Pairing Books with Movies: The Aviator’s Wife

The Aviator’s Wife

by Melanie Benjamin

★★★★

In the same vein of Loving Frank, Clara and Mr. Tiffany, and The Paris Wife comes this novel; a fictionalized account of the actual life of Anne Morrow Lindbergh; wife of the famous aviator Charles Lindbergh and author of Gift of the Sea. All of these books tell the story of women who are paired in one way or another with incredibly strong and difficult men. These brave women spend their lives trying to appease or compensate for their brilliant but deeply flawed partners and this book paints a painful picture of that lonely life.

“He didn’t respond; we glared at each other for what seemed like the entire length of our marriage, right there – spreading, like a noxious stain, between us, pushing farther and farther apart.”

One of the things that really stood out to me is how horrifying it is to lead a life in the spotlight. There is no anonymity. Every time a celebrity goes to a movie or the grocery store they take the chance that they will be mobbed by the paparazzi. It was the same for the Lindberghs, America’s first couple of the air. They were surrounded by fans whenever they were and that attention is both exhausting.

(Photos of Lindbergh exhibits at the Newseum in D.C.)

I loved learning more about Anne’s life. Her book Gift of the Sea meant a lot to me, but I didn’t realize that she also got a pilot’s license and took solo flights. She withstood so much pressure and grief throughout her life, but somehow she found pieces of happiness and peace to hang on to.

BOTTOM LINE: Heartbreaking, but hard to put down. It was difficult to watch Anne sit back and let her husband run her life, but I also admired her quiet strength.

“What need was there for words, when we had just shared the sky?”

"I had been a passenger in our life together for far too long."

“I’d thought marriage would mean I’d never be lonely. Now I knew: Marriage breeds its own special brand of loneliness, and it’s far more cruel.”

“Unlike men, women got less sentimental as we aged, I was discovering. We cried enough, when we were young; vessels overflowing with the tears of everyone we loved.”

Pair with a viewing of The Spirit of St. Louis and Murder on the Orient Express. Both have ties to the Lindberghs, but in very different ways.

The Garden of Eden

The Garden of Eden

by Ernest Hemingway

★★★☆

Newlyweds Catherine and David are enjoying an extended honeymoon while he tries to write his next book. As Catherine putters around the coastal town she begins to change both her appearance and her attitude towards her husband. Then everything in their relationship changes when she makes friends with a woman named Marita.

Such a strange book, published posthumously, and one that I never would have guessed was written by Hemingway. It contains his clean prose, but his characters are wildly different from anything else I’ve read of his. After A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls and other big Hemingway novels I thought I know what to expect from his writing. If it’s fiction there is usually a badly drawn female willing to do whatever the hero wants. This book is the polar opposite of that assumption. It makes me wonder if he only wanted to publish the incredibly masculine novels he wrote during his lifetime.

While Catherine and David are still attempting to find their footing as a couple, Marita’s presence throws them off kilter. They begin to reevaluate their roles in the relationship. Catherine carefully pushes and prods until David accepts Marita as a friend and then as a lover. The ménage à trois relationship sneaks slowly into their lives until it’s hard to remember what they were like as a twosome.

After reading The Paris Wife last year it made me wonder how much of this book was inspired by bits and pieces of Hemingway’s own life. His first marriage ended when a close female friend (Pauline Pfeiffer) slowly worked her way into the lives of both Hemingway and his wife Hadley. There are even some parallels with destroyed manuscripts, though in the novel it’s a malicious act and in real life the manuscripts were stolen while in Hadley’s possession.

  

BOTTOM LINE: A strange look inside one couple’s marriage. A crucial book to read if you think you really know Hemingway’s work, but not a must for those who just want a taste. I’d highly recommend his nonfiction book, A Moveable Feast, about his time in Paris to provide another aspect of his writing style.

Roof Beam Reader’s great review of the book prompted me to check this one out.

  

I read this as part of Allie's Modern March event. 

The Paris Wife

The Paris Wife
by Paula McLain
★★★★

I was fascinated by this book. I’ve said before that I’m not the biggest fan of Ernest Hemingway. I enjoy his short stories, but most of his novels just don’t work for me. In A Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls, the women come across as empty pictures of one man’s idea of what a perfect woman should be. Hemingway himself was as chauvinistic as they come and that doesn’t appeal to me.

Yet despite my mediocre reaction to those books, I’ve always been intrigued by his life. When I read his nonfiction memoir about his time in Paris, A Moveable Feast, I was completely in love with it. It was the first thing I’d read of his that rang true for me. I adore reading about Paris in the ‘20s. I would have loved to visit the City of Lights when some of the great authors and artists of the century were gathered together there. So when I heard about this novel, a fictionalized account of that same time period from his wife Hadley’s point-of-view, I couldn’t wait to read it.

I think that it was because of all the background that I enjoyed this book so much. There were constant references to his novels and it helped that I had already read them. Hadley’s view of Hemingway, as her husband and closest friend, softens him a bit in my eyes, but at the same time I just wanted to smack him. His actions are so selfish and cavalier, it’s hard to watch him break her heart. It must have been so difficult to share your life with someone so volatile. He was such a child in so many ways. He needed to be coddled and loved, but never discouraged.

I can’t imagine how lonely it was for Hadley. Think about living with a group of friends made entirely of artists and writers, but to not actually be one of them. You’re always on the fringes, not quite up to their level of talent. I think Hemingway also made her feel that way and over time she began to lose her feelings of self-worth.

There was never a question in my mind on how it would all end because I’d read a biography on him before and knew of his multiple wives. So it was a bit like watching a train wreck in slow motion. I read it more to see it all unfold from a new angle. The writing was beautiful and even though I don't see myself in Hadley, I still felt connected to her.

I don’t think this one is for everyone, but if you liked A Moveable Feast, you should definitely read this. If you haven’t, you should read that first. Also, if you like that book or this one, check out Woody Allen’s latest movie, Midnight in Paris. It’s so much fun.

“We clung hard to each other, making vows we couldn’t keep and should never have spoken aloud. That’s how love is sometimes.”

“To marry was to say you believed in the future and in the past, too—that history and tradition and hope could stay knit together to hold you up.”