t-alexander

Ah, Hemingway. Though historical fiction, McLain captures the complexities, contradictions, cruelty, creative genius, callousness, crassness, and crazy bursting through this larger-than-life man-child. Hadley Richardson, his first of four wives, is cast as his anchor--solid, loyal, honest, a forever champion of his work, while forever loving this bear of a boy. Richardson paid a high price for pushing, praising, propping him up; the labor involved in loving "Tatie" (one of their pet names for each other) left little room for a life of her own. It's a sacrifice she willingly made, but one that almost destroyed her when Ernest takes to the bohemian, hedonistic artist's lifestyle in Paris that was "trending" in the 20's. It's interesting to note that, while still unknown, he despised the very life he shamelessly embraced when fame at last shown its light upon him. When their marriage lays in ruins, and he tells Hadley she's much too good for him, she and the reader know it to be true. Cameos from the Fitzgeralds, Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein and her partner, Alice Toklas, among others, show them in a mostly unflattering light. F. Scott wrote what he lived, as this world that ultimately ends Ernest's first (and probably best) marriage, is The Great Gatsby come to life. Trampling, like the bulls of Pamploma, over traditions and vows, childish and churlish, drug- and alcohol-addled, egocentricity, madness, and recklessness run rampant--an unsustainable life, and one in which Richardson can't embrace. Ernest frequently infuriates with his cool, arrogant insistence on how he must live, despite the pain and suffering it inflicts on Hadley. This same arrogance, born of insecurity and the obsession with being the best, lost him many good friends along the way. One must always remember, however, the deep depression that plagued him throughout his life (his father, brother, and sister committed suicide, as well). Hadley relives the sorrow and helplessness she felt watching her own father slip away, ending his life with a shotgun, too. Fascinating look into a remarkable time in America's literary history, and a love and marriage that, considering the man, was true and beautiful...and doomed.

2023-06-23 12:53