Who is Hemingway’s Paris Wife?

Heard a good interview with Paula McLain, the author of “The Paris Wife”. She got the idea for the book after reading Hemingway’s “A Moveable Feast”. This book was published posthumously in 1964. It’s a collection of stories or memories an old Hemingway puts together describing his young days in Paris.

Interestingly the descriptions of his first wife Hadley are sentimental and rather silly. Their young days of Paris poverty are romantically simple and filled with good eating.

He writes several introductions to the book which are not used. Here’s one:

“This book is fiction. I have left out much and changed and eliminated and I hope Hadley understands. She will see why I hope. She is the heroine and the only person who had a life that turned out well and as it should except certain of the rich.”

She is his heroine!?!

He also writes about her:

“I put my arm around her and felt our hearts beating through our sweaters and I brought my right hand up on her neck smooth and the hair thick against it under my fingers that were shaking.”

Something I learned about Hemingway from this book which I did not know is apparently he suffered from "post tramatic stress syndrome" as a result from his experiences in WWI. He had to sleep with a light on, he had horrible nightmares and he had a bad track record of keeping friends. He's a damaged hero who writes about his ghosts.

What’s so good about sea air?

“Her doctor had urged the trip in response to a spell of poor health – sea air had long been understood to have great curative effect for almost anything that ailed one – but it would seem she needed little persuading.”

So what’s so good about sea air? Is it just the change of air because city air was so bad. Does sea air have restorative qualities? Or is the truth, travel, just getting up and out to see something new and interesting is good for our health?

On a cynical note, if your local doctor sends you off on a trip and you continue to get very sick somewhere else you’re off his books.

More scientific research on this subject to follow…now I must go to my laboratory…no lightweight blog here!

What is Shangri-La?

Shangri-La is a creation of British author, James Hilton, in his 1933 novel “Lost Horizon”It’s a valley hidden somewhere in the Tibetan mountains. The people who have accidently found their way there have learned how to stop the aging process so they live hundreds of years which gives them the greatest gift…time.

“And, most precious of all, you will have Time – that rare and lovely gift that your Western countries have lost the more they have pursued it. Think for a moment. You will have time to read – never again will you skim pages to save minutes, or avoid some study lest it prove too engrossing.”

So no excuses for not reading the book group selection…

The goal of the Shangri-La monks is to preserve culture; literature, music, history since they fear a time where man will create the weapon which will destroy civilization as we know it.

The atom bomb was used in 1945.

“Lost in Shangri-La"’s author, Mitchell Zuckoff, describes the earlier novel, “Lost Horizon”.

“Often read as an adventure tale, Hilton’s book is really a meditation on finding peace and preserving humanity in a world spiraling toward self-destruction. Hilton saw“civilization” trapped in a ruinous cycle, careening from one war to the next, each more deadly and destructive than the last.”

Our “Lost Horizon” hero, Conway, is a veteran from the WW I trenches. Once a brilliant, talented student, musician and athlete currently he is rather unstable and “passionless”about life.

Remarkably the High Lama of Shangri-La recognizes Conway as a kindred spirit and entices him to give up the outside world and stay to replace him once he finally dies. Conway must decide if he should take up the mission of the monastery. For good or bad, he chooses to leave.

I like the twist at the end of the book when we are reminded the whole tale about Shangri-La is just a travel story written by our unstablehero, Conway. So did he make the whole thing up? Does Shangri- La exist?

Zuckoff writes, “It’s no wonder, then a pair of veteran war correspondents looked wistfully on a fertile valley, sealed from the outside world, its natives ignorant of Nazis and kamikazes, and thought of the paradise Hilton had given his fictional paradise.”

It really is a jungle out there.

I’m “enjoying” Matterhorn much more than I thought I would. I really want to find out what is going to happen to the characters; Mellas, Fitch, Hawke, Jackson and the rest. The day in day out information about living and fighting in the jungle (so I love minutia) is fascinating. The relationships between the men are so immediate and real . Since the book is set in 1969 tension between black/white Marines is an important part of the story. The “subtle” politics between officers is another form of combat being fought in the jungle.

Since the original plan was to compare Matterhorn to For Whom the Bell Tolls let’s start with our “heroes”.

Jordan has volunteered to fight in Spain for the Republic. He is experienced and confident. Mellas also signed up for the military, he’s not a draftee. He just didn’t think he would end up fighting in the jungle. On the bright side, now that he’s here, all of this will look good on his resume when he gets home to run for political office. He is so painfully inexperienced. Marlantes describes how uncomfortable he is talking with his men, the other officers, everybody. He doesn’t know the right questions to ask, he can’t remember anyone’s name. He's exhausted. He’s clueless. What a different opening for a book.

One of his soldiers has had a headache for weeks. What should he do about it?

" 'Do I have to deal with it now?' Mellas asked. He instantly regreted asking the question. He knew he was whining. "

Mellas is so over his head. When leading one of his first missions he’s advised by his soldiers to call for air power to blow up an elephant??…at least they think it’s an elephant making the noise in the jungle…but they’re not sure, and he/they will never know.

So who is the real enemy here? In camp they daily battle leeches and foot rot. As an officer one of his duties is to check the feet of his men to make sure they don’t get “immersion feet”.

On his first big “security patrols” one of his men is killed by a tiger. How do you explain that to a soldier’s family?

Next: But that would be murder…

To begin…with the glossary

Matterhorn will not be an easy read but I think it will be worthwhile since the Viet Nam War was such an important “background” element for my high school and college years. Now I can read about it as an adult and a mother of a 25 year-old son.

Since I am a female I was never threatened with the draft but our male friends were consumed with the problem. I remember a Sat when our friend, Tom, came over to tell us he was filing as a conscientious objector so he had spent the morning with his priest to get a letter to put in his file. His parents were furious but I was happy to hear years later his they joined Tom at anti-war rallies. Their opinion had changed.

Before starting the novel I decided to read the 31 page glossary in the back of the book so I wouldn’t be flipping back and forth.

One thing that strikes me is each time he describes one of the fighting units, such as a squad, the numbers are always short and the officers were lower rank than required.

“Squad: Unit designed to consist of 13 Marines…usually it operated with about 10 or 11…A squad was designed to be led by a sergeant (three stripes)…in Vietnam, though most squads were led by corporals (two stripes) or even lance corporals (one stripe), most of whom were teenagers.”

Also, when he describes a “short-timer” and how when they know they are going home they begin to act strangely.

“At this time, in contrast to the previous months, they could entertain the hope that they were going to get through alive and unscathed, but this hope destroyed the earlier psychological numbness and fatalistic thinking of the combat infantryman that had made fear easier to deal with.”

Entering enemy territory. Here we go…page one.

Do you trust me?

I loved the slow, carefully plotted beginning of For Whom the Bell Tolls. As a reader, we are meeting Robert Jordan for the first time and it mirrors the process he must go through as he assesses the members of the small group of guerilla fighters he is joining in Spain.

Even on the first, short page we discover a lot about him as he gathers information about the bridge he is sent to blow up behind Facist lines.

Working and talking with the old man, Anselmo, we learn Jordan’s been to Spain and this area before. He is organized, observant and careful. He has the right maps and “glasses” to scope out the area around the bridge.

Anselmo, is also sizing up Jordan. Who is this guy the command has sent for such an important mission behind enemy lines?

“You had to trust the people you worked with completely or not at all, and you had to make decisions about the trusting.” Jordan thinks.

When he is briefed by his commander General Golz he is told the bridge must be blown up at a precise time before the attack begins. Not too soon before and not too late after. He has done other jobs like this for Golz before so he is comfortable with Jordan’s skills and professionalism. He trusts him.

When Jordan meets Pablo, the leader of the guerilla gang, he does not like or trust him. This is a good assessment. But Pablo is thinking the same thing. Who is this guy? Is he trying to take authority from me? He asks for Jordan’s identity papers. He is not happy with the idea of blowing up the nearby bridge because it will destroy their cover. After the bridge is destroyed they will be hunted down by the nearby troops.

Jordan is constantly being watched and tested by Pablo. Does this “Ingles” know anything practical… like horses? He quickly and skillfully inspects the small herd Pablo and his men have “collected”. “The sorrel is lame in the off hind foot…the hoof is spilt”. Jordan observes. Is there nothing this young man cannot do?

Unfortunately he is in a position where he cannot choose who he works with. He must make the best of what he has been given. He must work to earn their trust so they will do what he asks them to do. Does this include killing their “unreliable” leader, Pablo?

Willie Maugham…No writers’ block here

I envy the fact that Somerset Maugham was such a fluid and prolific writer. He seems so modern, no non-sense, just get the job done. He would take a short story and turn it into a play and if that didn’t work he would take the plot and characters from the play and turn them into another short story or novel.

He said he loved to write stories because on the page he had total control of what happens as opposed to real life.

He was a disciplined writer, blocking out the hours in the morning to write. But then he had Gerald to run his life for him. We all need a Gerald…a good wife…a person to make sure our life runs smoothly so we have time to write or create and dinner is always on the table promptly.

“It’s hard to be a writer and a gentleman” WS Maugham

Maugham did have a bad…or lazy…but I don’t think he was lazy… habit of including real people in his stories. I was surprised to learn the character Sadie Thompson from the short story Rain was based on a woman named… Sadie Thompson. You’d think he might have changed one of her names.

Maugham admits to a friend that the Marla character in Of Human Bondage is based on a young man he had known and the obsessive/destructive relationship described in the novel is something Maugham experienced years before.

His stories are all about relationships... usually marriage. Why and how they work or usually don’t work.

Maugham was an incredibly successful writer. He was Double Day's. the American publisher's, best selling author. During the 1930’s, the depression, magazine’s paid him $1.00 per word. Amazing. So why don’t we read him more today?

In the group last Friday the question was asked, who today has the celebrity and talent Maugham had in his lifetime? Any suggestions…