A Moveable Feast--#81 finished

I realized a few weeks ago that I hadn't read a Hemingway book yet this year so I grabbed this one. I am kind of mixed on it though after reading it. It talked about his Paris years and his contact with the other expatriates especially F Scott Fitzgerald & Gertrude Stein as well as mentioning others like Ford Maddox Ford and James Joyce. It also goes into some of his relationship with his first wife and at the end kind of mentions how he ended up cheating on her.

I guess the real focus of the novel is on his writing and how he transitioned at this time from being a reporter to an independent writer of short stories and then novels. He talked about how he worked in cafes in Paris and how at times he would be interrupted or how he would take walks. He also talked about being poor at the time and fighting to meet bills. From the sounds of it, it was a time of struggle but also a time of growth and sometimes pure fun. He was surrounded by many other creative people and even short of money was able to experience much of Europe like vacations to Spain for bullfighting, skiing in the Alps and the Riveria in France.

To me though the novel wasn't effective in that it merely touched on a lot but missed much of the detail that would have really added to it. To me it seems it could have been so much more and there is a real feeling of too much missing after each chapter in the book. I know it was written towards the end of his life and published after his death so that could be the main reason for this but still I can't really get past it. I am glad I read it because I really enjoy Hemingway's novels but next time I will re-read another one before picking this one up.

It is on 17 WL but I think right now this is a keeper for me. If I get desperate for credits then maybe but I really can't see that happening. I have 37 credits now with 5 books in the mail so I will be at 42 once they are delivered so should have more than enough for the near future.