Papa puts out.
Pros:
Now I know why Hemingway is considered a great writer.
Cons:
Non-fiction.
The Bottom Line:
Excellent autobiographical sketches by 'Papa' make this a true must read for anyone who enjoys reading real literature.
|
|
Overall Rating:
|
 |
|
Author's Review
I am primarily a Horror/Sci-fi/Fantasy reader, so it’s not often that I get around to reading the classics. My previous view on the whole thing was that the classics were for school and after I graduated, I would read whatever the heck I wanted to. However, I am a writer now, and I have decided that it’s a good idea to read some occasional classic literature (or at least literature that has been written by ‘classic’ authors) to improve my own style. I started with Hemingway’s ‘A Moveable Feast’.
I was watching the movie ‘City of Angels’ one night, and in it they mention this book. One of the characters mentions how taken he is by Hemingway’s ability to describe how things taste. I immediately put it on my reading list after that. It took me about a decade to get my hands in a copy for various reasons, not the least of which being that my reading list is unreal in length and I just didn’t get to it for a long while.
As it turned out, I found that it was well worth waiting for. It’s basically a series of autobiographical essays about Hemingway’s time in Paris, living there with his wife and basically being the poster child for the phrase ‘starving artist’. This was a Hemingway that I had never thought of - the Hemingway before he became popular and rich. Not only that, but it was a look inside of the mind of a writer, giving me insights into what ‘Papa’ actually thought about while he was writing. He also talks about meeting and hanging out with the popular artists of the day such as Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, and a hilarious weekend he spent with F Scott Fitzgerald. Some of the anecdotes are just priceless and I was very impressed by this book as a whole. I had been expecting to read a book of fiction (I didn’t actually know what ‘A Moveable Feast’ was about, going in) but instead I got an autobiographical sketch of one of the best writers of the twentieth century.
I highly recommend this book to just about anyone who is interested in either true literature, or how it is written. This is definitely one of the best books I have read all year. Five stars.
Barnes and Noble
