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Love and Ruin

by Paula McLain

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6424535,930 (3.83)33
"The bestselling author of The Paris Wife returns to the subject of Ernest Hemingway in a novel about his passionate, stormy marriage to Martha Gellhorn--a fiercely independent, ambitious young woman who would become one of the greatest war correspondents of the twentieth century In 1937, twenty-eight-year-old Martha Gellhorn travels alone to Madrid to report on the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War and becomes drawn to the stories of ordinary people caught in the devastating conflict. It's the adventure she's been looking for and her chance to prove herself a worthy journalist in a field dominated by men. But she also finds herself unexpectedly--and uncontrollably--falling in love with Hemingway, a man on his way to becoming a legend. In the shadow of the impending Second World War, and set against the turbulent backdrops of Madrid and Cuba, Martha and Ernest's relationship and their professional careers ignite. But when Ernest publishes the biggest literary success of his career, For Whom the Bell Tolls, they are no longer equals, and Martha must make a choice: surrender to the confining demands of being a famous man's wife or risk losing Ernest by forging a path as her own woman and writer. It is a dilemma that could force her to break his heart, and hers. Heralded by Ann Patchett as "the new star of historical fiction," Paula McLain brings Gellhorn's story richly to life and captures her as a heroine for the ages: a woman who will risk absolutely everything to find her own voice"--… (more)
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» See also 33 mentions

English (44)  German (1)  All languages (45)
Showing 1-5 of 44 (next | show all)
Gave up after 30 pages. Protagonist seemed like a spoilt rich girl. ( )
  bjsikes | Jan 30, 2023 |
Paula McLain has done it again and perhaps even exceeded [b:The Paris Wife|8683812|The Paris Wife|Paula McLain|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320545874l/8683812._SX50_.jpg|13556031] in her continuing look at the loves and marriages of Ernest Hemingway. How fascinating to know that Hemingway's third wife, Martha Gellhorn, was a writer and journalist in her own right and owed little if anything to the fame of her famous husband.

What an amazing woman Marty Gellhorn was! She did things as a war journalist that would have struck fear into the hearts of most men, and she did them right through into her eighties. McLain made me believe in Gellhorn completely and she painted what seemed a very realistic portrait of Hemingway at this stage in his life. Talk about your complex men.

Even knowing a bit about Hemingway's life and personality, and despite also knowing the outcome of this "love story", I found the story riveting. I felt the tension, the love, the confusion, and Marty's desire to maintain herself and not be lost in the whirlwind of a larger than life figure like Hemingway. I also found it easy to understand how he pulled at her and what made her so vulnerable to him.

The last bit of heaven for me was knowing what was occuring in Hemingway's life as he produced what I consider to be his greatest novel, [b:For Whom the Bell Tolls|46170|For Whom the Bell Tolls|Ernest Hemingway|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1492591524l/46170._SY75_.jpg|2252079]. I have now promised myself a re-read--after all, I want to see how much of Marty Gellhorn made its way into the character of Maria. ( )
  mattorsara | Aug 11, 2022 |
I just want to say before I review LOVE AND RUIN by Paula McLain that I read CIRCLING THE SUN by the author a couple of years ago and it's one of those books that I fell in love with and I still remember how great the reading experience was. I have yet to read THE PARIS WIFE (it stands and looks accusingly at me on a shelf at home), but I hope to get to it one day.

READ THE REST OF THE REVIEW OVER AT FRESH FICTION! ( )
  MaraBlaise | Jul 23, 2022 |
This book made me want to read Hemingway's biography in full!... Having read McLain's "The Paris Wife", about Hemingway's first wife, and his own book about that period "A Movable Feast", and now this one - I feel like I need to connect the dots.

It goes without saying here that the relationship between Martha Gellhorn (later to become a renowned war correspondent) and Hemingway, was a tumultuous one. Two very strong personalities, loving but clashing at times, at times suffocating each other, only to find life unbearable when apart. This was the third marriage for Hemingway (out of 4) , and not a long one. Just like McLain did in "The Paris Wife", she clearly has done a ton of research here as well.

Truly passionate about her writing, Martha Gellhorn struggled with acknowledgement of her fiction - ups and downs there, but finally getting good reviews; she reported within the country as well as abroad; she described Depression while reporting on it within the country as "darker things than I ever imagined" .

Super intense images of war in Spain where she followed Hemingway to report on the war, and shuddering images of Hitler's Germany... As I was reading about this, it was surreal - as the invasion of Ukraine just started. Her description was too close to home - in so many ways... During all this, Hemingway described her "the bravest woman alive"...

As for Hemingway himself, he comes through as a complicated man... Martha Gellhorn explains him to her mother, her lifetime confidante, like this: "... you're around someone like him, a fiery sort of person, a genius, really, and then you're not. Well, it leaves a hole, doesn't it?" ( )
1 vote Clara53 | Mar 13, 2022 |
I didn't know when I picked this to read next that it was the story of Martha Gellhorn - she is certainly a fascinating subject. I loved The Paris Wife when I read that years ago. This was in the same vein.

Hemingway is in the background for some of the novel. He is revealed as capable, an organiser - I am yet to feel the depth of his charisma that would have captivated someone like Gellhorn. ( )
  Okies | Feb 24, 2022 |
Showing 1-5 of 44 (next | show all)
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Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Paula McLainprimary authorall editionscalculated
Hertz, FlorenceTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
There is nothing else than now. There is neither yesterday, certainly, nor is there any tomorrow. How old must you be before you know that?
-Ernest Hemingway,
For Whom The Bell Tolls
Dedication
For Julie Barer
First words
Near dawn on July 13, 1936, as three assassins scaled a high garden wall in Tenerife hoping to catch the band of armed guards unaware, I was asleep in a tiny room in Stuttgart, waiting for my life to begin.
Quotations
It was all so shocking and so absolutely wrong. And yet you could almost pretend it wasn't happening by going on with your life and thinking it had nothing to do with you.
How naive and hopeless the idea of pacifism seemed when the streets were full of brownshirts.
It was a beautiful crusade, and though I wasn't immediately sure how I would find a role for myself, later I thought only this: It may be the luckiest and purest thing of all to see time sharpen to a single point. To feel the world rise up and shake you hard, insisting that you rise, too, somehow. Some way. That you come awake and stretch, painfully. That you change, completely and irrevocably—with whatever means are at your disposal—into the person you were always meant to be.
For better or worse I was born a traveler, wanting to go everywhere and see everything.
It seemed imperative not only to be on the move, and feeling things, but also to be my own person, and to live my own life, and not anyone else's.
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"The bestselling author of The Paris Wife returns to the subject of Ernest Hemingway in a novel about his passionate, stormy marriage to Martha Gellhorn--a fiercely independent, ambitious young woman who would become one of the greatest war correspondents of the twentieth century In 1937, twenty-eight-year-old Martha Gellhorn travels alone to Madrid to report on the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War and becomes drawn to the stories of ordinary people caught in the devastating conflict. It's the adventure she's been looking for and her chance to prove herself a worthy journalist in a field dominated by men. But she also finds herself unexpectedly--and uncontrollably--falling in love with Hemingway, a man on his way to becoming a legend. In the shadow of the impending Second World War, and set against the turbulent backdrops of Madrid and Cuba, Martha and Ernest's relationship and their professional careers ignite. But when Ernest publishes the biggest literary success of his career, For Whom the Bell Tolls, they are no longer equals, and Martha must make a choice: surrender to the confining demands of being a famous man's wife or risk losing Ernest by forging a path as her own woman and writer. It is a dilemma that could force her to break his heart, and hers. Heralded by Ann Patchett as "the new star of historical fiction," Paula McLain brings Gellhorn's story richly to life and captures her as a heroine for the ages: a woman who will risk absolutely everything to find her own voice"--

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