"A Moveable Feast"
by Ernest Hemingway
211 pages. Simon & Schuster. $11.00
ISBN 0-684-82499-X
Thirty years after leaving Paris, Ernest Hemingway writes about his life in the city of love during the 1920s. A Movable Feast, written late in Hemingway's life, is made up of a series of anecdotes that describe his neighborhood hangouts, his eccentric group of friends, and the difficulties of being a poor, young and unknown writer.
Many of the stories take place in famous literary cafes, such as Les Deux Magots in Saint Germain des Pris, where Hemingway went to write. He uses his signature style of simple, terse language to describe his writing process: “After writing a story I was always empty and both sad and happy, as though I had made love, and I was sure this was a very good story although I would not know truly how good until I read it over the next day”.
A Movable Feast touches on many of the relationships Hemingway has with other writers of the time, including Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Hemingway tells about the time spent in Stein's apartment, talking about love, sex and writing. Stein regarded Hemingway as a friend, but also as someone she imparted wisdom to. She tells Hemingway that he is of “the lost generation” from World War II and educates him about sex, homosexuality, and how to buy good art.
Hemingway briefly recounts his run-ins with Joyce, the Irish novelist who was already known as one of the most influential writers of the day. Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley, lived in a run-down apartment with their infant son, whom they call “Bumby”. They did not have money to spend on dinners, or nice clothes. Hemingway and his wife are on there way home one day when they see Joyce inside an expensive restaurant eating happily with his big family. He comments to Hadley that he aspires to reach the literary success of Joyce, which in retrospect is quite interesting to hear from one who would become one of the most famous writers of the twentieth century.
A significant part of the book is dedicated to Hemingway's love-hate friendship with Scott Fitzgerald. Hemingway recounts a humorous car trip from Lyon to Paris in a convertible in the pouring rain. He also talks about Fitzgerald’s literary masterpiece, The Great Gatsby, and how he could have written more if it wasn’t for his destructible relationship with his wife Zelda.
The whole theme of Hemingway's book is based on one phrase:
“If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.”
The book offers no official story line, yet it accurately depicts what it must have been like to live in Paris in those heady days. Reading A Moveable Feast is like tasting a piece of that great city without ever leaving your couch. This is Hemingway’s terse literary style at its best. Give yourself a couple hours to read this gem, because you won’t be able to put it down.
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