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Summary: Why I Speak Volumes
Review: To live and die and breath at sixteen swallowing the whole of Hemingway's writing is walking on a field of grass--dark brown and burned. Having spent my life the elaborate conformer of elaborate sentences elaborate in structured elaborance, yet knowing just the same that clarity is compassioned understanding, I look at Hem as a part of me. A Moveable Feast has changed me in a way unlike any book--at least since On the Road, which turned previously unrampent bohemianism deep within me into rampant deepness previously unbohemian. It opened up the world of Joyce and Stein, introduced me to Picabo and Duchamp, and made me view my dusty copy of Marx and the Existentialists as suitable reading for Montparnasse. When Hemingway speaks he opens up a new world for me, and I breathe air knowing and feeling all he says. This compact, simple language speaks a volume it took years to understand, until I could finally comprehend that his writing is his being, and A Moveable Feast is nothing more than existence, which is perhaps all anything could ever be
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Summary: A guide to Paris and its writers
Review: I read this book while living in Paris. From reading other works by Hemingway, I realized that A Moveable Feast isn't as sophisticated as his novels. He writes as if in a stream of thought rather than being descriptive and evoking, so it was disappointing in that respect. Also, the novel, somewhat, lacks flow, but this could be so because of its posthumous publication. This doesn't hamper the ability to understand the novel in anyway, so it's a take it or leave it situation.The two things that I enjoyed most about A Moveable Feast was its adherence to places and people found in Paris during the twenties and, if you are fascinated by such writers as Gertrude Stein or F. Scott Fitzgerald or just writers in general, this is definitely a key text to learning more about the personalities of these writers...through Hemingway's eyes, of course, but always interested, insightful, and sometimes hilarious in a quirky way. What also impressed me about this book is the personal insight into Hemingway's own life--how he lived, how he felt, what kind of person he was. He describes several scenarios involving his wife and other writers that portray who Hemingway was as a person. Also, since this was written shortly before his suicide, it is possible to see a sort of descent in Hemingway's mood as he closes the novel, which adds a moving and sorrowful end to the novel. Considering these elements, I think A Moveable Feast is definitely worth reading, particularly if one is staying in Paris. (Hemingway mentions the adresses--most of which are still intact in Paris--of other famous writers as well as places, such as the Closerie de Lilas, where he ate, drank, and "shopped.") It can serve as a mini-guidebook for those interested in expatriate writers.
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Summary: "A Moveable Feast" is a feast for the soul
Review: "A Moveable Feast" is a wonderous quick read that manages to transport the reader back to the bohemian Paris of the 1920s like a magical time machine. Hemingway's personal, casual and intimate accounts of such figures as Ford Maddox Ford, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Alistair Crowley and Gertrude Stein make the reader feel as though the reader has become great old friends with each of these romantic figures as well as with dear old grumpy Ernest himself. I read this book in preparation for a trip to Paris and when I got there, I almost expected to see Mssr. Hemingway at his favorite table at the Closerie de Lilas with a drink, his notebook and two blue pencils still writing observations about passers-by. Reading this marvelous little book is like taking a vacation back in time and as such brings renewal to a modern world weary soul. (As a footnote, the Closerie de Lilas is still there but it is now one of the nicest restaurants in Paris and the sort of place Mssr. Hemingway would not have dreamed about stepping into; no matter how much money he had won on the horses. Read the book, you'll know what I mean)
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Summary: ONE OF MY FAVORITES
Review: This is one of my favorites of Hemingway's work. It is a easy read, almost light when compaired with Hemingway's other work. Of course the brilliant word crafting is still there but I found it more enjoyable that some of his other work. I have never been a big fan on Hemingway novels, preferring his short stories, but do make an exception with this one. I enjoy works which address this time period and place, and here we have a first hand account by one of the principle players. To be fare though, you really need to read some of the memoirs of some of the others written of that period. Hemingway did probably have some axes to grind, but hey, who dosen't? All in all recommend this one highly.
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Summary: Indigestible
Review: This is a thoroughly nasty book. Not a celebration of Paris or anything else, but rather an attempt by an aging and embittered man to settle scores (imaginary and otherwise) against people no longer able to defend themselves.
Take the chapter on Ford Madox Ford. Hemingway was well aware that Ford was the superior novelist, but rather than confront him on that level, he makes a point of mentioning Ford's horribly foul breath. The heroic ambulance driver fails to add that Ford's lungs were nearly destroyed in a gas attack while he was leading troops in the trenches. Very classy, particularly since Ford's injuries later killed him.
Similarly, Hemingway bends over backwards to make it seem that something of Lovecraftian depravity was going on between Gertrude and Alice, while presenting no evidence whatsoever. You don't have to be a radfem or a Stein idolater either to find this obnoxious.
And on it goes, one chapter after another, almost without relief. It's difficult to grasp what readers see in this thing. I can only surmise that they've been blinded by Hemingway's genius. Though in point of fact, there's little enough of that in evidence here. This book was written by the man who wrote so gloatingly of rotting "Kraut" corpses during World War II. If you want the artist who changed fiction writing so profoundly and permanently, you'll have to look to the early novels and collections.
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Summary: If you snored through "Old Man and the Sea" in school, read
Review: this anyway. It's wonderful,poignant,gossipy, and a must for anyone who fantasizes about Paris in the 1920's. It is a fast read, and very revealing about what was going on in Hemingway's head before he died. His goal as a young writer was to write just one true sentence a day, and in this fascinating book, he achieved much more than that. I take back all the rude things I ever said about him as a writer, and maybe I'll go back and have another look at some of his other books.
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Summary: One Moveable Gift.
Review: This book is nothing short of stupendous. It's written straight as a collection of pastiches from when the author was one of the ex-patriates--due mostly to prohibition. Paris was the Mecca of the literary artist. For those of us stuck in vocations of repetition and bureaucracy, Hemingway's spontaneous, productive lifestyle in Paris will truly produce envy. The cuisine and the company will turn you green. Nothing will make you want a dozen oysters and a bottle of Sancere more. When I first read it I believed that he had been cruel to Fitzgerald, but I must modify that view now. It may be an accurate portrait of a man tied to a crazy spouse who constantly placed him under psychological siege. Hemingway is very sensitive towards the French working man, and his prose, for the most part, is up to his usual quality. I greatly enjoyed this book and recommend it as a grand vacation away from life's drudgery.
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Summary: A Fine Read
Review: Although Hemingway's arrogance is tiresome at times, this book is a must read for anyone who has spent time in Paris because Hemingway's description of the city still rings true today. Hemingway's prose is, as always, a joy to read. Finally, whether the events in Hemingway's trip from Lyon to Paris with Scott Fitzgerald really happened, his story about the trip is a jolly good read.
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Summary: A Fun Insider's View Of 1920s Paris!
Review: It's interesting to read about Hemingway's relationships with the famous people living in Paris at the time (Ezra Pound, James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, Ford Maddox Ford, Sylvia Beach (and her wonderful bookstore), F. Scott Fitzgterald, etc. -- for even more about these people, and many others [John Dos Passos, Fernand Leger, Pablo Picasso, Igor Stravinsky, Dorothy Parker, Cole Porter, etc.])
Aside from the chapters about his writing and hanging out in Paris and chatting with the famous friends, there are some particularly touching chapters. His chapter on Scott is great: funny and moving. He prefaces it with this eloquent description of Scott's writing, rivaled only by Melville's idolizing of Hawthorne and D. H. Lawrence's raving about Melville: "His talent was as natural as the pattern that was made by the dust on a butterfly's wings. At one time he understood it no more than the butterfly did and he did no know when it was brushed or marred. Later he became conscious of his damaged wings and of their construction and he learned to think and could not fly any more because the love of flight was gone and he could only remember when it had been effortless." The last chapter, "There Is Never Any End to Paris," is touching as well. This is just a great fun book! Two other great books I recommend is Hemingway's THE SUN ALSO RISES and THE LOSERS CLUB by Richard Perez
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Summary: Paris: 1921-1926
Review: "...this is how Paris was in the early days when we were very poor and very happy." This is more than an autobiographical memoir of Hemingway's early years in Paris. It is a glimpse into a literary epoch, an intimate glimpse into the community of expatriate writers and artists who lived in Paris in the 1920s: Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and so on.
And of course, it is a chapter from Hemingway's own life, written thirty years after the fact. There are passages of rich, descriptive attention to sensory details - "As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture..." - very different from the often terse writing style of his novels and short stories.
And while I do long (just a bit) for the Paris that Hemingway describes, the enduring treasure of this is a book is how it passes along a passionate attention to the details of life - not just Hemingway's, but your own, as well. In this way, the "moveable feast" is not just the experience of Paris, it is life itself.
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