The Paris Wife by Paula Mclain

I read this earlier this month in... Paris! In fact, all my reading in Paris was either written by Parisians or set in Paris. I had been looking at this novel as a good way of experiencing 1920's Paris, with the Cafe des Flores and Les Deux Magots. A sort of vicarious time travelling. Besides which I had seen some positive reviews of the book and I spent a term once at college studying Ernest Hemingway.
It is told in the first person by his wife, Hadley H, and is the story of their time together from first meeting in Chicago to eventual betrayal and break up in Paris. Hadley makes an empathetic narrator and brings a straight thinking attitude to life with an artist that makes her seem like a saint for putting up with him sometimes! It definitely held my attention, and I thought it a faithful account of their time together.... and no wonder. The next book I read was A Moveable Feast, Hemingway's posthumous account of the same time. Paula Mclain has definitely used it as source material as several of the stories are here in almost identical detail. At first this bugged me, but Paula's book is written as a novel rather than a set of vignettes as Hemingway's is, so actually it was good to read them both as a compare and contrast.



Although I studied a small selection of his work, H never quite did it for me... too Masculine Bull Fights and Hunting so I have to shamefully admit I have never gone back to him. I found Moveable Feasts completely different from my remembered impression. I enjoyed the name dropping (Joyce, Stern et al) and the way he got things across without actually wasting time or words on explanations. The older I get the more I appreciate succinct expression, so I may try to read (or re-read) some of his work again.

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

Every so often you read a book that is, well, lovely. That is compelling and sad and funny and makes you read it despite the requests for lunch and let's go shopping from the children. This year it was this book.


I don't own a dog, but if I did I would want one like Enzo. He is faithful, intelligent and believes that when he dies he will be reincarnated as a man (he watched it on National Geographic where it is, apparently, what they believe in Mongolia.) He lives with Denny who is a good racing driver and then with Eve (wife) and the baby. Through all the twists and turns of life, Enzo keeps on telling the story from his point of view. What would, as a simple story, be just another bad luck tale is made into a lovely story because of the character of Enzo. It's a real weepy, a two-hanky book that I loved.
And the title? Enzo and Denny watch racing (motor racing) together at times of stress and the secret to being a great driver is to perfect the art of racing in the rain.