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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The novel is a perfect example of the human cost of war. The Story follows a young American serving in the Italian army, who falls for an English girl, but because of the war they are separated and must suffer the pain separation. The novel explores the themes of love, war, suffering, and sacrifice.
A smooth start at the beginning, we can see the early glimpses of Hemingway's masterful narration.
A smooth start at the beginning, we can see the early glimpses of Hemingway's masterful narration.
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
This was a strange read for me—not because of the writing, but because of how Hemingway captures a war story while barely acknowledging the war itself. That’s not to say the war doesn’t exist in this book; it’s in the background, a dull hum, never fully ignored but rarely given the center stage. That’s part of what makes it work. Hemingway doesn’t preach or moralize. He doesn’t need to. The mundanity, the boredom, the spaghetti-eating injury—those are enough to underline how ridiculous it all is. There’s something haunting about how effortlessly he lets war sit in the background while the real business of the novel—love, death, survival—plays out in painfully quiet moments.
“The war seemed as far away as the football games of some one else's college.”
This line feels like the heartbeat of the book. Nothing really touches Henry, not in any permanent way, not until it does. His detachment isn’t from cowardice but from exhaustion, from having already accepted the futility of everything around him.
The stoicism of Frederic Henry struck me the most. There’s a deep acceptance running through him, not quite apathy but resignation. Whether it’s the war, his injury, or Catherine, he seems to stand apart from it all, observing. In another story this might make for a dull narrator, but here it captures the spirit of the time perfectly. Hemingway’s famous bitterness shines through:
“The world breaks everyone, and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially.”
That’s the core of this novel. You don’t get to win against life. You just hope you aren’t the one it decides to hurry along.
The writing itself? Crisp, unpretentious, and beautifully sparse. I’ve heard people complain about Hemingway being too dry, too minimalist. But here, it works. The war scenes are brilliant not because of gore or shock, but because they reflect the monotony and mess of retreat, especially during the Caporetto disaster. Hemingway turns that chaos into something exhausting, inevitable. It’s less about plot and more about how war wears you down in small, cruel increments.
Catherine is a different conversation. I didn’t know how I felt about her at first. At times she feels like a projection of male fantasy: the perfect, doting woman, nursing the wounded man, worshipping him. But Hemingway does make her feel real in those later chapters. I found myself softening to her the way Henry did. Their love, especially as things unravel, reminded me of Doctor Zhivago—not because of similar plots but because of that desperate clinging to something pure while the world burns.
“You’re my religion. You’re all I’ve got.”
It’s such a simple line, but it tells you everything about how this book treats love. Love isn’t something beautiful here—it’s survival, it’s prayer, it’s clinging to someone because the alternative is unbearable.
The emotional payoff comes late. The first half is observational, even detached, but the second half deepens into something much more human. Hemingway doesn’t let you get too comfortable though. His bitterness cuts through by the end.
“We’re all cooked. The thing to do is not to think about it.”
It’s a philosophy Henry lives by, up until he can’t anymore.
Their love story? Beautiful in its inevitability. Catherine’s death feels both random and guaranteed, as if Hemingway is reminding us no one outruns tragedy, no matter how hard they try to escape through rivers, borders, or illusions of peace.
“I’ll say this for the heart—it’s consistently reliable. It always lets you down when you need it most.”
The ending doesn’t offer hope, only truth. In some ways, it’s more honest than any grand romantic gesture could have been.
“When you love you wish to do things for. You wish to sacrifice for. You wish to serve.”
And that’s the tragedy here. Service doesn’t save you. Sacrifice doesn’t either. In the end, the rain keeps falling, and you walk away alone.
This wasn’t my favorite Hemingway, but it might be the one I think about the most. It’s not flashy. It’s not loud. It’s just quietly devastating in a way that sneaks up on you.
Final Thoughts:
A war novel without dramatics, more about waiting than fighting.- A love story without guarantees or safety nets.
- Sparse, bitter, and brutal in its realism.
- Less about war or love, more about how the world breaks people in quiet ways.
If anything, this novel reminded me why Hemingway’s work lingers. He doesn’t write to comfort you—he writes to remind you that nothing is ever safe, and nothing is ever promised.
“The night can be a dreadful time for lonely people once their loneliness has started.”
This is a novel about the loneliness of war, of grief, of loving in a world where love cannot win. And yet, we keep reading stories like this because something in us still hopes it might.
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Admittedly, I was leaning towards a 2 stars rating but the touching last chapter made me put a star more.
Anyhow, the main issue I had with A Farewell To Arms are twofold. The story isn't interesting in the least, and I get it was on purpose to show the dullness of war and deglamourize it. Yet it's a novel, not a treaty on war. And it's a very, very boring novel, no matter what you think about the characters, there's no development, no insightful discourse, no unexpected moments. It is downright a plain story of two individual living through WWI.
Second issue, Hemingway's prose is dull as much as the story. I have never read a supposedly classic book that never made me stop and think "wow, that was nicely written". Not once. It made me think why I'd ever read such a book if there wasn't Hemingway written on its cover.
So well, first Hemingway and hopefully the worst.
Anyhow, the main issue I had with A Farewell To Arms are twofold. The story isn't interesting in the least, and I get it was on purpose to show the dullness of war and deglamourize it. Yet it's a novel, not a treaty on war. And it's a very, very boring novel, no matter what you think about the characters, there's no development, no insightful discourse, no unexpected moments. It is downright a plain story of two individual living through WWI.
Second issue, Hemingway's prose is dull as much as the story. I have never read a supposedly classic book that never made me stop and think "wow, that was nicely written". Not once. It made me think why I'd ever read such a book if there wasn't Hemingway written on its cover.
So well, first Hemingway and hopefully the worst.