While my posting has become sporadic, my reading has not! I have a few reviews for you guys in the upcoming weeks that I will post. At this moment, I will present you all with Hemingway's Girl by Erika Robuck.
This was the book from the June 2017 #bookdrop box- Jane Edition.
The author prefaces the book with a letter informing the reader how she came up with her story line. In the letter included from Erika Robuck in #TheBookDrop, she tells us subscribers how Ernest Hemingway came to her one night in a dream.
As usual with the wonderfulness that is #thebookdrop, they included a letter from Erika Robuck to us subscribers. Robuck said how Ernest Hemingway visited her one night in a dream. In the same letter, Erika does say it herself that Hemingway's Girl does not follow The Paris Wife by Paula McLain. For those of you who are wondering, The Paris Wife by Paula McLain is the story of Ernest Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley.
I have yet to read The Paris Wife but it is a book that I have seen before at the book store, and one that I have picked up and put down before. I did add it to my Goodreads, maybe one day I'll get the chance to read it!
I have yet to read The Paris Wife but it is a book that I have seen before at the book store, and one that I have picked up and put down before. I did add it to my Goodreads, maybe one day I'll get the chance to read it!
Hemingway's Girl reminded me of Flight of Dreams in that a story was formed around people who did exist. While Ariel Lawhon based her story line for Flight of Dreams around actual passengers on the flight at the time of the crash; Robuck based her story line around one actual person and used the voice of a fictional character to tell her story. (Anyone who is curious about Flight of Dreams, can find that review here).
I'm going to be honest, I wasn't so sure that I was going to like this book. Learning that the book was about Ernest Hemingway and a young Mariella Bennett; I knew that I didn't want to read a story about how a young girl gets caught up with the infamous and captivating Hemingway.
The book did pique my interest and I did find Ernest Hemingway to be an oddly intriguing man. Outside of the letter that was included in #thebookdrop box, I found an interview with Erika Robuck about her novel with The Dividing Wand. The interview highlights the development of her storyline, including the ways in which she researched this novel.
The book did pique my interest and I did find Ernest Hemingway to be an oddly intriguing man. Outside of the letter that was included in #thebookdrop box, I found an interview with Erika Robuck about her novel with The Dividing Wand. The interview highlights the development of her storyline, including the ways in which she researched this novel.
Even when I started reading the book, I was reading it with caution. I guess you could say that I was like Pauline when she said "'You know, Mariella', said Pauline, 'I need to apologize. I used to think that you and Papa had something going on.'" (Robuck, 218).
The ending of the story... Kinda ruined it for me, as sad as it is to say....
Once the book was over, the book was over...
To me, the book just ended abruptly. We see that Jake, Mariella and Gavin's son, is given letters Hemingway wrote to Mariella, including one from Pauline. (If Hemingway had lost contact with Mariella, I would have been surprised. I was however, a little sad to see that their correspondence wasn't more frequent).
Robuck did end the book with Hemingway taking his own life and reporting it in the same manner that it did happen back in 1961.
But that was it.
I'm giving this book 2.5 coffee beans out of five. I really didn't like it. The more I thought about the book for the review, the less I liked it. There was a lot of build up and for the storyline to end so shortly, was kinda blah.
~ Jillian
To me, the book just ended abruptly. We see that Jake, Mariella and Gavin's son, is given letters Hemingway wrote to Mariella, including one from Pauline. (If Hemingway had lost contact with Mariella, I would have been surprised. I was however, a little sad to see that their correspondence wasn't more frequent).
Robuck did end the book with Hemingway taking his own life and reporting it in the same manner that it did happen back in 1961.
But that was it.
I'm giving this book 2.5 coffee beans out of five. I really didn't like it. The more I thought about the book for the review, the less I liked it. There was a lot of build up and for the storyline to end so shortly, was kinda blah.
~ Jillian
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