Book Club Discussion Questions for Mrs. Hemingway by Naomi Wood

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, Sylvia Beach and Shakespeare and Company and our BookBrowse Review of Mrs. Hemingway.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. Who was your favourite Mrs. Hemingway, and why?
   


2. If you could have a cocktail with any of the women, which one would it be?
   


3. Which woman did you identify with the most?
   


4. Why do you think women were so attracted to Hemingway? And why do you think they were so willing to turn a blind-eye to his indiscretions?
   


5. Was it shocking to find out that so many of the mistresses and wives were friends?
   


6. Did you have sympathy for any of the women you previously may have disliked?
   


7. Ernest Hemingway was charming but also an incurable cad! Did you have any sympathy for him by the end of the novel?
   


8. Why do you think he married so often, and so often made the same mistake?
   


9. If you've read Paula McLain's The Paris Wife, how does the portrait of Hadley compare to her depiction in Mrs. Hemingway?
   


10. Do you think if Hadley had not lost the suitcase of his work, the first Hemingways may have stuck it out? Do you think Ernest ever moved on from Hadley?
    


11. Did Pauline Pfeiffer reap what she sowed? Or did you have sympathy for her by the end of her chapter?
    


12. Was Martha Gellhorn too like Ernest for them to survive each other?
    


13. If, in a hypothetical world, Ernest hadn't taken his own life, do you think Mary Welsh would have been his last wife?
    


14. If you could choose to live in any of the locations, which would it be? Paris, Key West, Havana or Idaho?
    


15. If you could live in any of the novel's epochs, which would you choose?

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Penguin Books. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.