Adult Book Discussion

Join us Thursday, February 6 at 6:30pm for a discussion of The Paris Wife by Paula McLain.

Told from the perspective of Ernest Hemingway's first wife, Hadley Richardson, The Paris Wife creates a snapshot of 1920s Paris and the vibrant, creative people who inhabited it.  Readers follow Hadley from her fateful first meeting with Hemingway, across the Atlantic to the City of Light, and ultimately back again as their marriage deteriorates.  Along the way, Hadley struggles with her place both in Hemingway's life and amongst the eccentric personalities she encounters.  HM

Here’s a fun tidbit from To Have and Have Another: A Hemingway Cocktail Companion by Philip Greene, about the Martini - a Hemingway favorite.  It’s said Hemingway named the Montgomery Martini after a top Allied commander in WWII.  Montgomery was cautious in battle requiring a 15-to-1 troop superiority before he would commit to fight in battle and so the Montgomery Martini is a dry 15-to-1 ratio of gin to vermouth.  This drink debuted in “Across the River and Into the Trees.” Read about Death in the Afternoon (absinthe, Champagne) or Americano (Campari, Vermouth and seltzer) and enjoy chapters that are chock full of anecdotes about Hemingway, his various hangouts (Harry's Bar in Venice), his cohorts and ex-wives, and the characters in his writing.  This book was way more interesting than I would have thought and thoroughly enjoyable. SG