My first Hemingway.

I don’t know why it has taken me so long to read anything by dear Ernest, he fits perfectly into what I consider a great writer to be, he’s frank and courteous and at times poor and angry at the world. He is of the same school as Fitzgerald and Orwell in so far as he was impoverished in Paris at a quarter past the last century. I’ve just finished A Moveable Feast, and can’t wait to try and get hold of some more.

From what I can gather this book is a lot more autobiographical than any of his other work (but I should really do some more research). I just wanted to share how much I appreciated the novel. I always find it astounding how contemporary some writers who have long since left us managed to be. I guess that explains the appeal that stretches for generations.

A Moveable Feast is Hemingway’s love letter to Paris, written in the late fifties but set in the mid twenties it details the places he would head to write and the struggle to find his own voice as a writer whilst dealing with touches of poverty as he tried to cut his teeth having quit journalism proper. It’s astounding to believe the man had any doubts and that he once inspected Fitzgerald’s penis in a bathroom.

All I can say is put down whatever trash or pulp is currently on the reading list and get hold of a copy, it’s the way writing should be.