A MOVEABLE FEAST

by Ernest Hemingway

I picked up this classic book published in 1960 because Natalie Goldberg, the author of Writing Down the Bones (read review here) said it was a must-read for anyone interested in writing. I found Hemingway’s essays about his years in Paris from 1921 to 1926, when he was just a struggling writer, to be utterly transporting. Included in A Moveable Feast are 20 pieces written by Hemingway, in which he illuminates the fascinating life he and his wife Hadley led when they lived in Paris.  Always looking for inspiration to improve his writing, Hemingway writes about becoming friends with Gertrude Stein and her companion Alice B. Toklas.  Renowned hostess of many literary salons, it is Stein who dubbed Hemingway and several other writers in Paris at the time, The Lost Generation.

A Moveable Feast features essays on many of these Lost Generation writers, including Ezra Pound, Ford Maddox Ford, and my personal favorite, F. Scott Fitzgerald.  From the collection, we sense that Hemingway’s extraordinary joie de vivre was constantly running up against his struggle to be disciplined about his writing. We also witness him and his wife frequently changing apartments due to money concerns and/or the unbearable heat of Paris in the summer.  I regularly found myself thinking what a challenge it must have been as Hemingway's wife.

If exploring Hemingway’s ideas and beliefs about writing interests you, then this is a book for you.  He writes about: how he motivates himself to write; writers he admires; what his writing process looks like; and, whether he thinks writing for the popular press is “selling out” one’s literary soul.  I recommend the book as essential reading for people interested in writing.  A Moveable Feast is a banquet you won’t want to miss. (Liz)