Meet the Murphy's!

Everybody Was So Young: Gerald and Sara Murphy: A Lost Generation Love Story by Amanda Vaill
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It's always curious to pick up a book about history and find out about people who you know nothing about, who influenced the past. Gerald and Sara Murphy are no exception. They were friends to many of the movers and shakers of their day - Hemingway, Cole Porter, Dorothy Parker, Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald, and Picasso to name a few.  They invited these artistic and intersting people into their homes, supporting them in their chosen careers, and often supporting them financially when they were in artistic slumps. They saw the beauty in the negro spiritual and had one of the most complete collections of this music, which they loaned to other artists for plays and movies. Gerald Murphy was an artist in his own right (I had never heard of him). They themselves, were interesting people and created a life for themselves that was a life to their liking - never mind society norms. They were determined to enjoy every bit of their time with each other and friends. This is not to say they didn't have hardships in their lives, because they did. Like all of us, they had personal struggles to work through, and grief to wade through.

What I didn't like about this novel. It seems we were visiting and revisiting Gerald's sexual orientation. The author was always pointing to his deep, deep love of Sarah,but also to the supposition that he really was a homosexual. This detracted from the story for me, because her evidence seems to primarily be anecdotal evidence. The other thing that bothered me is that the author was always trying to interpret Murphy's art to make suppositions about Gerald's life. This annoyed me. I felt there was no basis for it.

However, all in all, I thought it was a very interesting bit of history. I liked getting to know Gerald and Sarah, as well as their connections to other famous people. The fact that I had never heard of them before was a plus for me. I had fun looking up some of Gerald's art online, and reading and looking at pictures about them on the internet.


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