Book Review - A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemmingway

I am writing this post after an unprecedented hot spell, with the sliding sash window open and cool air radiating in. I feel refreshed and finally ready to write what I think of A moveable Feast. 

Having read A Farewell To Arms when I was about nineteen, I knew that I was inspired and enraptured by Hemmingway's long-sentenced street of consciousness style, consisting of very little dialogue and lots of description. The description Hemmingway uses is not translucent and unnecessary, but practical and the very basis upon which the narrative is so rich. 

This wonderful novel is fictional but is based on the experiences and memories of Hemmingway in his twenties, whilst married to his first wife Hadley and living in Paris. It was a novel published in 1964 and published posthumously after Hemmingway's death three years earlier and is the culmination of his early diaries and memories he kept during this time.

The book features real life people who encountered or was friends with, many of them famous writers or artists and the laid back style of writing can at times make the reader feel they are in a private world also meeting the likes of  F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound. Mixing the practicality of the narrative with personal opinions and anecdotes, Hemmingway paints a touching, nostalgic, sad and introspective viewpoint that is intriguing and intense in the best possible way. 

I particularly liked the descriptions of French cafe's, Skiing holidays in Switzerland, confusing encounters with F. Scott Fitzgerald and stories of the family cat. It is through the matter of fact, honest but also beautifully aware descriptions that I feel close to the author's mind and voice. I have not read anything other than a Hemmingway novel that makes you feel nothing has been held back or changed for the reader's reception. In this, I am as refreshed reading as I am by the sudden cool air outside. 

Molly Latham 23/07/2021