A Moveable Feast

Author: Ernest Hemingway

Rating: 2/5

A memoir about Hemingway’s time in Paris when in his 20s.

Spoilers ahead.

I wanted something depressing and slice-of-life and Reddit said this book was the one for me. I went in completely blind and didn’t realise until the middle of the first chapter that it was a memoir (though I had the special edition with bonus materials and Hemingway wrote that he had fictionalised a lot of things but he name-dropped like literally every author from the 20th century). The only way I managed to finish this book was by going to Leith Links and not allowing myself to budge until I had read the last page. It was just that boring. The only interesting bits were the ones about F. Scott Fitzgerald. I mean, this book made me want to know more about Fitzgerald (his relationship with Zelda was…really weird) and surely a memoir isn’t doing its thing if I want to know more about someone other than the author. Something else that really irked me was how Hemingway lamented his poverty but in the next chapter, his family would go on a skiing holiday. I understand that holidays are important but, I don’t know, if you notice your savings drop, they could be the culprit. I’m definitely not reading anymore Hemingway.