The Paris Wife by Paula Mclain

This is a novel, not a history lesson, but, still... when you kind of know how it ends, kind of heartbreaking to hear how it might have begun. The Paris Wife is the story of the first marriage of Ernest Hemingway to Hadley Richardson told from Hadley's point of view- mostly. There are some short bits written in Ernest's voice. Because it is fiction, you wish the author would make it a different, happy ending. The couple would defy the odds of his flaws and stay a happy, healthy couple. Nope. And, watching the implosion of a marriage is too close, too raw. Sets you on edge and makes you want to slap someone. (Mainly Ernest, but maybe others, too.)
I don't think this is a book for children. The facts are enough, and they'll hear them, too, when they have to read "The Sun Also Rises" or "Old Man and the Sea" for English class. Ernest Hemingway was a hard drinking, hypermasculine womanizer who eventually shot himself.
But, Paula Mclain dares to imagine beyond the facts and see him through the eyes of a woman who loved him, and whom he loved. Not that it saved him from himself. She also doesn't cast the "other woman" in typical fashion either... but anyone would hear the warning bells! Full of names we know that seemed less real before I read The Paris Wife; Stein, Fitzgerald, Pound. They all come to life on the page.
It is a riveting story, and just like watching a train wreck you just keep on reading despite yourself.