 |
Book Summary InformationAuthor: Ernest Hemingway Edition: Paperback Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published) Published: 1996-05-29 ISBN: 068482499X Number of pages: 219 Publisher: Scribner Accessories:
Book Reviews of A Moveable FeastBook Review: Skip This Book; Read His Other Works Summary: 2 Stars'A Moveable Feast' is not Hemingway's best work. This is the conclusion I came to halfway through this book.
I love his classics, and if you are like me you loved the brilliant characters from novels such as 'The Sun Also Rises' and 'Old Man and The Sea'. I did. Hemingway has a simplistic way of words that still manages to evoke powerful scenes.
Hemingway's writing still evokes these powerful scenes in 'A Moveable Feast', however, that is all you'll get from it. You've lost his brilliant characters; Hemingway writes the story of his life without most of the charm of his fiction. Where you'll find the details and descriptions of bull fights in 'The Sun Also Rises' that will tear your heart asunder, this same writing style applied to his everyday events (i.e. going to the racetrack with his wife to gamble) will appear boring and needless.
Skip this book; read his other works. Especially if this is your first Hemingway novel, you will feel as if he is overhyped and misunderstand why he has become such a literary icon today.
Summary of A Moveable Feast Published posthumously in 1964, A Moveable Feast remains one of Ernest Hemingway's most beloved works. It is his classic memoir of Paris in the 1920s, filled with irreverent portraits of other expatriate luminaries such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein; tender memories of his first wife, Hadley; and insightful recollections of his own early experiments with his craft. It is a literary feast, brilliantly evoking the exuberant mood of Paris after World War I and the youthful spirit, unbridled creativity, and unquenchable enthusiasm that Hemingway himself epitomized. In the preface to A Moveable Feast, Hemingway remarks casually that "if the reader prefers, this book may be regarded as fiction"--and, indeed, fact or fiction, it doesn't matter, for his slim memoir of Paris in the 1920s is as enchanting as anything made up and has become the stuff of legend. Paris in the '20s! Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley, lived happily on $5 a day and still had money for drinks at the Closerie des Lilas, skiing in the Alps, and fishing trips to Spain. On every corner and at every caf? table, there were the most extraordinary people living wonderful lives and telling fantastic stories. Gertrude Stein invited Hemingway to come every afternoon and sip "fragrant, colorless alcohols" and chat admid her great pictures. He taught Ezra Pound how to box, gossiped with James Joyce, caroused with the fatally insecure Scott Fitzgerald (the acid portraits of him and his wife, Zelda, are notorious). Meanwhile, Hemingway invented a new way of writing based on this simple premise: "All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know." Hemingway beautifully captures the fragile magic of a special time and place, and he manages to be nostalgic without hitting any false notes of sentimentality. "This is how Paris was in the early days when we were very poor and very happy," he concludes. Originally published in 1964, three years after his suicide, A Moveable Feast was the first of his posthumous books and remains the best. --David Laskin
General Books
|
 |
Quiet Strengthby Tony Dungy, Nathan Whitaker Tyndale House Publishers; Tyndale House Publishers; Release date: 2007-07-10; Published: 2007-07-10; Kindle Edition; eBooksBest price: $9.99Price in other shops: $12.99
For Laciby Sharon Rocha Random House Audio; Published: 2005-12-27; Audio Cassette; BookPrice in other shops: $25.00
Trumanby David McCullough Simon & Schuster; Published: 1992-06-15; Hardcover; BookBest price: $17.95Price in other shops: $40.00
Same Kind Of Different As Meby Ron Hall, Denver Moore Thomas Nelson; Published: 2006; Hardcover; BookBest price: $11.06Price in other shops: $21.99
Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst The Rwandan Holocaustby Immaculee Ilibagiza Hay House; Published: 2006-03-15; Audio CD; BookBest price: $14.53Price in other shops: $23.95
Lost Boyby David J. Pelzer Orion; Published: 2001-12; Paperback; BookBest price: $46.00
October Sky (The Coalwood Series #1)by Homer H. Hickam Fourth Estate; Published: 1999-10-07; Paperback; BookBest price: $8.21Price in other shops: $14.45
Seabiscuitby Laura Hillenbrand Random House Audio; Published: 2003-06-05; Audio CD; BookBest price: $9.88Price in other shops: $29.95
" Have A Nice Day "by Mick Foley HarperCollins; Published: 2000; Audio Cassette; BookBest price: $51.48
The Revolution: A Manifestoby Ron Paul Hachette Audio; Published: 2008-04-30; Audio CD; BookBest price: $15.25Price in other shops: $24.98
|
The Great Gatsbyby F. Scott Fitzgerald Scribner; Published: 1999-09-30; Paperback; BookBest price: $6.00Price in other shops: $14.00
Tender Is the Nightby F. Scott Fitzgerald Scribner; Published: 1995-07-01; Paperback; BookBest price: $1.52Price in other shops: $15.00
Garden of Edenby Ernest Hemingway Scribner; Published: 1995-09-06; Paperback; BookBest price: $5.92Price in other shops: $15.00
Islands in the Stream : A Novelby Ernest Hemingway Scribner; Published: 2003-07-22; Hardcover; BookBest price: $17.87Price in other shops: $30.00
To Have and Have Notby Ernest Hemingway Scribner; Published: 1996-03-20; Paperback; BookBest price: $1.47Price in other shops: $15.00
The Old Man and The Seaby Ernest Hemingway Scribner; Published: 1995-05-05; Paperback; BookBest price: $2.99Price in other shops: $12.00
The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: The Finca Vigia Editionby Ernest Hemingway Scribner; Published: 1998-08-03; Paperback; BookBest price: $13.49Price in other shops: $22.00
A Farewell To Armsby Ernest Hemingway Scribner; Published: 1995-06-01; Paperback; BookBest price: $2.31Price in other shops: $15.00
For Whom the Bell Tollsby Ernest Hemingway Scribner; Published: 1995-07-01; Paperback; BookBest price: $6.18Price in other shops: $15.00
The Sun Also Risesby Ernest Hemingway Scribner; Published: 2006-10-17; Paperback; BookBest price: $5.84Price in other shops: $15.00
|