Fiction

Ignore the Title Paula McLain’s Love and Ruin Isn’t That Bad

Worth a Read Meh
Length 432
Quick Review A fictional look into the tumultuous relationship between Martha Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway as she grows from a talented young woman into a fearless writer. 

Love and Ruin by Paula McLain in Ames, Iowa | Dress | Watch | Hair Pins

Ernest Hemingway is one of the most revered writers. Martha Gellhorn is known as one of the greatest war correspondents. Yet one name is internationally renowned, and the other is recalled as the wife of the other if recalled at all – except in certain literary circles. These two remarkable humans met and fell in love, and their love story has been one of great interest. Paula McLain brings Martha to life in Love and Ruin

Martha Gellhorn was an incredible woman and exceptional for her time. Born in 1908 in Saint Louis, she went to college but left to follow her dreams of becoming a war correspondent, which was unheard of at the time. She was a career woman with ambition, and that ambition caught the eye of Ernest Hemingway, an already great author, while she was on family vacation in 1936 in the Florida Keys. Assignments took them both to Spain, where they traveled and lived together. They began their relationship while he was still married to his second wife. It was a tumultuous time as wars raged on. Ernest was looking to stay put, but Marty was looking to stay in the action. She refused to let a brilliant man extinguish her ambition. 

Throughout Love and Ruin Marty Gellhorn is incredibly easy to relate to. She’s a free spirit, who wants to live life, make her own way, and be brilliant. She was a modern woman for her time, and people might even say she’s ahead of our current time. McLain creates an interesting and composed picture of the woman she was, torn by passion and purpose. One of the most moving moments was when Marty declares, “I wanted to say, when you fell in love with me you must also have been in love with my wings. Love them now. Love me. Love me, and let me go.” So many women have felt this way and, like Marty, never said it. 

Ernest was just complicated enough to be interesting without taking the spotlight away from Martha. The entire novel, anyone in their right mind would be warning Martha away from the brilliant, narcissist he was. There was never any room in his life for another star, let alone another literary star. McLain allows him a few short chapters from his perspective, but Marty is the star in the relationship in a way she wasn’t in life. 

Love and Ruin by Paula McLain

Love and Ruin is a woman’s coming into her own story as much as it is a love story. She allows herself to fall in love, fall in life, and get back up. I’m not completely sure Love and Ruin is the appropriate title for this book. It implies to love Hemingway was to simultaneously be ruined. Yes, he did have a dramatic impact on the course of her life, but he in no way ruined her. She was an absolute success. She overcame so much to become one of the most important and insightful war correspondents of the 20th century, and she was a woman! Titling the book as such is a disservice to her memory even if the book is not. 

It’s a lovely piece of historical fiction. Honestly, I would have liked a book that focused on Martha Gellhorn as a person rather than the period of her life that related to Hemingway. Choosing one of the most famous and most covered portions of her life is a little boring. She had fifty-four productive and incredible years of her life post-Hemingway. Those deserve attention as much if not more than her love affair and first marriage.  

Memorable Quotes
“Women were so rare at the front they might as well have been nonexistent.”
“I had said yes. And yes always came with a price.”

bisous und обьятий,
RaeAnna

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Title: Love and Ruin
Author: Paula McLain
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Copyright: 2019
ISBN: 9781101967393

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