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3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
dark
funny
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
My favorite Hemingway book ever. There is just so much here. Wonderful characters, great storyline, compelling placement in World War I. Love, and war: the essence of all great novels! I really think this novel is underappreciated, and should be read by a larger audience.
I love this book, my favorite book. I never thought it could be improved - until now! (In the process of reading, I also discovered there was an illustrated edition published in 1948. I need to track one down...) I'm not sure everyone would benefit from this book, but anyone who loves Hemingway or wants to learn about a writer's process would really benefit from this book. At some points this book feels to me like it was created out of perfect this air, but seeing the early drafts and alternate endings, I realize how much craft went into shaping this book, so I appreciate it all the more.
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Miscarriage, War
I really, really loved this book. It is heart breaking, iconically so. It is also very beautiful as well. I really love Hemingway's writing style- his dialogue seems so real and clear. I especially loved this novel because we got to see this romantic side to him- the love story between Henry and Catherine is so classic and so raw as well. Maybe I'm just a sucker for WWI era romances, but I really loved every scene they shared together and really savored every moment of it.
There are some things I didn't care for. There were a lot of scenes of "men talking men stuff." I ended up just skipping some of these parts because they were very boring. I also am not a huge fan of long descriptions of battles, but many site that as one of this novel's strong points, so although it wasn't my favorite part, it was certainly notable.
This book is a classic and rightly so. It has romance, adventure, love, loss, war, and lots of reflection on all these aspects. And of course an ending that will rip your heart out- because that is, after all, what war does.
More reviews at blondeblogsbooks.blogspot.com
There are some things I didn't care for. There were a lot of scenes of "men talking men stuff." I ended up just skipping some of these parts because they were very boring. I also am not a huge fan of long descriptions of battles, but many site that as one of this novel's strong points, so although it wasn't my favorite part, it was certainly notable.
This book is a classic and rightly so. It has romance, adventure, love, loss, war, and lots of reflection on all these aspects. And of course an ending that will rip your heart out- because that is, after all, what war does.
More reviews at blondeblogsbooks.blogspot.com
i hate having to compete with literary women. they're so understanding and yet impossible for their men to understand and perfect and lovely and dead! it's awful competing with dead women!
It feels a little illegal to rate a Hemingway this low, but I really had such conflicting feelings while reading this book.
The themes - Well the main theme is 'war' obviously. Other than that, it's all a bit abstract and hard to pin down. Maybe 'love and loss', 'fantasy vs reality', and even 'religion'? But there aren't many instances in which these themes occur. Most felt sprinkled in as little supporting points to the big black overarching theme of 'war'. Perhaps that was the point though, to show the bleakness of war through the experience of our main character.
The prose - Anyone who has read anything Hemingway before this would be able to identify A Farewell to Arms as a Hemingway just by reading the first few pages. The prose in this book was quintessentially him. While I do think that his terse writing style with choppy rhythms and unique (read: often lack thereof of) punctuation suits short stories better, the way he built countryside scenery and the Italian front from the ground-up was impressive. However, some of it was slightly repetitive and the dialogue often confused me. I had to read the lines over and over again to visualise what on earth the characters were getting up to. To be fair, I never wondered who was speaking, as Hemingway made each character's voice so distinct.
The characters - Yea um I pretty much hated Catherine and as the book wore on I was more and more annoyed with the main character. I can't even remember his name. Does Hemingway hate women or something? Because Catherine oft felt more like a caricature than an actual person. At the start I was willing to forgive her psychological struggles because she lost her fiancee. But then she kept saying things along the lines of 'I will do anything and everything you tell me to, Darling. That way you will never feel the desire to love another woman.' It was at this point I realised that this book was very much NOT a romance, but it did not stop me from feeling irrational irritation with both of them. The side characters were better though, the priest was a chill dude and Rinaldi was funny.
The overall craft - During my reading of A Farewell to Arms, I was thoroughly bored. Was war and killing and death not meant to be interesting? After reading the famed and revised ending, I could have shrugged and put the book away. While I can somewhat appreciate the famed 'walking in the rain' ending, I didn't care for the characters enough to be touched. The whole thing seemed a bit underwhelming for the most famed work of Hemingway. But then I realised the genius of it all. Hemingway uses the repetitiveness of his prose to show not only the bleakness, but the boringness of war. He doesn't need to introduce any anti-war themes because the monotony of the book itself makes the reader root for the war to end. It is so simple, yet so effective. Scenes like the characters getting injured / killed take place while they are eating lunch instead of by the raging battlefield. War it trivialised in such an understated, artful and almost ironic way.
While the ideas behind the book as a whole is probably 5 stars, the reading experience was very much not.
3.5 stars!
The themes - Well the main theme is 'war' obviously. Other than that, it's all a bit abstract and hard to pin down. Maybe 'love and loss', 'fantasy vs reality', and even 'religion'? But there aren't many instances in which these themes occur. Most felt sprinkled in as little supporting points to the big black overarching theme of 'war'. Perhaps that was the point though, to show the bleakness of war through the experience of our main character.
The prose - Anyone who has read anything Hemingway before this would be able to identify A Farewell to Arms as a Hemingway just by reading the first few pages. The prose in this book was quintessentially him. While I do think that his terse writing style with choppy rhythms and unique (read: often lack thereof of) punctuation suits short stories better, the way he built countryside scenery and the Italian front from the ground-up was impressive. However, some of it was slightly repetitive and the dialogue often confused me. I had to read the lines over and over again to visualise what on earth the characters were getting up to. To be fair, I never wondered who was speaking, as Hemingway made each character's voice so distinct.
The characters - Yea um I pretty much hated Catherine and as the book wore on I was more and more annoyed with the main character. I can't even remember his name. Does Hemingway hate women or something? Because Catherine oft felt more like a caricature than an actual person. At the start I was willing to forgive her psychological struggles because she lost her fiancee. But then she kept saying things along the lines of 'I will do anything and everything you tell me to, Darling. That way you will never feel the desire to love another woman.' It was at this point I realised that this book was very much NOT a romance, but it did not stop me from feeling irrational irritation with both of them. The side characters were better though, the priest was a chill dude and Rinaldi was funny.
The overall craft - During my reading of A Farewell to Arms, I was thoroughly bored. Was war and killing and death not meant to be interesting? After reading the famed and revised ending, I could have shrugged and put the book away. While I can somewhat appreciate the famed 'walking in the rain' ending, I didn't care for the characters enough to be touched. The whole thing seemed a bit underwhelming for the most famed work of Hemingway. But then I realised the genius of it all. Hemingway uses the repetitiveness of his prose to show not only the bleakness, but the boringness of war. He doesn't need to introduce any anti-war themes because the monotony of the book itself makes the reader root for the war to end. It is so simple, yet so effective. Scenes like the characters getting injured / killed take place while they are eating lunch instead of by the raging battlefield. War it trivialised in such an understated, artful and almost ironic way.
While the ideas behind the book as a whole is probably 5 stars, the reading experience was very much not.
3.5 stars!