Customer Reviews

Everybody Was So Young: Gerald and Sara Murphy: A Lost Generation Love Story

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

If anyone could be said to have lived a charmed life, it would be Gerald and Sara Murphy. They were wealthy, artistic and talented, with three beautiful, loving children and a circle of friends who became famous and accomplished in their own right. They gave wonderful parties that are still remembered a half-century later, were generous to those in need, and best of all, Gerald and Sara loved each other deeply, with an affection that grew as they lived their lives to the inevitable, bitter end.

Anyone who has read into the lives of Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Picasso and the other expatirot residents of Paris in the 1920s will recognize Gerald and Sara, perhaps unfavorably as hanger-ons who supplied the money the others lived on. That unfair assessment is turned on its head in Amanda Vaill's dual biography of the couple.

The Murphys were more than a bank account who gave parties; celebrity bottom feeders more interested in status than in accomplishments. They were something of an oddity. Both were from wealthy families, yet both wanted more than the family life they craved. Gerald had an eye for art, music and decorating; it was amazing to learn he was first to boost many artists who later became famous; "Grandchildren," he said as he showed them a copy of "Meet the Beatles." "Pay attention. These young men are going to be very, very important."

From their village in the Antibes, which was a backwater when they discovered it, they befriended people like Hemingway and Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos, Archibald Macleish, Lillian Hellman and Dashiell Hammett as well, while Gerald became famous in his own right for his finely detailed studies of mechanical devices: a watch, a machine, of a boat deck and smokestacks.

But if there's anything experience teaches us, it's that no one really leads a charmed life. It's all filled with day-to-day worries, irritations, tragedies and, with luck, some glory. But Gerald and Sara came close -- the 20s were their time -- and it's a fine thing to finish a biography of someone and find that you like them even more than before.

What a beautiful, bittersweet work! It will leave you informed, inspired, exalted -- and annoyed that it doesn't go on for another 400 pp. Gerald and Sara Murphy knew and supported and inspired Hemingway, Dos Passos, Archibald MacLeish, Dorothy Parker, Edmund Wilson, Benchley, Fitzgerald, Philip Barry, the glitterati of five decades -- and yet, in many ways, the Murphys outglittered them all, at least if success as human beings can be measured in terms of fundamental decency and intelligence and kindness combined with impeccable grace and taste. The Murphys had everything, gave most of it away, their treasure and their souls, and enriched the literature of an era. "Everybody Was So Young" will wring you out and leave you in grateful tears.

Few books deserve to be 'raved' about but mark this one as a definite 5 stars. Brilliantly researched and detailed, the author made these people 'real' to me, I felt I knew them. The Murphys, so very different yet so very much alike were 'The hostesses with the mostest' to all the upcoming glitterati of the 20's furnishing both emotional and monetary support at crucial times to Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Cole Porter (and others) with a grace and charm that is as impressive now as it was then. It would have been so easy for Vaill just to cover that but she gives the lives behind the facade, the odd and distant relationships with both sets of parents and family, the heartbreak and sorrow of loss of their two sons that seemed to end all the lightness in theie lives. They and the world they had created were never the same after, as both they and their friends even at the time recognized. Its sometimes so easy to forget that the 20's were a brief flickering of a frantic time between a war and a depression. The Murphys lived before and after but somehow they both defined and were defined by that period. This book lets you know them for all they were.

This is IT! Ms. Vaill has graced us with a masterpiece. I have read of, and loved, Gerald & Sara Murphy for 30 years. Cast all other books aside & go grab yourself a copy of Ms. Vaill's biography: it is simply the best. Her scope, her profound grasp of pre-WW II 20th century art history in both Europe & America; her astonishing knowledge of that era's political history, cultural history, social mores -- Ms. Vaill takes all this in hand and combines it with such exquisite insight into the hearts and minds of the Murphys that the reader is left speechless at times. How she ever managed to bring together such vast & varied amounts of deep background on the era, the Murphys, & the seminal artists they safe-guarded and brought to acclaim -- from Picasso to Hemmingway, Fitzgerald to Cocteau, Picabia, MacLeish, Dos Passos, Parker, Benchley & many more -- it boggles the mind. Most remarkable of all is the tone of intimacy and immediacy: never was there a book before which makes the reader feel so palpably present to this great epoque & these very great souls, Gerald & Sara. You will weep, you will laugh, you will head out for East Hampton & Paris in search of them, convinced they are still alive. And they are: Sara & Gerald Murphy graced us all with their gallant & original lives; they changed the Arts permanently; and they are eternal. Thank you, Ms. Vaill; and thank you, Gerald & Sara.

Amanda Vaill has researched this book with admirable skill and diligence. She has given the reader more than adequate detail of the life of the privileged in Paris after WW I. By privileged I mean those with intellectual, artistic or personality advantages that allowed them to make a significant contribution to the life of that great society at the time. In the rich parade of her characters are Hemingway,Picasso and Scott Fitzgerald, warts and all. The main protagonists, Gerald and Sara Murphy are distinguished members of this illustrious group not so much for their academic achievements, but for their uncompromising and ingenuous humanism. Many books have been written about this exciting period of freedom and almost explosive creativity. So why read another, and why read this one? What is important about this book is not a chronicle of events. It is the wonderful revelation of the power of friendship and the passion of relationships within a family. Read this to understand yourself. Read this to feel alongside another human-being the deepest emotions of despair and intoxicating elation. Every human weakness is exposed without judgement. Amanda Vaill's triumph, in my opinion, is that theatre, ballet, literature and painting are laid bare for the reader. The creator and the creation are revealed for viewing in a very fresh way. You, the reader, will judge. But inevitably, you will not escape the excitement and vitality of the amazing life of expatriot Americans in Paris in the 20's trying to excape the strait jacket of their homeland. Not many books make me question my own values. This one did.

Minor criticism: inaccurate Latin quotes.

This is one of the best biographical books I have ever read. It's got romance, adventure, excitement, passion- and its all real. The Murphy's were friends with the creme of ex-patriot society. The Fitzgeralds, Hemingways, Picasso, you name them... they knew them. I have recommended this book to all my friends and they in turn have told their friends. It's THAT good. Put it this way, if you enjoy Hemingway or Fitzgerald- you will get new insights into them. If you are a fan of chucking it all and starting a new life- ditto. If you want to escape, want to imagine a different life. Get this book. It's well written, extremely well researched, and evident that the author felt passionately about her subjects.

I absoultely loved this book. I was so enthralled by the history and atmosphere that surrounded the Murphy's and this was a great example of a decadent couple in the 1920's. It took me 8 months to finish this book due to time constraints and by the time I finished, I felt like I knew the Murphys and was someone looking on as they lived their lives. It's a great thing to know Gerald and Sara were real people and lived real lifes and had real feelings and thoughts. I was amazed at how many people they knew and to the callibre of their characters, tragedies and happiness in their lives. I'd love to read more about the world of the 20's and this was a great, fabulous book to start with. As much as I love historical fiction, I loved this and Amanda Vaill did a wonderful job telling the story of the Murphys that more people should know.

This is an enjoyable book about the lives of Gerald and Sara Murphy, a rich American couple who befriended (and occasionally subsidized) dozens of great writers, artists and performing arts people beginning in the early 1920's, in France and the U.S. Although I had heard of them before via biographies of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, etc., I never appreciated the extent of their influence, which this book explores in detail.

The Murphys were highly creative people, especially in fashioning their own way of life. Vaill spends a lot of time describing their houses, furniture, clothes, jewelry, boats, parties, costumes and the like, as well as their enthusiastic but sometimes short-lived forays into creative fields as diverse as landscape architecture, painting, theater set design and boatbuilding.

I would have liked a bit more attention to the practical side of the Murphys' lives. Two questions in particular often occurred to me as I read this book: (i) how exactly did they pay for it all, and (ii) how did they manage to raise three children amid frequent changes of residence, travel, parties, all-consuming artistic projects, guests and other distractions? Vaill doesn't say much about where their money came from, who managed and disbursed it, or how it was sent to Europe during the Murphys' long residence there. Similarly, although there are a few mentions of their children's activities and schools, there's little discussion of the Murphys' role as parents until their sons Baoth and Patrick become ill and die at tragically young ages.

These minor complaints aside, "Everybody Was So Young" is a delightful portrait of a sparkling couple, the brilliant people who surrounded them, and an era for which it's hard not to feel nostalgic. Vaill's book makes a fine addition to the already crowded field of books on the artistic life of the 1920's, and it's well worth a read.

As a fiction reader, I was surprised at how interesting and readable this biography was. Ms. Vaill did a beautiful job mixing quotes from letters and people with her own descriptions of the Murphy's life and lifestyle. Now I want to reread Hemingway and Fitzgerald to see the reflections of Gerald and Sara in their fiction. My only complaint: How the heck do you pronounce their older son's name? Baoth.

If you thought you knew about the Murphys, thought you knew about American ex pats in the 20s ... think again. The amount of new material here is remarkable, and for the first time one gets the sense that the Murphys' role in cultural history was far more than that of passing hors d'oeuvres and mixing drinks. Gerald and Sara were major figures in the European avant garde--contributors in their own right--before Fitzgerald, Hemingway, etc, got there, for example. This is the also first time Gerald's painting has been given its due. Above all, though, this book reveals two people with an astonishing gift for friendship--far from self-absorbed, a term better applied to the American writers who used them, they were instead open, generous--whose lives turned from surface glamor to intense, and deeply moving, private agony, as tragedy befell their children. The glamorous surface we knew about: the far more beautiful full story is here.