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photo by Anna Reavis
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This summer I decided to try to read through some or all of the books people have lent me to read over the past few years. The first of these reads was
The Devil's Dream by Lee Smith, which I didn't enjoy as much as I have her other work. I think this is partly because it's a history of a country music family, and I don't like country music, but I think it's mostly because I felt no affinity for any of the characters, nor did I find them particularly interesting. Or maybe it was because I recognized so many of the people I grew up around and didn't particularly like in some of these characters. I don't like to be reminded of the pervasiveness of ignorance and general tackiness in my culture; I see enough of that as it is. I prefer my reading to be an escape from my life, not a reflection of it.
My next choice was
The Paris Wife by Paula McLain, which is about as far from my life in setting and surroundings as you can get. I found
The Paris Wife immensely readable and breezed through it in a few days. I enjoyed it until toward the end where the marriage is unraveling and found that to be a little disconcerting to read. Reading about Hemingway as a fictional character did make me want to re-read
The Sun Also Rises and
Green Hills of Africa, which are the two Hemingways I have read and possibly also delve into some other of his works. He's never been one of my favorites, but I feel like I need to give him another chance now that I'm older. I still don't think I would have liked him personally from what I know of him.
