[NCB]⋙ [PDF] Beautiful Exiles edition by Meg Waite Clayton Literature Fiction eBooks

Beautiful Exiles edition by Meg Waite Clayton Literature Fiction eBooks

Download As PDF : Beautiful Exiles edition by Meg Waite Clayton Literature Fiction eBooks

Beautiful Exiles edition by Meg Waite Clayton Literature Fiction eBooks

I have never really cared for Ernest Hemingway the writer—over several decades I’ve tried to read his novels and never managed t actually finish a single one other than my enforced reading of The Old Man and the Sea in high school English Lit class. I didn’t care for him as a person, either—what I’d read about him left me with the impression of a particularly flawed, self-centered, narcissistic man with an amazing sense of entitlement and who insisted on demeaning and diminishing nicknames for the women he slept with and sometimes married.

So why bother with this book, yet another tale of Hemingway and one of his many wives? I’d already skimmed The Paris Wife and thought it inane, superficial, and poorly written, so I ignored its sequel after skimming the sample pages and finding it even worse. Perhaps I simply had the urge to see if this new version of a period in Papa Hemingway’s overwrought life with a woman as strong as he was and a better writer would be worth my time. And more to the point, I wanted to see in this time I’d find an “Amazon First Read” that was worth my time.

I sailed through this novel with ease. I was amazed at the almost mesmerizing, often laconic, sometimes aching first-person narrative of a life fascinating on its own, without requiring the Hemingway entanglement to augment it. At some point in nearly every chapter I wanted to shake Martha Gelhorn and tell her she didn't need that particular sort of aggravation, that she could cover the Spanish Civil War on her own, and the Sudetenland, the fall of Paris, and the rest of World War II without Hemingway diluting her creativity, her drive, and her options. Alas, she was in love. For a while.

The writing here is crisp, unadorned, almost Hemingway-esque, but with more adornment when required. Gelhorn is front and center, despite the famous secondary characters who wander in and out, but not without purpose. No one and no event is mere wallpaper, fortunately. The scenes, brief, pithy, and evocative, dish up an accurate glimpse of the late 1930s and the subsequent war years, whether in Paris, Spain, Cuba, Key West, or Sun Valley. I always look for anachronisms but found none. I always look for some disregard for grammar and punctuation and found none. Plot holes? Nope. Even the snippets of Spanish and French were amazingly accurate.

Most important, I think, was the characterization of Martha herself, even with her more limited first-person narrative. I found her likable, annoying, frustrating, worthy of admiration, human. And even though I disliked Hemingway, and still do after reading this novel, the author served him up on a well-rounded platter, occasional niceties, warts, and all. Kudos to the author for that accomplishment.

For those who can’t get enough of Ernest and his personal—and writing—life, I would most assuredly recommend this book over its recent pale competition.


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Beautiful Exiles edition by Meg Waite Clayton Literature Fiction eBooks Reviews

So beautifully written I had to keep reminding myself this was not an actual memoir. Meg Waite Clayton gives readers a front row seat to the most intimate details of the lives of Martha Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway, but not in a voyeuristic way. I felt invited and included as if Martha were speaking directly to me. From Key West ,war torn Spain, pre-Castro Cuba and China to the battlefields in Europe, I shared Gellhorn's excitement at meeting Hemingway and falling in love and her frustrations at the limits placed on the ambitions and achievements of women during her lifetime. Clayton acknowledges Gellhorn's reluctance to become involved with Hemingway because he was married despite or because of Gellhorn's past relationship with a married man. She captures the difficulties of a relationship and marriage fueled by the adrenaline rush of war, alcohol and celebrity. In addition to an incredible story, Clayton crafts each word of her sentences with reverence. I found myself reading passages aloud just to hear the beauty of her prose. This is a book to be read and re-read.
So beautifully written it will break your heart. I highly recommend this book to everyone who loves literature and genuine complicated love stories.
Martha Gellhorn was the third wife of Ernest Hemingway. They met in a bar in Key West, Florida. It is beyond me how Ernest Hemingway managed to find so many women who found him attractive. I read the Paris Wife by Paula McClain which tells the story of his first marriage, and he was portrayed as a self-centered egotist. He has not improved or matured in the span of years between that novel and this one. Martha Gellhorn is also fairly self-centered but she is the more interesting and sympathetic character. She was a talented writer and passionate war correspondent. Soon after they met, both of them are in Spain covering the Spanish Civil War and trying to create support for the fight against the Fascists. The book is at its best when Hemingway is not on the page. The nicknames and pet names between Martha and Ernest and other family members are so irritating! I don’t doubt that they are accurately portrayed and that the inclusion of this off-putting nonsense is illuminating. That does not do much to reduce the irritation. Martha is the much more interesting character here and there is more that I would like to know about her. The details of how she packed for war time reporting, how she lived in war zones, and how she fought for the assignments and access are the books strength. The settings in Spain, China, and Cuba are also richly detailed. You will come away with a clear picture of the times and places portrayed. Martha and Ernest were married for a very short time. Maybe I would have enjoyed a book that focused on her life with only a brief section on the marriage to Hemingway, but that is not the book that the author chose to write. This book was free as a promotion, which is good, but I did not enjoy reading it.
I have never really cared for Ernest Hemingway the writer—over several decades I’ve tried to read his novels and never managed t actually finish a single one other than my enforced reading of The Old Man and the Sea in high school English Lit class. I didn’t care for him as a person, either—what I’d read about him left me with the impression of a particularly flawed, self-centered, narcissistic man with an amazing sense of entitlement and who insisted on demeaning and diminishing nicknames for the women he slept with and sometimes married.

So why bother with this book, yet another tale of Hemingway and one of his many wives? I’d already skimmed The Paris Wife and thought it inane, superficial, and poorly written, so I ignored its sequel after skimming the sample pages and finding it even worse. Perhaps I simply had the urge to see if this new version of a period in Papa Hemingway’s overwrought life with a woman as strong as he was and a better writer would be worth my time. And more to the point, I wanted to see in this time I’d find an “ First Read” that was worth my time.

I sailed through this novel with ease. I was amazed at the almost mesmerizing, often laconic, sometimes aching first-person narrative of a life fascinating on its own, without requiring the Hemingway entanglement to augment it. At some point in nearly every chapter I wanted to shake Martha Gelhorn and tell her she didn't need that particular sort of aggravation, that she could cover the Spanish Civil War on her own, and the Sudetenland, the fall of Paris, and the rest of World War II without Hemingway diluting her creativity, her drive, and her options. Alas, she was in love. For a while.

The writing here is crisp, unadorned, almost Hemingway-esque, but with more adornment when required. Gelhorn is front and center, despite the famous secondary characters who wander in and out, but not without purpose. No one and no event is mere wallpaper, fortunately. The scenes, brief, pithy, and evocative, dish up an accurate glimpse of the late 1930s and the subsequent war years, whether in Paris, Spain, Cuba, Key West, or Sun Valley. I always look for anachronisms but found none. I always look for some disregard for grammar and punctuation and found none. Plot holes? Nope. Even the snippets of Spanish and French were amazingly accurate.

Most important, I think, was the characterization of Martha herself, even with her more limited first-person narrative. I found her likable, annoying, frustrating, worthy of admiration, human. And even though I disliked Hemingway, and still do after reading this novel, the author served him up on a well-rounded platter, occasional niceties, warts, and all. Kudos to the author for that accomplishment.

For those who can’t get enough of Ernest and his personal—and writing—life, I would most assuredly recommend this book over its recent pale competition.