Last week I went to see the new Woody Allen movie Midnight in Paris. It really is delightful, and I highly recommend you go see it. I’ve posted the trailer just below, but I’ll sum up the plot for you. An aspiring novelist (played by Owen Wilson) visits Paris with his fiancee and longs for Paris of the 1920s–the heyday of Ernest Hemingway, Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald, Djuna Barnes, Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso, need I go on? Well, the twist of it all is that once the clock strikes midnight in Paris (hence the title of the film), our main character finds himself schmoozing with the Fitzgeralds while his novel in progress is being read by Stein and Hemingway.
What doesn’t sound delightful about that?
Seeing this film naturally lead me to wanting to read the expatriates, but I need a little bit of help with where to start. Whenever I come to a classic genre of literature, I find it so difficult to just choose one novel or short story collection and dive into it. How can I choose one? These are classics. I want to read them all. Things were much easier when I was in school and my professors did the choosing for me.
So now I’m turning to you blog readers, expatriate fanatics, lovers of all things Hemingway. Please tell me where to start! I beg of you. Here is what I’ve read thus far in the “Lost Generation” department: Nightwood by Djuna Barnes, A Farewell to Arms, The Sun Also Rises, and Garden of Eden (which I wrote about last summer here) by Ernest Hemingway, and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Any suggestions, comments on your favorite expat writer, artist, or even on Woody Allen’s new film are more than welcome. Merci beaucoup in advance for your input. -Kaycie
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