A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

A Moveable Feast

Ernest Hemingway

Published 1964

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I have a tendency to put too much on my plate. For example, currently there are six or more books on my nightstand that I am supposed to be reading. The one(s) I enjoy the most are picked up more often than the others. That is how I know I enjoyed A Moveable Feast because I went to it more often. 

As it is, I have not had much time to read these last few weeks because my father ended up in the hospital for a few nights with pneumonia and now that he is home, he is very weak. I have not been getting much sleep and have not been in the mood to read. But when I was, I read A Moveable Feast.

The book is a memoir from a compilation of journals covering American author Ernest Hemingway's time in Paris, France, and other neighboring countries of Europe, during the 1920s. It was posthumously published in 1964. I thought the title had something to do with the frequent mention of food and hunger, but it represents a holy day or feast that has not been set, a term that a friend recalled was used by Hemingway. (I had to look that up because I had not read it in the book.)

The chapters are individual of each other and usually cover a random topic or event; they do not read like journal entries. 

Freely, Hemingway gives the reader a picturesque window into his simple existence as a starving writer. He also shares the conversations and opinions from his social circles with people like Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and many others. To some degree he shares his private relationship with his first wife, Hadley, and later their son, who were with him in Paris, but he does not include details about what broke up the marriage, describing it only as "the murderous summer" and "the bulldozing of three people's hearts to destroy one happiness." 

Many chapters mark his relationship with Gertrude Stein, an American socialite living in Paris who often held gatherings of artists and authors in her home. She was quite bossy and opinionated, an unconscionable woman! Stein called Hemingway's young generation (that served in WWI) the Lost Generation because they had lost respect for everything and drank themselves to death.

Speaking of drinking, there was quite a lot of that going on. Especially F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda, although he tried to keep himself sober so he could write. But I must say that my favorite chapters covered the adventures of Hemingway and Fitzgerald. Wow! What madness and chaos! I will not spoil it if you have not read A Moveable Feast. This will remain a memorable section of the book. After all, these are real people, and they are flawed and imperfect and sometimes troubled and complicated. 

Hemingway and son, "Bumby"

Hemingway describes writing, his writing process, and what he does to prevent himself from thinking about his work when he is not writing. He also does a lot of reading with all this time on his hands in Paris, which allows him to live two lives. After reading Tolstoy, he explains

To have come on all this new world of writing with time to read in a city like Paris, where there was a way of living well and working, no matter how poor you were, was like having a  great treasure given to you.

 A Moveable Feast is an indelible snapshot of Hemingway's earlier experiences and how he processed them privately; about attitudes and ideas pertinent to a particular time period and within a specific circle of people. 

More importantly, Hemingway is the prolific writer of even simple mundane activities like frequenting a cafe or observing strangers in daily life or truthfully describing his own weakness. If we had to read dull lecture notes, and Hemingway was the author, they would be absolutely pleasurable. His writing style is appealing, satisfying, and stirring. His clear account of the world around him is calming and peaceful. His words are a delight to read.

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