Mrs. Hemingway: A Novel
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Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
In their own ways and in their own times, Hadley, Pauline, Martha, and Mary all loved Ernest Hemingway. All experienced the passionate days of early courtship, the midsummer lethargy, the chipped-ice daiquiris that became acceptable earlier and earlier in the day. They all knew the sting of betrayal as his notoriously wandering eye eventually turned to another woman, and they all knew the safety of his embrace. They knew how to weather the tides of his creativity, how to support and nourish and heal and mend. While Hemingway’s stories are known worldwide, Wood used copious love letters, diaries, and telegrams to flesh out the stories that these women might have told. Flitting from bohemian 1920s Paris to sunny Havana, from Paris in the days of WWII to 1960s America, Mrs. Hemingway spans eras. Wood’s research gives this passionate story a firm foundation, and readers who enjoyed Loving Frank (2007) and The Paris Wife (2011) will adore this ideal summer read. Seamlessly blending known facts with fiction, Mrs. Hemingway is an absorbing, tender glimpse inside the lives of those in Hemingway’s inner circle. --Stephanie Turza
Review
Praise for Mrs. Hemingway
***A Harper’s Bazaar (UK) Best Book of 2014***
***A Stylist Magazine (UK) Best Book of 2014***
“Magnetic… assembles a satisfying puzzle of personalities, bringing each relationship’s beginning, end and overlap into vivid focus.”
—Leisl Schillinger, The New York Times Book Review
“Wood has given us a fascinating, astutely observed, gorgeously written account of the Hemingway wives and their charismatic, enigmatic, troubled and troublesome husband. This is a gem of a book.”
—Therese Anne Fowler, New York Times bestselling author of Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald
“Naomi Wood’s absorbing, illuminating novel offers fascinating portraits of four extraordinary women and the tortured literary genius who loved them. If you thought you knew all there was to know about Ernest Hemingway’s wives, their passions, and their heartbreak, think again.”
—Jennifer Chiaverini, New York Times bestselling author of Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker and Mrs. Lincoln’s Rival
“It takes an unusual skill to keep someone reading a story to which they think they already know the ending. But Mrs. Hemingway is so beautifully written, and evocative, that I could not put it down until the last page.”
—Jojo Moyes, New York Times bestselling author of Me Before You
“With remarkable insight and boldness, Naomi Wood brilliantly takes on one of history’s most remembered writers and the women who loved him. Obsessively readable, fascinating, and heartbreaking, Mrs. Hemingway captures a time and people in a style the legend himself would no doubt admire.”
—Erika Robuck, bestselling author of Hemingway’s Girl
“Forget everything you thought you knew about Ernest Hemingway’s four wives. In a quartet of searing interlocked portraits, Naomi Wood brings vividly to life the real women who loved and lost the legendary charmer and great writer. Mrs. Hemingway is a luminous heartbreaking novel. Wood is a writer to watch.”
—Ellen Feldman, Orange Prize-shortlisted author of Lucy
“A detailed and deeply affecting account of the complex relationship between love and work.” —Ian Sansom, author of The Case of the Missing Books
“It's superb, everything about it - the sentences, details, dialogue, but also the architecture, the way it's built. It flirts with all that’s already known, but the women feel real and fresh, and through their eyes so does Hemingway.”
—Andrew Cowan, author of Pig
“Luminous, intoxicating…A passionate novel based on real lives, full of betrayals and moments of heartbreaking intimacy as Wood gives four remarkable women star billing.”
—Marie Claire (UK)
"Readers who enjoyed Loving Frank and The Paris Wife will adore this ideal summer read. Seamlessly blending known facts with fiction, Mrs. Heminway is an absorbing, tender glimpse inside the lives of those in Hemingway's inner circle."
—Booklist
“Well researched . . . interesting . . . [and] cleverly done.”
—Literary Review (UK)
“Exquisitely written, the Mrs. Hemingways finally have their say in this beautiful novel.”
—Stylist Magazine (UK)
“A beautiful read and an amazing insight into the life of the man . . . superb.”
—Red (UK)
“Very occasionally, a piece of fiction based on facts is so good that I catch myself thinking: ‘Oh, so that’s how it really was.’ Wood achieves this in this breathtakingly good look at the lives of Ernest Hemingway’s four wives . . . . Sublime.”
—The Bookseller (UK)
***A Stylist Magazine (UK) Best Book of 2014***
“Magnetic… assembles a satisfying puzzle of personalities, bringing each relationship’s beginning, end and overlap into vivid focus.”
—Leisl Schillinger, The New York Times Book Review
“Wood has given us a fascinating, astutely observed, gorgeously written account of the Hemingway wives and their charismatic, enigmatic, troubled and troublesome husband. This is a gem of a book.”
—Therese Anne Fowler, New York Times bestselling author of Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald
“Naomi Wood’s absorbing, illuminating novel offers fascinating portraits of four extraordinary women and the tortured literary genius who loved them. If you thought you knew all there was to know about Ernest Hemingway’s wives, their passions, and their heartbreak, think again.”
—Jennifer Chiaverini, New York Times bestselling author of Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker and Mrs. Lincoln’s Rival
“It takes an unusual skill to keep someone reading a story to which they think they already know the ending. But Mrs. Hemingway is so beautifully written, and evocative, that I could not put it down until the last page.”
—Jojo Moyes, New York Times bestselling author of Me Before You
“With remarkable insight and boldness, Naomi Wood brilliantly takes on one of history’s most remembered writers and the women who loved him. Obsessively readable, fascinating, and heartbreaking, Mrs. Hemingway captures a time and people in a style the legend himself would no doubt admire.”
—Erika Robuck, bestselling author of Hemingway’s Girl
“Forget everything you thought you knew about Ernest Hemingway’s four wives. In a quartet of searing interlocked portraits, Naomi Wood brings vividly to life the real women who loved and lost the legendary charmer and great writer. Mrs. Hemingway is a luminous heartbreaking novel. Wood is a writer to watch.”
—Ellen Feldman, Orange Prize-shortlisted author of Lucy
“A detailed and deeply affecting account of the complex relationship between love and work.” —Ian Sansom, author of The Case of the Missing Books
“It's superb, everything about it - the sentences, details, dialogue, but also the architecture, the way it's built. It flirts with all that’s already known, but the women feel real and fresh, and through their eyes so does Hemingway.”
—Andrew Cowan, author of Pig
“Luminous, intoxicating…A passionate novel based on real lives, full of betrayals and moments of heartbreaking intimacy as Wood gives four remarkable women star billing.”
—Marie Claire (UK)
"Readers who enjoyed Loving Frank and The Paris Wife will adore this ideal summer read. Seamlessly blending known facts with fiction, Mrs. Heminway is an absorbing, tender glimpse inside the lives of those in Hemingway's inner circle."
—Booklist
“Well researched . . . interesting . . . [and] cleverly done.”
—Literary Review (UK)
“Exquisitely written, the Mrs. Hemingways finally have their say in this beautiful novel.”
—Stylist Magazine (UK)
“A beautiful read and an amazing insight into the life of the man . . . superb.”
—Red (UK)
“Very occasionally, a piece of fiction based on facts is so good that I catch myself thinking: ‘Oh, so that’s how it really was.’ Wood achieves this in this breathtakingly good look at the lives of Ernest Hemingway’s four wives . . . . Sublime.”
—The Bookseller (UK)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful
By
Lincs Reader
on February 20, 2014
Format: Kindle Edition
3 Comments
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Everyone has heard of Ernest Hemingway, but there is not so much written about his wives. Mrs Hemingway is a fictionalised account of the women who shared Hemingway's life.
The reader is introduced to Hemingway and his first wife Hadley, it is 1926 and they are staying in a villa in Antibes, also staying with them is Ernest's lover Fife. Fife is also the best friend of Hadley. And so, we begin the journey alongside Hemingway and his women. An unconventional journey, and at times, for the women at least, a very unhappy journey.
Spanning almost forty years, this story takes us through not just relationships, but through war and across a world that is changing quickly. The lazy days of the 1920s accompanied by some of the most famous names of the time, through war torn Paris and of course in Cuba, where Hemingway spent many years.
Naomi Wood has given each of Ernest's four wives a voice. Hadley, Fife, Martha and Mary all tell their own story, each of them dealing with the intricacies that he has woven in their own individual way.
Wood writes with flair and passion, creating a captivating story that on the surface appears to be full of glitz and glamour and fame. The darker side ripples away just below the surface, the heartbreak and pain, the betrayals and deceptions that Hemingway left in his wake. Each wife sees something a little different in Ernest, he is the central figure in their lives and through him, they become connected forever.
This is a truly beautiful read that casts the reader under a spell, it is addictive and terribly moreish. The writing is evocative, the characters are huge. I savoured every moment.
The reader is introduced to Hemingway and his first wife Hadley, it is 1926 and they are staying in a villa in Antibes, also staying with them is Ernest's lover Fife. Fife is also the best friend of Hadley. And so, we begin the journey alongside Hemingway and his women. An unconventional journey, and at times, for the women at least, a very unhappy journey.
Spanning almost forty years, this story takes us through not just relationships, but through war and across a world that is changing quickly. The lazy days of the 1920s accompanied by some of the most famous names of the time, through war torn Paris and of course in Cuba, where Hemingway spent many years.
Naomi Wood has given each of Ernest's four wives a voice. Hadley, Fife, Martha and Mary all tell their own story, each of them dealing with the intricacies that he has woven in their own individual way.
Wood writes with flair and passion, creating a captivating story that on the surface appears to be full of glitz and glamour and fame. The darker side ripples away just below the surface, the heartbreak and pain, the betrayals and deceptions that Hemingway left in his wake. Each wife sees something a little different in Ernest, he is the central figure in their lives and through him, they become connected forever.
This is a truly beautiful read that casts the reader under a spell, it is addictive and terribly moreish. The writing is evocative, the characters are huge. I savoured every moment.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By
Crystal
on June 12, 2014
Format: Paperback
Comment
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Anyone who knows me well AT ALL knows that I will never turn down a book if I hear the word “Hemingway”. I’m not sure why this is, because as far as I can tell he was a moody, morose alcoholic most of the time. But my interest started when I was very young, and I watched In Love and War, with Sandra Bullock, and I thought he seemed so tortured and passionate (even portrayed by Chris O’Donnell). I think, in real life, he was very charismatic and even magnetic…And he hurt everyone around him when he fell into the darkness that consumed him more and more throughout his life, leading up to the moment when he took his own life in his later years.
Hemingway was married to four different women-each of them remarkable in her own way. When I was asked if I would be interested in covering Mrs. Hemingway, by Naomi Wood, I was ecstatic. A novel that describes Hemingway’s relationships with his four wives, based on letters and anecdotes from his life? I couldn’t resist.
When Mrs. Hemingway begins, Ernest is married to Hadley, his first wife and the mother to his first born son. She has been traveling with Ernest and living in Europe, and she recalls the moment when she met Ernest and how they fell in love, then the terrible events leading up to her divorce and the entrance of Pauline, the spunky young fashion journalist with family money and not a care in the world for anything…Except the charismatic Ernest Hemingway, of course.
Next we travel through Pauline, who was always a little naïve, and who swore she would never let Ernest go…But when the driven, intelligent, recklessly brave war correspondent Martha Gellhorn enters the scene she doesn’t stand a chance.Read more ›
Hemingway was married to four different women-each of them remarkable in her own way. When I was asked if I would be interested in covering Mrs. Hemingway, by Naomi Wood, I was ecstatic. A novel that describes Hemingway’s relationships with his four wives, based on letters and anecdotes from his life? I couldn’t resist.
When Mrs. Hemingway begins, Ernest is married to Hadley, his first wife and the mother to his first born son. She has been traveling with Ernest and living in Europe, and she recalls the moment when she met Ernest and how they fell in love, then the terrible events leading up to her divorce and the entrance of Pauline, the spunky young fashion journalist with family money and not a care in the world for anything…Except the charismatic Ernest Hemingway, of course.
Next we travel through Pauline, who was always a little naïve, and who swore she would never let Ernest go…But when the driven, intelligent, recklessly brave war correspondent Martha Gellhorn enters the scene she doesn’t stand a chance.Read more ›
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By
Lady Fancifull
on March 5, 2014
Format: Kindle Edition
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Naomi Wood's cleverly structured novel, dipping backwards and forwards in time between 1920 and 1961, and set in America and Europe, is the story of not so much Ernest Hemingway - though he is the character who runs all the way through, but his 4 wives, Hadley Richardson, Pauline Pfeiffer, Martha Gellhorn and Mary Welsh.
The way the book is structured, divided into four sections, one for each wife, but within each section sliding times and places backwards and forwards nicely illustrated Hemingway's serial affairs. A marrying man who would pretty quickly be sliding the next wife into place whilst declaring undying love for the current one.
And curiously, several of the wives and ex-wives were friends or became friends.
Wood's book grew on me, becoming most interesting (unsurprisingly really) when wife number 3 (Martha Gellhorn) entered the fray. Two reasons for this - Gellhorn is the wife who comes across as most modern in sensibilities - as of course, she was a writer and journalist and war correspondent herself, an independent woman unwilling to settle for being just someone's wife as an identity, even if (perhaps especially if) that someone was such a huge and outwardly dominating character and writer as Hemingway. So, not only is Gellhorn more defined as herself, rather than defined by her man, but the trajectory of the book is also becoming darker, as the lauded writer is clearly heading ever more deeply into self-destruct, and the cracks in his undoubtedly charming and charismatic veneer are becoming deep and obvious, taking the slide down to self-destruction
Wood's writing is assured, spare, well-crafted and doesn't hang about and indulge itself.Read more ›
The way the book is structured, divided into four sections, one for each wife, but within each section sliding times and places backwards and forwards nicely illustrated Hemingway's serial affairs. A marrying man who would pretty quickly be sliding the next wife into place whilst declaring undying love for the current one.
And curiously, several of the wives and ex-wives were friends or became friends.
Wood's book grew on me, becoming most interesting (unsurprisingly really) when wife number 3 (Martha Gellhorn) entered the fray. Two reasons for this - Gellhorn is the wife who comes across as most modern in sensibilities - as of course, she was a writer and journalist and war correspondent herself, an independent woman unwilling to settle for being just someone's wife as an identity, even if (perhaps especially if) that someone was such a huge and outwardly dominating character and writer as Hemingway. So, not only is Gellhorn more defined as herself, rather than defined by her man, but the trajectory of the book is also becoming darker, as the lauded writer is clearly heading ever more deeply into self-destruct, and the cracks in his undoubtedly charming and charismatic veneer are becoming deep and obvious, taking the slide down to self-destruction
Wood's writing is assured, spare, well-crafted and doesn't hang about and indulge itself.Read more ›
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