Join Paula McLain to talk about our February Book of the Month, THE PARIS WIFE, Tuesday 28th February 9-10pm

[TillyBookClub]

Anyone happen to see Midnight In Paris, Woody Allen's most recent (and hurrah, at last! enjoyable) film? Essentially Owen Wilson looking confused and cute and exploring his 'golden era', the historical moment that you would most like to live in. Which means drinking all night in Twenties Paris with Picasso, Matisse, Gertrude Stein, Dali, Duff Cooper, Scott Fitzgerald. But he discovers that not all those gilded free spirits are so keen to be there.

February's book also takes that golden era and flips it over. THE PARIS WIFE is the story of Hadley, aka Mrs Ernest Hemingway (the first one, the 'Paris one'), who first meets the handsome, energetic, vulnerable Nesto in Prohibition-era Chicago. Several parties, fights and a proposal later, and they find themselves penniless in the city of lights, amidst the glittering crowd of artists and writers that congregate in its cafes and bars. Ernest's career finally begins to take off, and Hadley, kept at home with their baby son, begins to be pushed further and further into the sidelines. As she watches the fault lines in her marriage crack ever wider, her desperation to hold onto her love only grows stronger...until she realises there is another ready to take her place.

Read more about the book at our book of the month page, or browse pictures of Hadley and Ernest on Paula's website

Virago are offering 50 copies of The Paris Wife to Mumsnetters. To bag your copy before they run out, please go to the book of the month page and fill in your details.

We'll post on this thread once the copies have all been sent out but if you're not lucky enough to bag a free copy, don't forget you can get your paperback or Kindle version here

We are delighted that Paula will be joining us at the end of February for the live webchat - we will confirm the exact date in the next few days. Look forward to seeing you all there, and do keep posting your thoughts and any advance questions on this thread...

[Morgan]

Thanks a lot - will enjoy comparing them .

[highlandcoo]

Paula, you talk about admiring gumption, passion and commitment in writers and these qualities shone out for me in your depiction of the character of Hemingway in the book. His faith in his potential to produce great writing seems to almost justify his selfishness at times ( to him and those around him if not to modern women today!) Hadley seems to feel that when she married him, she signed up to his needs coming first - that was the deal. I think the comments describing her as drippy/stupid are failing to understand that. I really liked her as a character.

[PaulaMcLain]

Hi, there. Ernest Hemingway gets a lot of flack?particularly from women?for his various (and numerous) flaws and often rightly so. And still, I hope my readers can stay open to him as a character and appreciate him for the deeply complex person he was. I don?t forgive him for everything?hardly. And yet I?m inclined to agree with Hadley, who said that Ernest had more sides to him than any geometry book could chart. That?s the sense I got from researching his life so intensely.

Whether we like it or not, we humans are all a terrible mess, aren?t we?

@valiumpoptarts

Hi Paula,
I'm about halfway through the book and really enjoying it :) I used to be quite a fan of Hemmingway in my youth, but reading this as an adult I find him self obsessive to an annoying degree. Talented, but not someone I'd want to hang out with. So my question is, did writing the book change your opinion at all about any of the charactors. And (if I'm allowed an and) do you like Hemmingway or did you write this because you feel for Hadley?

[PaulaMcLain]

Nicely said--thanks! I actually understand how Hadley might seem uninteresting to some?she?s not an ?Artist? at the center of Gertrude Stein?s salon, and not a striver. Her ambitions are personal, interior, and specific to her. She wants to be a wife and mother, a friend, a lover, a muse?and is all of those things in her marriage to Ernest. It might be difficult for some to believe that achieving these ?domestic? goals could make her feel complete?and yet they very much seemed to.

@highlandcoo

Paula, you talk about admiring gumption, passion and commitment in writers and these qualities shone out for me in your depiction of the character of Hemingway in the book. His faith in his potential to produce great writing seems to almost justify his selfishness at times ( to him and those around him if not to modern women today!) Hadley seems to feel that when she married him, she signed up to his needs coming first - that was the deal. I think the comments describing her as drippy/stupid are failing to understand that. I really liked her as a character.

[PaulaMcLain]

My favorite Hemingway is actually a collection of stories he was working on at the time of their marriage--In Our Time. Gorgeously written.

@Morgan

Thanks a lot - will enjoy comparing them .

[TillyBookClub]

Thank you - I like those answers very much. I adore Charlotte's Web, rather fancy having RadiantPig as my Mumsnet login.

Now for my specifically Paris Wife q's:

Are some of Ernest's phrases in the book (for example, when he says 'One story for everything I know. Really know, in my bones and in my gut') actually taken from real life? Did you have to tread quite carefully in terms of what you could conjure up and what you might want to take verbatim from letters, memoirs etc?

What do you think Hadley would have done if she hadn't married Ernest? Stayed a maiden aunt, drinking tea with Ruth and Bertha? Or married a very boring type from St Louis just to avoid spinsterhood? Or do you think she had a spark in her that would have led to a unusual life no matter what?

[yUMMYmUMMYb]

Paula,
Thanks for taking part in this discussion. I thoroughly enjoyed your style of writing and it has opened up a whole new genre to me. thanks.
my question - can you tell us about other books you have written, which of yours would you recommend next?

[PaulaMcLain]

Oh, dear! That would be worse than Anna Karenina--as she at least got to throw herself under the train!

@Hullygully

About half way. Hadley is a terrible drip. If I were Ernest I would have pushed her under the train for losing all his work.

[suzannened]

Thanks for the answer. I too wanted to shake them at times - knowing they were real people in situations that actually happened made their actions infuriating sometimes and also knowing that the split was inevitable was hard. I think that wanting a better outcome for Hadley despite knowing this is testament to how well you portrayed her

[tiddleypompom]

Do you believe that Hadley was indeed a 'muse' then? You used this term in response to a previous question. I was moved by how hurt she had been to read no mention of her in 'Sun' when she was given the first draft - almost as if she was not interesting enough to inspire recollection within his works (other than memoirs).

I have thoroughly enjoyed the book by the way.

[highlandcoo]

Thanks for your answer, Paula. Like Morgan, I'm planning to read A Moveable Feast now and will be interested to see it from EH's side!

Another controversial issue re Hemngway, abhorrent to so many people nowadays, is his passion for bullfighting, which I thought you conveyed very convincingly. Were these scenes difficult to write?

[MamaMary]

I don't agree, Hullygully - Hadley is not a drip - maybe just a bit more prosaic than the bohemian types who surrounded her. :) I wonder, Paula, how did you feel about 'the lost generation' when you were doing your research? I found them quite irritating in their hedonism, snobbishness and immorality. Hadley was a refreshing contrast. I wonder did you mean this to come across, or is it just my reading?

[PaulaMcLain]

I DO think it was the beginning of the end for them. If you think about it, he counted on her to be absolutely dependable and reliable, and in that moment he couldn't help but begin to doubt her.

She never lived down that moment, was never quite about to forget it for all of her long life. So tragic!

[/quote]

@kittysaysmiaow

Hi Paula
Congratulations on the novel, I really enjoyed it. As a travel nut I particularly liked all the details of their jollies to various glamorous locations. They knew how to holiday in style

I wanted to ask about when Hadley left Ernest's work on the train. It seemed such a key point in the novel. Was this event the beginning of the end for them, and what effect did it have on their relationship? Also... did this happened as described in real life?

Thanks for taking part in this discussion.

[TillyBookClub]

Just to say Paula's computer is taking ages to load/reload so apologies for the wait. We'll aim to get through everyone's questions...

[PaulaMcLain]

It's not an easy dynamic to digest, truly, but "romance" doesn't always mean "ends well." I do think they loved each other through all their flaws and bad decisions....

@StewieGriffinsMom

I find the construction of "romance" in such an obviously abusive relationship very difficult to understand.

[kittysaysmiaow]

Thanks Paula. It IS really sad when you think of it like that, especially as she had such good intentions.

[PaulaMcLain]

I think it was incredibly difficult for Hadleythis quiet Victorian girlto find herself thrust into Bohemian Paris. All those huge egos! They were irritating, and hedonistic. I think of Hadley as a woman trapped between generations. She was surrounded by ?modern? women in Paris, but she wasn?t that?wasn?t a flapper, wasn't at all like Zelda Fitzgerald, or sophisticated and cultured like Duff Twysden or Sara Murphy, or shrewd and self-confident like Pauline Pfeiffer. But she had her own kind of strength, and she did manage to hold her own in her marriage to Hemingway, although it doesn't always look that way from a distance.

@MamaMary

I don't agree, Hullygully - Hadley is not a drip - maybe just a bit more prosaic than the bohemian types who surrounded her. :) I wonder, Paula, how did you feel about 'the lost generation' when you were doing your research? I found them quite irritating in their hedonism, snobbishness and immorality. Hadley was a refreshing contrast. I wonder did you mean this to come across, or is it just my reading?

[PaulaMcLain]

They were hard to imagineI'd certainly never seen a bullfight! But I liked thinking of her sitting ringside, feather stitching baby clothesthat play between softness and violence, feminine and masculine, life and death...

@highlandcoo

Thanks for your answer, Paula. Like Morgan, I'm planning to read A Moveable Feast now and will be interested to see it from EH's side!

Another controversial issue re Hemngway, abhorrent to so many people nowadays, is his passion for bullfighting, which I thought you conveyed very convincingly. Were these scenes difficult to write?

[PaulaMcLain]

AGREED!!

@kittysaysmiaow

Thanks Paula. It IS really sad when you think of it like that, especially as she had such good intentions.

[PaulaMcLain]

I think she was a muse for himbut more than this supported and bolstered his careerand his life. She was essential to his emotional makeup and stability. For that reason, I think she was quite hurt not to find herself in The Sun Also Rises. He was everything to her; wasn't she everything to him???

@tiddleypompom

Do you believe that Hadley was indeed a 'muse' then? You used this term in response to a previous question. I was moved by how hurt she had been to read no mention of her in 'Sun' when she was given the first draft - almost as if she was not interesting enough to inspire recollection within his works (other than memoirs).

I have thoroughly enjoyed the book by the way.

[PaulaMcLain]

Thank you! I've written another novelthough quite differenttitled A Ticket to Ride, and also a memoir about growing up in foster care, which I did, titled Like Family. I also have two books of poetry, but I'm not sure anyone reads poetry these days!!

@yUMMYmUMMYb

Paula,
Thanks for taking part in this discussion. I thoroughly enjoyed your style of writing and it has opened up a whole new genre to me. thanks.
my question - can you tell us about other books you have written, which of yours would you recommend next?

[highlandcoo]

Thanks Paula. I really enjoyed the book, especially having just read For Whom the Bell Tolls with my book group at the local library. Will now be recommending The Paris Wife to them as an interesting linked read :)

[tiddleypompom]

Yes. She was given a dedication though wasn't she? Apologies I can't recall if you actually quoted this in your novel?

[PaulaMcLain]

I also think it's hard for women of our generation to understand another way of being a woman, of being married. It's complicated, truly, but for a time, Hadley got exactly what she wanted in her marriage. It might not be what WE would want for her, but just the same...

@highlandcoo

Paula, you talk about admiring gumption, passion and commitment in writers and these qualities shone out for me in your depiction of the character of Hemingway in the book. His faith in his potential to produce great writing seems to almost justify his selfishness at times ( to him and those around him if not to modern women today!) Hadley seems to feel that when she married him, she signed up to his needs coming first - that was the deal. I think the comments describing her as drippy/stupid are failing to understand that. I really liked her as a character.