In writing celebrity Ernest Hemingway’s biographical novel, A Moveable Feast, Hemingway uses his profound writing experience to tell previous stories throughout bits of his life through journals and separate writings. Hemingway has a very unusual writing style which tends to play around with the traits of descriptive writing. What most stood out to me was how Ernest used descriptive writing to portray or hint at an event while still writing in a way which didn't tell the full story. One instance is seen in the novel around when he is writing about his affair during the winter with another woman, while still holding emotional ties to his wife. Ernest describes the event as a, “…happy and innocent winter in childhood compared to the next year, a nightmare winter disguised as the greatest fun of all…”(Hemingway 179). Hemingway doesn't specifically tell about the events of the winter or address them directly, but rather compares his emotions he attaches to the winter before and the winter of the affair. Ernest continues on with this trend through portions of the novel, continually avoiding details of events which are quite emotionally impactful, such as with his last meeting with Stein. Choosing to write in such a way about these events could likely be from them being taken from excerpts and journals, where Ernest may not have emotionally been able to write about such events in detail, or they could simply be a part of his “signature style,” which Hemingway himself explains. Hemingway describes his writing style as writing a truthful story and taking out bits and various portions to add more meaning to the overall work, which he may have done in the above examples. Although writing with this meaningful mindset is unusual in autobiographical works, because of Ernest being the fantastical writer he is, it is not surprising that it would be the case.

Along with his writing style, Hemingway’s work flows through several different time periods of his life, making the novel slightly more difficult to read, but all the more interesting. Being taken from excerpts and journals from his life, the novel doesn't follow any linear or clear structure, rather opting to highlight points in Hemingway’s earl adulthood career. For most of the novel, Hemingway writes from his early days of writing in Paris, where he describes how little money he made, but how cheap it was to live there. While living in Paris with his wife, Hemingway takes the time to record a variety of experiences with other up and coming writers, some of which such as Fitzgerald become legends engrained in the literary community. The combined factors of highlighting important events rather than minuet details, and writing in a nonlinear style give each event more emphasis and meaning in my eyes. Although the work doesn't necessarily have a chronological following of events, it doesn't need to in order to present a biographical and meaningful story. 

The novel was likely chosen for the class reading because of this unique style of writing, as well as for the ability to study a work from a literary great such as Hemingway. Ernest Hemingway is widely seen as a highly influential and powerful figure in the literary world, which contributed much to the 20th-century fiction. Being able to study how he wrote and see actually what he did when he was writing could allow students to gain more knowledge and skills for their own works. Ernest as well wrote in a very unique style using descriptive language while being vague, which could expose students to more complex forms of writing, as well as allow them to think more about the work.