Ms. Hen reviews The Autobiography of Alice B.Toklas

The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas

Gertrude Stein

Vintage Books

1933

Ms. Hen decided to buy this book because she was browsing in a used bookstore, and found this. She had heard of Gertrude Stein from many places, including Hemingway's A MOVABLE FEAST, and Ms. Hen was curious about her writing. She also remembers Kathy Bates' portrayal of her in the film MIDNIGHT IN PARIS.

This novel is an autobiography of sorts about Stein's partner, Alice B. Toklas. In the beginning of the book, Toklas describes her young life, and how she eventually arrived in Paris. She describes the salon that Stein has on Saturday evenings, and how she sat with "the wives of geniuses." Stein was like the genius, and Toklas was her wife.

A section of the book is about The Great War, when a lot of people left Paris, and they did not have their Saturday evenings. Coal was scarce, and Stein would not wait in line to get it for free, because she said she had no need to get it free. She was a driver for the American Fund for French Wounded, and she drove around France and gave soldiers rides to where they needed to go. After the war, their lives returned to the way it was, and Stein worked hard to get published.

Ms. Hen wanted to like this novel, but it was tedious. The sections about the parties went on and on, and the women met all these people, and they became good friends with them. The people who were their friends were interesting: Picasso, Matisse, Hemingway, T.S. Eliot, and the list goes on. There's only so much Ms. Hen can read about fascinating people these women met. It sounds like they had a lot of fun, but Ms. Hen thinks it's boring to read about people meeting talented artists over and over again.

Also, what Ms. Hen thinks is remarkable, is that there is no mention of the relationship between the two women. They were lovers, but that is not mentioned in the book at all. Ms. Hen thinks this is deliberate on Stein's part because it would not have been as successful if this were the case. This book was Stein's biggest success, after it came out, she toured the United States, and became a celebrity writer.

Even though Ms. Hen was disappointed in this novel, she thinks it's an important artifact about history. Stein writes about the world that she and Toklas knew, which is completely different from the way the world is now, obviously. But this book is so close to them, it's about all their friends, and the good life they had. Ms. Hen thinks it was successful because people in the United States wanted to know about the fascinating lives of artists in Paris at the time. They did live amazing lives, but Ms. Hen still thinks this is a difficult book to read, but she read the whole thing. Sometimes, when she's not interested, she doesn't finish a book, but even though it was hard, she did, because even though it was painful, she was still curious.