Leader of the Lost

Name dropping galore: Joyce, Stein, Pound, Ford, Fitzgerald……..

Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast chronicles a veritable all-star team of literary figures. Instead of presenting the heralded group of ex-pats with the usual amounts of respect and sycophancy, Hemingway makes all of his peers seem rather human. Pretension, delusion, and vice abound in their jealous, little world. As for himself, Hemingway keeps to his famous simple style and blunt representations portraying himself in much the same way he describes his courageous, yet human heroes.

Definitely of interest, Hemingway describes how he writes. Focusing on trying to produce "one true sentence", he recounts his quest to only write about that which he knows. The artist paints of vivid picture of the cafes and restaurants where he penned the stories that began his fame. A Moveable Feast focuses on Hemingway's life in Paris up until the time of his first novel, The Sun Also Rises, which many consider his most powerful work.

Amateur psychologists have often theorized about Hemingway's sexual orientation seeing great symbolism in his suicide, a gun in his mouth. Many have remarked that he seems to be in love with his main characters, always men. His female characters remain flat sketches far from any honest conception of women. A Moveable Feast provides even more ammunition. Hemingway only mentions his wife in passing while focusing several chapter on his close relationship with F. Scott Fitzgerald. In fact, Hemingway gives a rather out of place speech fervently opposed to homosexuality that certainly smells of homophobia. Whether or not he was a homosexual, or just strong chauvinist most comfortable in the company of other men, will never be known, but it definitely leads to interesting debates and conjectures.

A Moveable Feast is a quick read that adds great insight into the mind and world of Ernest Hemingway. Love him or hate him, he remains a strong force in literature, a fact that lends credence to the value of this autobiographical account. For both his adherents and his detractors A Moveable Feast provides valuable perspective on his methods and lifestyle.