The Paris Wife

     Let me just start by saying that I finished 3/4 of this book in one sitting, absolutely could not put it down! A few months ago I saw a movie called "Midnight in Paris." I completely loved the film because it was partly set in Paris during the 1920s and featured an amazing slew of authors and artists all partying together and critiquing/inspiring one another.  When I heard about this novel, I knew I would love it because it involves many of the same characters; anything that describes Paris during prohibition and the Jazz age in combination with this set of artistic minds, count me in!
    
     The Paris Wife by Paula McLain is so well written you can almost taste the wine and hear the jazz music playing in the background as this remarkable story of Ernest Hemingway's first wife, Hadley, comes to life. The enigmatic character of Ernest Hemingway is wonderfully examined as he is shown in contrast to the "simple and good" character of Hadley. The prologue of the novel sets a tone of
exhilaration and heartbreak that continues throughout the story, as seen in these two passages,

"Interesting people were everywhere just then. The cafes of Montparnasse breathed them in and out, French painters and Russian dancers and American writers. On any given night, you could see Picasso walking from Saint-Germain to his apartment in the rue des Grands Augustins, always exactly the same route and always looking quietly at everyone and everything. Nearly anyone might feel like a painter walking the streets of Paris then because the light brought it out in you, and the shadows alongside the buildings, and the bridges which seemed to want to break your heart, and the sculpturally beautiful women in Chanel's black sheath dresses, smoking and throwing back their heads to laugh. We could walk into any cafe and feel the wonderfully chaos of it, ordering Pernod or Rhum St. James until we were beautifully blurred and happy to be there together." (p. xi)

"There was no back home anymore, not in the essential way, and that was part of Paris, too.  Why we couldn't stop drinking or talking to kissing the wrong people no matter what it ruined. Some of us had looked into the faces of the dead and tried not to remember anything in particular. Ernest was one of these. He often said he'd died in the war, just for a moment; that his soul had left his body like a silk handkerchief, slipping out and levitating over his chest. It had returned without being called back, and I often wondered if writing for him was a way of knowing his soul was there after all, back in its place." (p. ix)

     The story begins with Hadley as she travels to Chicago to stay with friends and is introduced to the charismatic and irresistibly real Ernest. In no time at all the pair are intrigued by one another and continue their relationship through daily letters. After a whirlwind romance, Ernest and Hadley are married and move to Paris so Ernest can focus on his writing career amongst other current artists. While in Paris, the couple becomes close friends with many literary greats such as Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Gertrude Stein. Upon entering the home of Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas for the first time it states,

"When we arrived at the door, a proper French maid met us and took our coats, then led us into the room--the room, we knew by now, the most important salon in Paris. The walls were covered with paintings by heroes of cubism and postimpressionism and the otherwise highly modern-- Henri Matisse, Andre Derain, Paul Gauguin, Juan Gris, and Paul
Cezanne." (p. 86)

     The speed of their attachment and the intensity of their affection for one another are described in such a way that I found myself hoping it would never end. As the relationship between Hadley and Ernest progresses however, even the happiest moments are read with a sense of foreboding as Ernest's idiosyncrasies and ideas about life become more and more unyielding. The success he begins to see from his writing and the circle or friends he surrounds himself with convince him that he is entitled to anything and everything that he might desire. When Hadley discovers Ernest's desires and deceptions, the reader is then shown the lengths some will go to for love; and for others, the breaking point.

     Paula McLain does a superb job of breathing life into a story that is not often told. The Paris Wife is simply beautiful and devastating.

                                           Hadley and Ernest Hemingway
   

Dracula

     This is one novel that I have been meaning to read for quite a while. There is no denying that a vampire craze is currently sweeping the nation and everywhere you look there is a new book, movie, or television show with the ever popular drop of blood decorating the title. When one thinks of vampires, what are some of the first things that come to mind? Attractive individuals with pale skin, red lips, slicked back hair and never seem to age? How about cloves of garlic, crucifixes, and stakes through the heart? The current trend made me curious about the origins of vampire fascination and in what ways these new media ventures resembled the classic novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. It is truly unbelievable that this novel, written in 1897, is still being looked to as the prototype for future vampire characters and fueling new ideas that continue to attract today's audiences.


     This novel is told through a series of diary entries and letters from several rotating authors. This constant change in perspective and tone presents a frightening story in a well rounded and engaging way. The story begins with Jonathon Harker as he journeys to Transylvania to conduct business with a new client interested in buying property in London, Count Dracula. While there are many strange characteristics that the Count possesses, such as discussing the previous centuries of his family history in the first person, having no reflection whilst in front of mirrors, and maintaining the ability to control wolves, Jonathon Harker is not truly convinced of the Count's demonic nature until he witnesses the Count crawling down the side of his castle one night. From there on out Jonathon Harker is determined to risk his life for the opportunity to escape and return to England. The novel then switches to narrators in London that are all, in some way, connected to Harker. Dracula's arrival in London shortly after immediately affects Harker's fiancée Mina and her friend Lucy. Once it is discovered that Lucy has been bitten by Dracula, Mina and a group of men band together and vow to destroy the demon Dracula, or die trying. The leader of this band of merry men is Dr. Van Helsing. Van Helsing is presented as Dracula's doppelganger and the one individual with the most information regarding vampire's actions and the means by which they may be destroyed. Without giving away too much of the story, I will say that Stoker shows what great feats may be accomplished in the face of evil if you have love, faith, and a group of friends to stand by you.


     The following two descriptions of Dracula are the before and after if you will. The first is given when the vampire has been without blood for a time; the latter is after a recent blood-sucking:


His face was a strong--a very strong--aquiline, with high bridge of the thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils; with lofty domed forehead, and hair growing scantily round the temples, but profusely elsewhere. His eyebrows were very massive, almost meeting over the nose, and with bushy hair that seemed to curl in its own profusion. The mouth, so far as I could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed and rather cruel-looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth; these protruded over the lips, whose remarkable ruddiness showed astonishing vitality in a man of his years. (p. 27)


I raised the lid and laid it back against the wall; and then I saw something which filled my very soul with horror. There lay the Count; but looking as if his youth had been half-renewed, for the white hair and moustache were changed to dark iron-grey; the cheeks were fuller, and the white skin seemed ruby-red underneath; the mouth was redder than ever, for on the lips were gouts of fresh blood...Even the deep, burning eyes seemed set amongst swollen flesh, for the lids and pouches underneath were bloated. It seemed as if the whole awful creature were simply gorged with blood; he lay like a filthy leech, exhausted with his repletion. (p.65)



     The following excerpts describe the traits of his personality and abilities, some of which are still used today in modern depictions and some of which I had no idea:



We have seen amongst us that he can even grow younger; that his vital faculties grow strenuous, and seem as though they refresh themselves when his special pabulum is plenty. (p. 286)


He may not enter anywhere at the first, unless there be someone of the household who bid him to come; though afterwards he can come as he please. (p. 287)


The Draculas were, says Arminius, a great and noble race, though now and again were scions who were held by their coevals to have had dealings with the Evil One. They learned his secrets in the Scholomance (a sort of devil's academy), amongst the mountains over Lake Hermanstadt, where the Devil claims the tenth scholar as his due. (p. 288)


The nosferatu do not die like the bee when he sting once. He is only stronger; and being stronger, have yet more power to work evil. This vampire which is amongst us is of himself so strong in person as twenty men; he is of cunning more than mortal, for his cunning be the growth of ages; he have still the aids of necromancy, which is, as his etymology imply, the divination by the dead, and all the dead that he can come nigh to are for him at command; he is brute, and more than brute; he is devil in callous, and the heart of him is not; he can, within limitations, appear at will when, and where, and in any of the forms that are to him; he can, within his range, direct the elements: the storm, the fog, the thunder; he can command all the meaner things: the rat, and the owl, and the bat--the moth, and the fox, and the wolf; he can grow and become small; and he can at times vanish and come unknown. (p. 284)

     The intensity and depth of these descriptive passages regarding Dracula, the king vampire for all intents and purposes, are enough to fascinate and frighten the reader until the end. The constant opposition between good and evil, biting social commentary, and extraordinary prose are just added bonuses in this classic by Bram Stoker.