Hemingway: The Paris Years

De: Michael Reynolds

Narrado por: Allen O'Reilly

The 1920s in Paris are the pivotal years in Hemingway's apprenticeship as a writer, whether sitting in cafés or at the feet of Gertrude Stein.

These are the heady times of the Nick Adams short stories, Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, and the writing of The Sun Also Rises. These are also the years of Hemingway's first marriage to Hadley Richardson, the birth of his first son, and his discovery of the bullfights at Pamplona.

©1989 Michael Reynolds (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Too fast!!

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narrator reads so fast that sometimes it seems he's about to lose his breath... which is very distracting from the the story.

good for Hemingway fans wanting more detail

I enjoyed this book, it really filled in his Paris years with multiple sources for different periods and events.

Decent Book Marred By Bad Narration

The main problem is the way the narrator rushed through the reading, and his mangling of many words both in French and English. For example, he pronounces "quay" three different ways, none of them correct. There is also an editing fault, with a brief repetition of a passage.

However, as a biography, it is not bad. Hemingway comes across as a fairly unlikeable person, both egotistic and insecure at the same time, a bit of a poseur and fraud. This may be because he had difficulty separating himself from what he wrote, so that his characters and he became confused. One does get a vivid picture of the expat society in Paris during these years, and a picture of Hemingway's wife along with an analysis of how he approached his craft, how he learned to write over a period of 7 years, culminating in "The Sun Also Rises"

Slow down narrator, slow down.

What did you like best about Hemingway: The Paris Years? What did you like least?

Actually very good information and lots of interest for the diehard Hemmingway fan. Author seems to have a good working knowledge of Hem's life and times.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

This guy thinks he has a fire to put out. He is actually breathless trying to race through - too sad. Repeating "kway" for quay didn't endear him much to me either.