A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

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My reading goal/resolution most years is simple: to read – hopefully more than I did the year before, but not to badger myself if it doesn’t happen. This year, I’ve given myself more of a focus, that being to concentrate on classic literature. I just finished reading A Moveable Feast as a part of that resolution and it’s the first book by Hemingway I’ve read (I want to read The Sun Also Rises this year too.)

I actually read The Paris Wife far in advance to picking up this book – wrong or right it made my venture interesting none-the-less and it was fun to relive the imagined perspective of Hadley while reading the real thing. Feast highlights Hemingway’s formidable years as a struggling writer in Paris; the memories of what he ate and drank, life with his first wife and son, and the infamous writers he came to know. I’ve been fascinated with The City of Lights from a young age, and by fascinated I mean that phase where everything with the Eiffel stamped on it was gorgeous. That phase is (thankfully!) over and I can truly appreciate experiencing Hemingway’s Paris of the 1920s through his brilliantly stripped writing-style; which was surprisingly rich.

I hate to dissect the books I read. I either enjoy them for their story or I don’t, contemplating their double and deeper meanings like in a classroom is unbearable for me. This is especially true with classics. Being fully immersed in a time and place I’ll never be able to experience firsthand, was wonderful. Reading about the food and drinks Hemingway enjoyed made my mouth water. Obtaining small, but poignant, glimpses into the lives of the artists who those Gertrude Stein thought of as a lost generation was inspiring.

Adding to my personal pleasure is the knowledge that I live in the area that was once Hemingway’s summer playground, and have walked along the banks where such a prolific writer once fished… it’s magical. 5/5 stars