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3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
My first Hemingway. I had avoided him for years because the person who was probably most influential on my tastes hated him, and I think she was probably right. Didn't really enjoy his prose style or these characters much at all, and it doesn't help that I read a far superior World War 1 novel a few months ago. The ending was brutal and also maybe not what I wanted to read while my wife was pregnant.
adventurous
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is my second time reading this book. I first read it (I think, you know, I thought I read it but reading again it was unrecognizable) back in the late 1990s when I was on a Hemingway kick.
" . . . We really are the same one and we mustn't misunderstand on purpose."
"We won't."
"But people do. They love each other and they misunderstand on purpose and they fight and then suddenly they aren't the same one."
It is tempting to writing off Ellen Barkley as a shallow character. But I'd think she puts on a shallow facade. She play the game of romance because she like the idea of romance. The reason being is she has seen an ugly world - the world of war - and she chose to make her life one of love and romance. Despite this put on shallowness she has deep thoughts about what it means to be in a deep relationship with another person. So at first glance it would be easy to look at this small cast of characters and think they are underdeveloped but I think all their development lies in the subtext and in their littles actions.
The plot, like most Hemingway, is straight forward. There are few twists and turns and all the conflict (or at least most of it) comes from the environment of war. It is bleak and everything you expect to happens, happens but it still moves you forward. His sparse writing style carries a sense of forward motions which keeps you moving into the story more any any false suspense ever could.
He doesn't over use words and even sometimes maybe you want a little more detail. I know some of my friends will love it for all the dialogue.
The poetry is found in the verbs of action. The specticle is found in the rain and mud and mortar bombs blasting.
There is a bit of machoism found in all of Hemingway that can be off putting. But if you can overlook that, or better yet, embrace it as an alternative way of being. He is definitely much different than I am or I would want my lover to be. if you can accept that for what it is and let yourself enjoy the story because it is a different way of seeing the world (I'm speaking for myself), then you will not only enjoy it but will want to read again.
"I was always embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious, and sacrifice and the expression in vain. We had heard them, sometimes standing in therein almost out of earshot, so that only the shouted words came through, and had read them, on proclamations that were slapped up by billposters and over other proclamations, now for a long time, and I had seen nothing sacred, and the things that were glorious had no glory and the sacrifices were like the stockyards at Chicago if nothing was done with the meat except to bury it. There were many words that you could not stand to hear and finally only the names of places had dignity."
" . . . We really are the same one and we mustn't misunderstand on purpose."
"We won't."
"But people do. They love each other and they misunderstand on purpose and they fight and then suddenly they aren't the same one."
It is tempting to writing off Ellen Barkley as a shallow character. But I'd think she puts on a shallow facade. She play the game of romance because she like the idea of romance. The reason being is she has seen an ugly world - the world of war - and she chose to make her life one of love and romance. Despite this put on shallowness she has deep thoughts about what it means to be in a deep relationship with another person. So at first glance it would be easy to look at this small cast of characters and think they are underdeveloped but I think all their development lies in the subtext and in their littles actions.
The plot, like most Hemingway, is straight forward. There are few twists and turns and all the conflict (or at least most of it) comes from the environment of war. It is bleak and everything you expect to happens, happens but it still moves you forward. His sparse writing style carries a sense of forward motions which keeps you moving into the story more any any false suspense ever could.
He doesn't over use words and even sometimes maybe you want a little more detail. I know some of my friends will love it for all the dialogue.
The poetry is found in the verbs of action. The specticle is found in the rain and mud and mortar bombs blasting.
There is a bit of machoism found in all of Hemingway that can be off putting. But if you can overlook that, or better yet, embrace it as an alternative way of being. He is definitely much different than I am or I would want my lover to be. if you can accept that for what it is and let yourself enjoy the story because it is a different way of seeing the world (I'm speaking for myself), then you will not only enjoy it but will want to read again.
"I was always embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious, and sacrifice and the expression in vain. We had heard them, sometimes standing in therein almost out of earshot, so that only the shouted words came through, and had read them, on proclamations that were slapped up by billposters and over other proclamations, now for a long time, and I had seen nothing sacred, and the things that were glorious had no glory and the sacrifices were like the stockyards at Chicago if nothing was done with the meat except to bury it. There were many words that you could not stand to hear and finally only the names of places had dignity."
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Thought parts were beautiful, and the description of wartime in Italy is amazing, but the end just ruins it for me...
volt benne ket parbeszed, amin jot rohogtem, de amugy asszem nem vagyok en elegge irodalmilag kepzett Hemingway papahoz.
Nehany Orkeny forditas viszont nagyon jopofa volt, kutyus.
Nehany Orkeny forditas viszont nagyon jopofa volt, kutyus.
Dear Mr. Hemingway, you were truly an unhappy man.
Is this what you want me to learn from your story? War is stupid, but that we have already known. People died, people did idiot things, people lost direction in war. And peace of mind was just an illusion in wartime...you thought you could run from it, you thought you were in a safe haven, but that was just a very clever trick the world played on you.
And...that plot of yours towards the ending. Oh dear Mr. Hemingway, I don't know an ending can hurt people this much. And I don't know how to write a review without blabbering too much about the storyline.
Did you weep when you finished writing this? Because I did. For Frederick. For Catherine. For soldiers and civilians and the happiness that never was.
Is this it, dear Mr. Hemingway? Is this it?
Is this what you want me to learn from your story? War is stupid, but that we have already known. People died, people did idiot things, people lost direction in war. And peace of mind was just an illusion in wartime...you thought you could run from it, you thought you were in a safe haven, but that was just a very clever trick the world played on you.
And...that plot of yours towards the ending. Oh dear Mr. Hemingway, I don't know an ending can hurt people this much. And I don't know how to write a review without blabbering too much about the storyline.
Did you weep when you finished writing this? Because I did. For Frederick. For Catherine. For soldiers and civilians and the happiness that never was.
Is this it, dear Mr. Hemingway? Is this it?
An early twentieth century love story set in bleak war time Italy. While Hemingway’s depiction of women falls short, he describes obsessive love accurately and with seemingly effortless craft.