The Paris Wife

Summary:

"A deeply evocative story of ambition and betrayal, The Paris Wife captures a remarkable period of time and a love affair between two unforgettable people: Ernest Hemingway and his wife Hadley.
Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a quiet twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness—until she meets Ernest Hemingway and her life changes forever. Following a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for Paris, where they become the golden couple in a lively and volatile group—the fabled “Lost Generation”—that includes Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. 
Though deeply in love, the Hemingways are ill prepared for the hard-drinking and fast-living life of Jazz Age Paris, which hardly values traditional notions of family and monogamy. Surrounded by beautiful women and competing egos, Ernest struggles to find the voice that will earn him a place in history, pouring all the richness and intensity of his life with Hadley and their circle of friends into the novel that will become The Sun Also Rises. Hadley, meanwhile, strives to hold on to her sense of self as the demands of life with Ernest grow costly and her roles as wife, friend, and muse become more challenging. Despite their extraordinary bond, they eventually find themselves facing the ultimate crisis of their marriage—a deception that will lead to the unraveling of everything they’ve fought so hard for. 
A heartbreaking portrayal of love and torn loyalty, The Paris Wife is all the more poignant because we know that, in the end, Hemingway wrote that he would rather have died than fallen in love with anyone but Hadley."

Plot: The plot starts off slow, and not where I expected it to start, but it is exactly where it needed to start you needed to understand these characters to truly feel for how it ended.

Characters: I think McLain captured Hadley and Hemingway perfectly! I truly believed it was them. Every character had that 1920's Paris air around them.

Pros: Beautiful ending, and the writing do definite justice to the people it is actually portraying.

Cons: No Complaints.

Final Thoughts: When I first began The Paris Wife, I was a little disappointed. I wasn't expecting the slow build up and story. I wanted  it to be about the fun and crazy times with Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein ( ala Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris) but what I got was the truth and damn I am happy I did. Even up to the Middle ish end I was thinking "yes this book is good, but rave worthy? No.." then those last 50 pages or so where Hadley is going through the pain and trying to hold on  and then moving on and I was touched. I can see why people love The Paris Wife, I really can.