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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
-2 stars for Catherine Barkley's syrupy, fawning love, 3 stars for still being way better than I could ever write.
After seeing "Testament of Youth" recently (a so-so movie), I've been "into" WWI. Most people in my generation never knew anyone who fought or lived through that era, so it seems mysterious and distant. Until watching Testament and reading this book, the only thing I knew about WWI was that Thomas from Downton Abbey held a lighter up in the trenches to get his hand shot off so he could go home and pick up where he left off, i.e. serving the rich all day, every day. Now I know that there were many ways people tried to get out of service, and that most people seemed to hate the war and not feel an overriding sense of duty and judicial righteousness in fighting it, unlike WWII, which everyone loooooooooved (I don't know: remind me to read an actual history book), and that Italians really do eat spaghetti all the time (according to EH).
But, okay: it's a really good war story. Lt. Henry is so wonderfully macho. He smiles through the pain, drinks two bottles of wine for breakfast, and doesn't love anyone, until he does, and then he REALLY loves her. With manly abandon. The love story between Catherine and he is actually pretty sweet, but it's hard to get past their dialogue. Even when they're in a hotel room, talking to each other like that, you want them to get ANOTHER, smaller room inside that room, so you don't have to listen to them saying things like "You're a grand girl" and "You're a lovely wife." Henry basically just chants those two phrases at her, over and over, and she just swoons. She is having all of it.
AND LOOK WHERE IT GETS HER.
A drinking game that would kill the reader: taking a sip every time Catherine Barkley says, "I'm a good girl, aren't I, Darling?"
After seeing "Testament of Youth" recently (a so-so movie), I've been "into" WWI. Most people in my generation never knew anyone who fought or lived through that era, so it seems mysterious and distant. Until watching Testament and reading this book, the only thing I knew about WWI was that Thomas from Downton Abbey held a lighter up in the trenches to get his hand shot off so he could go home and pick up where he left off, i.e. serving the rich all day, every day. Now I know that there were many ways people tried to get out of service, and that most people seemed to hate the war and not feel an overriding sense of duty and judicial righteousness in fighting it, unlike WWII, which everyone loooooooooved (I don't know: remind me to read an actual history book), and that Italians really do eat spaghetti all the time (according to EH).
But, okay: it's a really good war story. Lt. Henry is so wonderfully macho. He smiles through the pain, drinks two bottles of wine for breakfast, and doesn't love anyone, until he does, and then he REALLY loves her. With manly abandon. The love story between Catherine and he is actually pretty sweet, but it's hard to get past their dialogue. Even when they're in a hotel room, talking to each other like that, you want them to get ANOTHER, smaller room inside that room, so you don't have to listen to them saying things like "You're a grand girl" and "You're a lovely wife." Henry basically just chants those two phrases at her, over and over, and she just swoons. She is having all of it.
AND LOOK WHERE IT GETS HER.
A drinking game that would kill the reader: taking a sip every time Catherine Barkley says, "I'm a good girl, aren't I, Darling?"
adventurous
funny
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Dang, Hemingway rewrote the ending of A Farewell to Arms 39 times to get the words right?!
dark
reflective
slow-paced
This is just the second novel by Hemingway I have read, the first being The Sun Also Rises.
In each read, I am caught off guard by the seemingly overly simplified sentence structure - but eventually your mind learns to let the text start to just wash over and at you like a stream and you suddenly find yourself caught up and completely present, seeing out of the authors eyes in the story. I found it useful to almost mentally let my attention go a little out of focus - if that makes any sense. Its like being taken away in a movie except you arrived here by some magic of Hemingway's uniquely crafted structure, that is dogmatically simple. Only the most essential left for you - he wrote it - while seemingly not being there in the writing.... It takes time to adjust to - but it is a welcome reprieve from the flourishes, un-needed complexities and other "technically" impressive things some other authors rely on. This rigid structure of simplicity provides enough negative space and a strong contrast for when moments of more "artistic" depth, heart, or soul come forth - they are impactful as hell.
By the end of the story I couldn't help but reflect on the seeming randomness of events and the complete lack of control that we all have during times of conflict and tension and horror in the world (or more broadly in life in general). All we have is the ability to make these momentary, small decisions based upon our immediate surroundings. To find comfort in the simple pleasures of food and drink when and where we can - to look for joy and hope in companionship and love. Perhaps that is a bit cynical. Perhaps its a truthful realism. I certainly can respect at least that these themes are likely where one would arrive at after driving an ambulance and being injured during WWI.
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Quotes and passages of exceptional quality that stuck with me
"I was always embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious, and sacrifice and the expression in vain. We had heard them, sometimes standing in the rain almost out of earshot, so that only the shouted words came through, and had read them, on proclamations that were slapped up by billposters 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. Certain numbers were the same way and certain dates and these with names of the places were all you could say and have them mean anything. Abstract words such as glory, honor, courage, or hallow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages, the numbers of roads, the names of rivers. the numbers of regiments and the dates."
AND
"I had always expected to become devout. All my family died very devout. But somehow it does not come."
"It's too early."
"Maybe its too late. perhaps I have outlived my religious feeling."
"My own comes only at night."
"Then too you are in love. Do not forget that is a religious feeling."
"You believe so?"
"Of course." He took a step toward the table. "You were very kind to play."
"It was a great pleasure."
"We will walk upstairs together."
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Sure there are some obviously dated presentations of misogyny and moments of racism here - not entirely surprised for a book published in 1929, and from an author whose hyper masculine reputation still precedes him in popular culture today. In no way trying to condone this - but there still remains I think a great deal of compassion, gentleness, love and understanding towards the challenges and complexities of the human spirit in this story.
I would certainly recommend reading A Farewell To Arms - be prepared for tears. I was certainly brought to them.
☮
In each read, I am caught off guard by the seemingly overly simplified sentence structure - but eventually your mind learns to let the text start to just wash over and at you like a stream and you suddenly find yourself caught up and completely present, seeing out of the authors eyes in the story. I found it useful to almost mentally let my attention go a little out of focus - if that makes any sense. Its like being taken away in a movie except you arrived here by some magic of Hemingway's uniquely crafted structure, that is dogmatically simple. Only the most essential left for you - he wrote it - while seemingly not being there in the writing.... It takes time to adjust to - but it is a welcome reprieve from the flourishes, un-needed complexities and other "technically" impressive things some other authors rely on. This rigid structure of simplicity provides enough negative space and a strong contrast for when moments of more "artistic" depth, heart, or soul come forth - they are impactful as hell.
By the end of the story I couldn't help but reflect on the seeming randomness of events and the complete lack of control that we all have during times of conflict and tension and horror in the world (or more broadly in life in general). All we have is the ability to make these momentary, small decisions based upon our immediate surroundings. To find comfort in the simple pleasures of food and drink when and where we can - to look for joy and hope in companionship and love. Perhaps that is a bit cynical. Perhaps its a truthful realism. I certainly can respect at least that these themes are likely where one would arrive at after driving an ambulance and being injured during WWI.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quotes and passages of exceptional quality that stuck with me
"I was always embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious, and sacrifice and the expression in vain. We had heard them, sometimes standing in the rain almost out of earshot, so that only the shouted words came through, and had read them, on proclamations that were slapped up by billposters 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. Certain numbers were the same way and certain dates and these with names of the places were all you could say and have them mean anything. Abstract words such as glory, honor, courage, or hallow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages, the numbers of roads, the names of rivers. the numbers of regiments and the dates."
AND
"I had always expected to become devout. All my family died very devout. But somehow it does not come."
"It's too early."
"Maybe its too late. perhaps I have outlived my religious feeling."
"My own comes only at night."
"Then too you are in love. Do not forget that is a religious feeling."
"You believe so?"
"Of course." He took a step toward the table. "You were very kind to play."
"It was a great pleasure."
"We will walk upstairs together."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sure there are some obviously dated presentations of misogyny and moments of racism here - not entirely surprised for a book published in 1929, and from an author whose hyper masculine reputation still precedes him in popular culture today. In no way trying to condone this - but there still remains I think a great deal of compassion, gentleness, love and understanding towards the challenges and complexities of the human spirit in this story.
I would certainly recommend reading A Farewell To Arms - be prepared for tears. I was certainly brought to them.
☮
reflective
slow-paced
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I know it’s a classic but it’s not my type of book
medium-paced
i enjoyed it more than i thought i would. at first i was unimpressed by hemingway's prose, but as the emotional stakes rose i felt the power of his no-nonsense style deeply. wish i had gotten through this faster but had a shocking reading slump.