Love and Ruin
by Paula McLain
Published Ballantine Books 2018
Pages 388 Price $28

“Love and Ruin” by Paula McLain is a novel about Martha Gellhorn, one of the most outstanding war correspondents in World War II. She was born in 1908 and died in 1998. The average person does not remember her as a great and  independent writer unless he or she is interested in journalism. However, many people remember her as the third wife of Ernest Hemingway. That is sad because Martha Gellhorn was a wonderful war correspondent and writer in her own right  during a time when women were not considered serious writers at the war front.

Paula McLain in her new book, which is an historical novel, recreates the relationship that Gellhorn and Hemingway had for seven years from 1937 to 1944.

Gellhorn, a struggling young writer looking to improve her writing among male correspondents, plans to go to Spain to report on the Spanish Civil War in 1937. However, the novel starts out with Gellhorn and her mother visiting Key West, Florida after her father’s death.  Gellhorn sees Hemingway and recognizes him at a restaurant/ bar but is afraid to go over to him. She and her mother wandered past Hemingway and a conversation began. The bartender asked, ”Where do you come from?” “St. Louis,” her mother replied. Hemingway got up and came over and said, ”Two of my wives came from St. Louis.” After a friendly conversation Hemingway offered to show them around Key West. Gellhorn and her mother accepted and Hemingway, a friendly person, brought them home to meet his wife Pauline. They all become friends and Hemingway implied he would help Gellhorn with her writing, if she would “call him sometime.”

Gelhorn went back to St. Louis, and actually Hemingway called her every few days to see how her writing was progressing! She was busy getting ready to go to Spain to report on the Spanish Civil War and continued with her plans. Her first step was to get to New York. Hemingway said he would be at the Barclay Hotel. After dropping her things off at a girlfriend’s apartment in Greenwich Village, Gellhorn went to the Barclay. Hemingway spotted her in the lobby and with a bear hug escorted her to the elevator. In his suite were three bottles of champagne and a variety of friends. One friend was Lillian Hellman, the playwright, whom Gellman was thrilled to meet. Hemingway introduced her to his friends saying, “This lovely blond giraffe is my good friend Marty Gellhorn. She is coming with us to Spain too.”

Whether this introduction really happened in this way is up to you to consider.  However, novels are fiction. Historical novels are woven with facts and make a period of history come alive. This book makes this particular period come alive. Gellhorn did go to Spain historically and did report on the Spanish Civil War. She eventually had an affair with Hemingway and also married him.

The style in which the author writes  brings to life the times and the characters in it. McLain’s novel seems real because her dialogue sounds like statements Hemingway could have made. Hemingway’s novels have characters who speak in the same way with a humorous but serious invitation to adventure delivered with an impact that sets the action. The dialogue is short, warm, and realistic with a dash of humor.

The book also shows how hard it was for a woman to be a war correspondent in 1944. The book states, ”In many ways being a woman I was relegated  to the outskirts of the war in Europe, but there were interesting people in those outskirts and I talked to as many as I could.” And Gellhorn wrote about what she heard. McLaine quotes her saying, ”I met a Pole who told me about the Warsaw Gehtto, where there was a ten feet high wall, sealed all around with guards. Four hundred or five  hundred thousand people had been driven there, starving and fighting typhus.” Gellhorn wrote 26 articles for Colliers. Her articles brought home to America what was really happening in war- torn Europe during World War II.

Gellhorn had her own moral code and felt she should be writing about what was happening in Europe. She wrote to Hemingway to come and write about it too. However, he was covering South America and could not meet her. When she flew back his bitterness was unending. He wanted “a wife” not a roving reporter. The irony was he had introduced her to many of his writing friends and journalists originally. They fought and if you want to find out exactly what happened you will have to read the book. I could not put it down.

***

Fascism, A Warning
by Madeleine Albright
Published by Harper Collins 2018
Pages 288  Price $27.99

Madeleine Albright was the first woman to appointed as Secretary of State from 1997 to 2001.She also served as U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. As a mature leader and diplomat, as well as an experienced world traveler, she has some important views to share in her book, “Fascism, A Warning” published five months ago in 2018. It is still new but the world is changing so fast, is it timely? Yes! It is a classic in the study of power, abuse of power, and autocrat behavior. She understands Fascism because she lived inside it in Europe as a child.

Albright states in the book, “On the day Fascists first altered the direction of my life, I had barely mastered the art of walking. The date was March 19, 1939. Battalions of German storm troopers invaded my native Czechoslovakia, and escorted Adolph Hitler to Prague Castle, and pushed Europe to the threshold of a second World War. We joined exiles from all across Europe aiding the Allied war effort for 6 years, while waiting to return home.”

Albright was 11 years old when she came to the United States. On entering high school she started an international affairs club. She said, ”My parents cherished the freedom we found in America. My father was a professor at the University of Denver and wrote books on tyranny and worried that Americans were so accustomed to liberty that they might take democracy for granted.”

Years later she followed in her father’s footsteps and  became a professor. She now has the same fears that her father had many years ago. She states, “In 1991 President George H.W. Bush told congress the end of the Cold War has been a victory for all humanity….and America’s leadership was instrumental in making it possible”.  Albright continues, “More than a quarter century later, what has happened to that uplifting vision?”

Albright says,”One reason, frankly is Donald J. Trump. If we think of Fascism as a wound from the past that had almost healed, putting Trump in the White House was like ripping off the bandage and picking at a scab.”

Albright continues, ”From the early stages of his campaign and right into the Oval Office, Donald Trump has spoken harshly about the institutions and principles that makeup the foundation of open government.”

Not long ago when someone asked her what she was doing, she said “I am working on a book.” Her friend asked, “What is it about?” Albright said, “Fascism.” Her friend asked “Why?” She implied in her book that a form of Fascism is happening in America today.

Albright, a professor at Georgetown University when writing her book, asked her graduate students at Georgetown to define Fascism. They all had different definitions. Some students said words like: nationalist, authoritarian, anti- democratic. One student said Stalin and Hitler were fascists. Most of the students agreed that fascism was an extreme form of authoritarian rule.

Albright describes the rise and fall of Mussolini in Italy, Hitler in Germany, and Stalin in Russia in her book. She also discuses Erdogon of Turkey, Putin of Russia, and Kim Jong-iL of Korea. Albright’s understanding of each leader’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as their needs and fears, is amazing. Hopefully our diplomats will read her book!

Albright fears we have been disconnected from the ideals that have inspired and united us in America. She states, ”The list of subjects that can’t be discussed without blowing up a family or college reunion is lengthening. A major recession, another scandal, racial unrest, more terrorist incidents, an overnight plunge into an unexpected war, might cause a split too wide for our constitution, democracy’s needle and thread, to mend.”

Albright believes there is a shadow looming over the pages of this book. It is Donald J. Trump.  She stated, “He is president because he convinced enough voters in the right states that he was a teller of blunt truths, a masterful negotiator, and an effective champion of American interests. He is none of these things.”  She continued, “We cannot expect every leader to possess the wisdom of Lincoln or Mandela’s largeness of soul but we should ask our leaders basic questions about their values and know who we are voting for.”

She gives a list of questions that voters in the next election can think about. They are too numerous to include all of them here but I will include a few as examples. Here are some helpful questions in choosing future candidates that Alright suggests to think about. 1.)What do the candidates want? 2.) Do they want to nurture our anger or  prejudices?  3.)Do they encourage contempt for government?  4.)Do they want to exploit symbols of patriotism?  5.) Do they want to destroy a free press?

These questions won’t tell you to vote for specific candidates that are either Republicans or Democrats, but will give you an idea of what kind of leader they will make. If you want to read more about other questions Albright suggests, I recommend that you read her book “Fascism, a Warning.” Albright writes beautifully from her heart and she hits the nail on the head.

— Pat Davidson Reef is a graduate of Emerson College in Boston. She received her Masters Degree at the University of Southern Maine.She taught English and Art History at Catherine McAuley High for many years.She now teaches at the University of Southern Maine in Portland in the  Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, Classic Films. She recently wrote a children’s book,”Dahlov Ipcar Artist, and is now writing another children’s book “Bernard Langlais Revisited.”

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