This second installment should have been posted on Friday, so don’t be confused when you see the third segment posted in just a few days.
On to the memoir:
The Closerie de Lilas is a café that Hemingway frequents, worlds away from the more popular cafes that some people go to, in order to be seen. Hemingway writes, and he is annoyed when he is distracted.
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| From Wikimedia |
Hemingway’s observations on his contemporaries are fascinating. I remember the mentioning of Ford Madox Ford, but I didn’t remember how physically repulsed he was by the man (he describes him as unkempt and foul smelling). From Hemingway's side of things, it does seem like Ford is a pompous ass, as he goes off and makes these inane remarks about gentlemen, cads, and bounders (definition: a man of objectionable social behavior). But he follows Ezra Pound's advice and avoids offending Ford.
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| Ford, Joyce, Pound, and Quinn. Photo credit |
In fact, much of this memoir seems to be charting the ins and outs of his relationships with many artists and writers. They are a difficult bunch, overly sensitive, easily offended, and moody as hell.
He often refers to being poor, and even mentions how he'll skip meals in order to be able to grab drinks with fellow artists.
When you are twenty-five and are a natural heavyweight, missing a meal makes you very hungry, but it also sharpens all of your perceptions.
Stay hungry. Sound advice, right? But I keep coming across information that says otherwise. That Hemingway and Hadley were bringing about 3,000 a year, which was "a decent sum in the inflated economies of Europe at the time."
Which brings me to something I was wondering about in the first post: is Hemingway a reliable narrator? Are any of us reliable narrators when it comes to our past? I mean, come on: I'm only 33 and have mythologized and idealized a number of people in my life. It's no stretch of the imagination to assume that one day I'll idealize certain periods of my life as well. And Hemingway is writing about a number of people who have died or come to ruin; wouldn't it be natural to remember his youth as a simpler, more innocent period? Aren't we all guilty of that?
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| Hemingway and Hadley Photo credit |
One of people I really enjoy reading about in this memoir is Ezra Pound. He displays an abundance of generosity towards writers, artists, musicians, sculptors, going so far as to set up a fund to help get T.S. Eliot out of his day job (as a banker) so that he might have more time to write poetry. And of course, it's well known how instrumental Pound was in editing and putting together Eliot's masterpiece, The Waste Land. And while Pound appealed to fellow writers to help raise money for one of their own, Hemingway gambled on horses, something he struggles with repeatedly in AMF.
Ok, remember Getrude, the know-it-all writer who tells Hemingway his stuff isn't good enough to be published in Atlantic Monthly, and then bullies all the other writers and artists in her crowd?
Well, she and Hemingway come to the end of their close friendship after he overhears a conversation she is having with Alice (her lover). This bad-ass broad, who snaps her fingers and gets people to jump, is being talked to in a manner that obviously offends and shocks the hell out of Hemingway himself, who is obviously not someone with delicate sensibilities.
I have to say, I am dying of curiosity here. What could Ernest have heard that day?
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| Stein and Toklas Photo Credit |
One of the following chapters deals with the Irish poet, Ernest Walsh, in "The Man Who Was Marked for Death." I had to read and re-read this chapter, and still am not entirely sure what to make of it. Hemingway first meets Walsh in Pound's studio, when Walsh drives up in a long car with two women (girls, Hemingway calls them). While H is chatting up these girls, Pound and Walsh are deep in conversation. Later, we learn that Welsh's belongings are being held because he has an outstanding bill at Claridge'sAMF, and one I'm sure any history buff would enjoy.
Chapter 17 was to be included in this 2nd week, but being that it deals with F. Scott Fitzgerald, I will be rolling it into my post on Friday.
And for all of you that want to know more about Hadley and Hemingway and the Paris Years, you should stop by The Hemingway Project. Click HERE to hear a recording of Hadley's response to A Moveable Feast. Interesting stuff!
