Sunday, February 17, 2013

A Moveable Feast - Ernest Hemingway

Before I started reading this book, I had never read anything by Hemingway. I was also unaware of how polarizing the man and his work remain to this very day. The very mention of the man's name caused a furious backlash among my facebook friends.

While I found A Moveable Feast highly superficial, self-conscious, and ultimately about nothing whatsoever, I enjoyed it. I've never been to Paris, but "A Moveable Feast" made me feel as if I had. I have also never been in the company of greats such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Joyce, or Ezra Pound, but this book provides insight into what it would be like to spend time with some of the great writers of that era. Of course I believe Hemingway's portrayals of the characters in the book (particularly that of Gertrude Stein) are probably a bit one-sided and unfair. Be that as it may, "A Moveable Feast" is a window into a world I will never see because it simply doesn't exist anymore. If you can manage to read around Hemingway's profound arrogance, there is plenty of good to be had in this book.


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