I was not a fan of The Paris Wife, as the real life subject of the fictionalized account of Ernest Hemingway's first wife, Hadley, tended to be dwarfed by the egocentric author and his glitzy inner circle. 'For better or worse I was born a traveler, wanting to go everywhere and see everything' This is a well-written, comfortable, engrossing read, and it is easy to be captivated by Hemingway and Gellhorn. In her own right, she was as strong a personality as Hemingway - and therein, lay the conflict between them. And her focus, was altogether different than that of other war correspondents - as she cast light on the victims of war, the soldiers, rather than the generals. Her writing style was surprisingly very different than Hemingway’s, described as “spare and lean”.

In this case, I researched Martha Gellhorn, who went on to become one of the most celebrated female war correspondents over six decades. In my reading preference for historical fiction, I’ve always particularly loved the novels that cause me to learn more about the main figures. Meanwhile, Ernest’s career hit an all time high with “For Whom the Bell Tolls”, while Martha’s writing only garnered attention as Hemingway's wife. Martha could not ignore her yearnings to return to the adventurous life. Even a marriage in 1940, with some very happy years together, writing together in a villa in Havana, were not enough cement to hold them together. Hemingway is portrayed as a man who does not do well alone, and his genuine love for Martha, compelled him to disrupt her plans, causing her to return to him, over and over. Her love of Hem and her need to endulge her zeal to be on the front lines of all wars, were in conflict.

There, they became lovers - and her taste for adventure became all-consuming. Hearing about his plans to travel to Spain as a war correspondent, covering the takeover of Spain by Franco, Martha, with Hem’s encouragement, using a backpack and $50, joined him. A chance encounter in that Key West bar in 1936, led to a friendship - on Martha’s part, an unforgettable brush with not only a famous writer, but a handsome man with the kind of adventurous life she sought. Martha, a Bryn Mawr graduate, with hopes of being a writer, met Hemingway on a trip with her mother, to Key West. I thoroughly enjoyed this story of Hemingway’s third wife, Martha Gellhorn - probably the least known of his wives - as his wife - but noted for a spectacular career, after that marriage ended.

Love and ruin a novel