It should be music Friday… but I woke up with a splitting migraine so let’s talk quietly about books instead.
My latest read was “The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
I have non idea what made me buy this book, like many it collected dust under my bedside table for months, years maybe, but it was a really lovely surprise. (Frankly the cover is ghastly)
This is a really well written book, the atmosphere of Paris at the time and the characters are all beautifully brought to life and ‘real’, in all their flaws and virtues and complexities. A whole host of ‘famous people populates the Jazz age Paris – Gertrude Stein, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound… just to name a few – Hemingway himself is portrayed quite sympathetically and the author offers a more ‘down to earth’ side of his personality… and of course nowI’m king of itching to read and re-read some of his books, especially “The sun also rises” which talks about the event that take place in this novel.
I’m not spoiling anything in saying it hasn’t got a happy ending, but it didn’t leave me sad or mauling.
Anyway, it’s worth reading if you like biographies or Hemingway or simply well written prose.
Hadley and Ernest on their wedding day:
2018 Mr Hanckock and the mermaid
2017 – Magari domain resto (Lorenzo Maroni)
2016 – Upstream (Mary Oliver)
2015 –
2014 – Annihilation (Jeff VanderMeer)
2013 – Careless people (Sarah Churchwell)
2012 – Wonder
2011 – The Paris Wife (Paula McLain)
2010 –
2009 – Let the great world spin (Colum McCann)
2008 – The White Tiger (Aravind Adiga)
2007 –Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (Barbara Kingsolver)
2006
2005 – Never let me go (Kazuo Ishiguro)
2004
2003
2002 – Everything is illuminated (Jonathan Safran Foer)
2001 – American Gods (Nail Gainman)
2000 – Coram Boy (Jamila Gavin)
1999
1998
1997 – Paradise (Toni Morrison)
1996
1995
1994
1993
1992
1991- Regeneration (Pat Barker)
1990
1989 –The Joy luck club (Amy Tan)
1988
1987 – Norwegian Wood (Haruki Murakami)
1986
1985
1984
1983
1982
1981 – The colour purple (Alice Walker)
1980
1979 – Sophie’s Choice (William Styron)
1978
1977
1976
1975
1974
1973
1972
1971
1970
while you're ahead... 