Ernest
Hemingway was not an easy man. He always wanted to play the lead role and be in
the center of attention. He also was a man who wanted one thing, but when he
got it, wanted something else. This was certainly true for his marriages, as
his four wives found out.
Ernest
Hemingway’s first wife was Hadley Richardson. They lived together in Paris when
Ernest was just a beginning author. Their marriage has already been the subject
of the excellent book The Paris wife
by Paula McLain.(HERE)
In Paris
Ernest had an affair with Pauline Pfeiffer (Five). For a while there was an
uneasy relationship between the three of them; Hadley knew about the affair,
but hoped it would pass. Finally she consented to a divorce and Ernest and Five
got married.
They lived
in Key West and Five made sure the house and everything was in perfect order
for Ernest. There was however one little problem, Ernest wanted more adventure
and he left Five for the beautiful and blonde Martha Gellhorn who was
twenty-eight at the time.
Unfortunately
for Ernest Martha loved her work more than she loved him and in 1945 she asked
him for a divorce. She was the only woman who left Ernest instead of being
left. Ernest married Mary Welsh immediately after the divorce and she was his
wife until he died in 1961.
Naomi Wood managed to give each of the women their own
voice. She tells the story in four parts, told from the viewpoints of Hadley,
Five, Martha and Mary. It begins when one relationship ends an another one
starts, with flashbacks to the past. In this way she can describe the events
from the viewpoint of each woman, giving a new dimension to what you thought
you knew. She does this very well and manages to make the women come alive so
you can understand their emotions and their actions.
Naomi Wood based this book on letters and biographies and
little details give away how well she researched everything.
The
question remains why these women, intelligent, kind and sometimes married to
another man, fell for Ernest Hemingway. Was it the myth of the great writer,
the man he pretended to be? I still do not have the answer, but it is very
fascinating.
Mrs. Hemingway is a very well written and excellent novel and
I enjoyed it very much.
Published
in 2014
This does sound like a good book. I've always been curious about the women who married Hemingway....especially considering what kind of man he was. (I'm not a fan, can you tell?) I still need to read The Paris Wife, too. So many books, so little time. :) Great review!
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean, although I find Hemingway quite fascinating, the more I learn about him, the less I like him (the same with Virginia Woolf, I am sad to say).
DeleteBoth this book and The Paris wife, were excellent, though!
Kind regards