Love and Ruin: A Novel

I must confess I started the Paris Wife by Paula McLain, but didn't finish it. After reading Love and Ruin, I need to go back and try it again. It was the content, not the writing that I had a problem with. There are some similarities in Paris Wife and Love And Ruin. They are both stories about Ernest Hemingway, his love life, infidelity, his marriage and again infidelity. Love and Ruin is the story of Hemingway and his third love and marriage to Martha Gellhorn. She became one of the greatest war correspondents of the twentieth century. Beginning when she met Ernest in late 1936, traveling to Madrid and later to the Spanish Civil war with him. She covered every war that broke out in her lifetime, until 1990's when her health began to give out. She wrote several novels, novellas and two short stories during her carrier. Two of her novels she wrote and published before meeting Hemingway. The detail in which Ms. McLain writes takes you on an unforgettable journey. She captures the subtleties of this complex relationship. Putting into words their deep emotions and volatile love affair. As Paula McLain wrote about Hemingway, it could be said of her. “a brilliant painter of people in his “her” work.” It was due to Paula”s excellent writing that I was able to rate this book so high. I received a copy of this book from Random House Ballantine Books through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own

I am voluntarily submitting my honest review after receiving an ARC of this ebook via NetGalley, After reading The Paris Wife and Circling the Sun, I had really high expectations and McLain did not disappoint with Love and Ruin. This novel, told from the point of view of Martha Gellhorn, Ernest Hemingway's third wife, chronicles their story together from the heady days of the Spanish Civil War through the devastation of World War II. Refreshingly honest, this novel is at times difficult to read as Marty details the "ruin" war wreaks on the people in the countries she is a journalist and writer in and that is mirrored by the destruction Hemingway famously inflicts on all the important women in his life. Out of all that pain and heartache, McLain uses stunning prose to craft a stunning narrative and beautiful novel that casts this illustrious couple in a light all their own. Scenes from this book will stay with me for some time to come, and I will never experience Hemingway's work in quite the same way again. This book is a must read for fans of historical fiction, Hemingway's writings and war correspondents.

Good