The Paris Wife by Paula McClain

Title: The Paris Wife

Author: Paula McClain

Genre: Historical Fiction

So, when launching into a novel that centers on a man’s first of four wives, one has to be open to the possibility that it’s not a happy story.   Such is the case with Paula McClain’s The Paris Wife which introduced me to Hadley Richardson; Ernest Hemingway’s first wife.   Now, this would seem to me a tough storyline to sell to a publisher~ this isn’t the wife he ended up with, it’s not even the one he lasted the longest with ...”just” the first one.

Here’s the beauty of the novel; McClain takes on what we all know to be a melancholy and hopeless tale, but speaks it through the unsuspecting eyes of Hadley Richardson.  While we, the readers, can’t help but try to identify the various and telltale warning signs that the story is peppered with, Hadley comes across as a fresh, intelligent and self-giving woman who manifests a strength and resilience that one can’t help but admire.  Indeed, she embodies those attributes so well that it’s no wonder Hemingway fell in love with her.  Her unassuming and honest nature served as a great comfort to him, and her loyalty to him is above reproach, even if completely unreciprocated.

I happen to really dig Hemingway’s novels.  If not the content, I truly love the completely transportive quality of his writing, which inevitably makes me want to swim in the ocean in the south of France, and dry off in the sun, sipping on cold, unnamed white wine in a sweating bottle.  But, after reading The Paris Wife, I’m forced to accept the fact that he was a womanizer, who tried desperately to write beautifully, and lose himself utterly into whatever experience was directly in front of him.   While the novel is labeled Historical Fiction, (I think mainly due to the first person narrative) the information it contains is traceable back to records kept by Richardson, and works by Ernest himself.

I suppose that Paula McClain’s novel is a bit like a stained glass window; a beautiful work of art whose true purpose is meant to illuminate another’s story.  I was rooting for Hadley from page one, became better acquainted with her and her illustrious husband, and finally couldn’t wait for her to reclaim herself by the end.