as a struggling writer looking to other great minds for inspiration and guidance; i.e. Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, and Ford Madox Ford. A great read all and all, and a must for lovers of the Hemingway craft.
