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3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It's been years since I read Hemmingway's The Sun Also Rises. I didn't get much out of it, and found it slow and quite boring. I never quite connect with books where people have nothing but a lot of money and leisure without any real explanation. Truthfully I also wasn't looking for much meaning in the book, so maybe that's why I found none.
A Farewell To Arms wears its meaning on its sleeve a bit more, mostly because the horrors of the First World War are much more vivid and understandable from where I am standing. The matters speak for themselves. With that in mind I could appreciate Hemmingway's plain and emotionless prose, and the stoic tone of his narrator.
Fred Henry (or "Tenete" as the Italians call him) is an American volunteering in the Italian Army. No reason is given for this, but we do come to understand that he is the one character in the book who seems to quite like war, or at least is not depressed by it. He is an ambulance driver, and meets an English nurse in the small mountain town he is stationed in. They grow somewhat close, even though his designs are far from pure in the beginning. Soon though he is wounded in the knee, and finds himself in a hospital in Milan, and Nurse Catherine transfers there to be with him. Instantly they are in deep, mad, all-encompassing love. It's actually quite sickening, in that the dialogue is so ridiculously soppy and boring. It reads like a parody of an old timey black and white romance, with lots of "I love you darling" dross. I was glad when it was over and he was back at the front. Here the book gets quite exciting, as Tenete has to lead a team of ambulance drivers in a mass retreat south.
I certainly got more out of this book than the last one. I'm not sure Hemmingway's style does a lot for me though. He can certainly paint a detailed picture with very simple language, but not a lot of the dialogue was convincing and the emotionless tone of the narrator stirs very little in me. I appreciate and understand that this probably represents his numbed PTSD view of the world, but it elicited little.
I found this in a charity shop in Katherine, Northern Territory.
A Farewell To Arms wears its meaning on its sleeve a bit more, mostly because the horrors of the First World War are much more vivid and understandable from where I am standing. The matters speak for themselves. With that in mind I could appreciate Hemmingway's plain and emotionless prose, and the stoic tone of his narrator.
Fred Henry (or "Tenete" as the Italians call him) is an American volunteering in the Italian Army. No reason is given for this, but we do come to understand that he is the one character in the book who seems to quite like war, or at least is not depressed by it. He is an ambulance driver, and meets an English nurse in the small mountain town he is stationed in. They grow somewhat close, even though his designs are far from pure in the beginning. Soon though he is wounded in the knee, and finds himself in a hospital in Milan, and Nurse Catherine transfers there to be with him. Instantly they are in deep, mad, all-encompassing love. It's actually quite sickening, in that the dialogue is so ridiculously soppy and boring. It reads like a parody of an old timey black and white romance, with lots of "I love you darling" dross. I was glad when it was over and he was back at the front. Here the book gets quite exciting, as Tenete has to lead a team of ambulance drivers in a mass retreat south.
I certainly got more out of this book than the last one. I'm not sure Hemmingway's style does a lot for me though. He can certainly paint a detailed picture with very simple language, but not a lot of the dialogue was convincing and the emotionless tone of the narrator stirs very little in me. I appreciate and understand that this probably represents his numbed PTSD view of the world, but it elicited little.
I found this in a charity shop in Katherine, Northern Territory.
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I don’t like war books, or any book with that much violence, but since it was Hemingway I thought I should give such a classic a fair shot. I don’t regret reading this, but mainly because it only took me a couple of days.
Surprisingly, the war aspects of the book were some of my favourites. The way Hemingway instils the futility of such large wars with such ridiculously high numbers of deaths is really powerful - a result of his lived experience. Blind leading the seeing, to be succinct in his views. The passages that reflect on death, wisdom, power and the destructive nature of the hubris of those in command are where, I guess, Hemingway gained his reputation as a literary great. With those, he deserves it. Even towards the end, the reflections upon wisdom and age are wonderfully poignant - one does not become wise with age, only careful. The soldiers we meet throughout the book represent so well the indiscriminate nature of such wars as WWI. So many personalities (very few likeable, but that’s another point), and one shared destiny. Mud and death. Each character was filled with such lust for life, and individuality, making their death or disappearance so much more hard-hitting. I actually really enjoyed the writing style. The fluidity was really effective in portraying the chaos and unpredictable nature of the events occurring in the book.
But even the stuff I spoke about above can only carry this book to a 2 star rating. The main gripe I had with this book was the main plot point (bad start) - Frederic and Catherine’s relationship. Whilst I’m sure it was well-received at the time, the seedy trope of doting nurse to sick, manipulative patient just hasn’t stood the test of time (if it ever was socially acceptable then). The attitude that the woman will love the man forever, forgive all his sins and shortcomings, devote herself to him entirely, whilst not requiring the man to have any love to her back. Fundamentally acting as a servant, and that this is what a ‘fairytale romance’ should be. Catherine literally tells Frederic to shut up when he says he loves her (after saying how much she loves him), and she is constantly berating herself for nothing, so that he can always feel superior to her. This got so ridiculous, to the point where when Frederic says he once had gonorrhoea, Catherine says (to paraphrase) ‘I wish to get it too, to feel your pain’. SHE WAS PREGNANT WHEN SHE SAID THIS. Ernest, man, really? Also, why was he so obsessed with making a pregnant woman drink so much and justify it. I won’t spoil, but the way Hemingway wrote her at the end was just horrid. Any semblance of self, or independence, he accidentally gave to a female character, he stripped away as quick as he could. Some things in old books can be looked past as ‘of its time’, but this was too much to look past. Also, I don’t think there was a page where someone wasn’t drinking. At least Hemingway wasn’t trying to hide his alcoholism, but man it was just too much. Frederic at one point has liver failure, but then miraculously recovers and continues to drink like an ox for the rest of the book. Capri, vermouth and cognac were honestly the three most-used words. One last thing, the completely unnecessary n-word just got on my nerves. Sounded like a 14-year-old edge lord on call of duty.
A war book I did not enjoy. No shock there. A war book where I wanted far more war and far less of everything else? That was a surprise. And not to his credit. I wish I wasn’t so stubborn so I could have not finished this.
Surprisingly, the war aspects of the book were some of my favourites. The way Hemingway instils the futility of such large wars with such ridiculously high numbers of deaths is really powerful - a result of his lived experience. Blind leading the seeing, to be succinct in his views. The passages that reflect on death, wisdom, power and the destructive nature of the hubris of those in command are where, I guess, Hemingway gained his reputation as a literary great. With those, he deserves it. Even towards the end, the reflections upon wisdom and age are wonderfully poignant - one does not become wise with age, only careful. The soldiers we meet throughout the book represent so well the indiscriminate nature of such wars as WWI. So many personalities (very few likeable, but that’s another point), and one shared destiny. Mud and death. Each character was filled with such lust for life, and individuality, making their death or disappearance so much more hard-hitting. I actually really enjoyed the writing style. The fluidity was really effective in portraying the chaos and unpredictable nature of the events occurring in the book.
But even the stuff I spoke about above can only carry this book to a 2 star rating. The main gripe I had with this book was the main plot point (bad start) - Frederic and Catherine’s relationship. Whilst I’m sure it was well-received at the time, the seedy trope of doting nurse to sick, manipulative patient just hasn’t stood the test of time (if it ever was socially acceptable then). The attitude that the woman will love the man forever, forgive all his sins and shortcomings, devote herself to him entirely, whilst not requiring the man to have any love to her back. Fundamentally acting as a servant, and that this is what a ‘fairytale romance’ should be. Catherine literally tells Frederic to shut up when he says he loves her (after saying how much she loves him), and she is constantly berating herself for nothing, so that he can always feel superior to her. This got so ridiculous, to the point where when Frederic says he once had gonorrhoea, Catherine says (to paraphrase) ‘I wish to get it too, to feel your pain’. SHE WAS PREGNANT WHEN SHE SAID THIS. Ernest, man, really? Also, why was he so obsessed with making a pregnant woman drink so much and justify it. I won’t spoil, but the way Hemingway wrote her at the end was just horrid. Any semblance of self, or independence, he accidentally gave to a female character, he stripped away as quick as he could. Some things in old books can be looked past as ‘of its time’, but this was too much to look past. Also, I don’t think there was a page where someone wasn’t drinking. At least Hemingway wasn’t trying to hide his alcoholism, but man it was just too much. Frederic at one point has liver failure, but then miraculously recovers and continues to drink like an ox for the rest of the book. Capri, vermouth and cognac were honestly the three most-used words. One last thing, the completely unnecessary n-word just got on my nerves. Sounded like a 14-year-old edge lord on call of duty.
A war book I did not enjoy. No shock there. A war book where I wanted far more war and far less of everything else? That was a surprise. And not to his credit. I wish I wasn’t so stubborn so I could have not finished this.
اگر بخوام صادقانه بنویسم باید بگم که من این کتاب رو بیشتر به خاطر جنگ، موضوع جنگ،اسیب های جنگی، امید و نا امیدهای این دوران و خود همینگوی دوست دارم! و این رو هم اضافه میکنم که با شخصیت کاترین نه تنها ارتباط برقرار نکردم بلکه حس خوبی هم از مرگش داشتم….
adventurous
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
It took me a long time to finish this book. Almost a month. And it was worth nothing. Now I realise why it took me such a long time to complete. The book gets gets painstakingly boring at times and all you ever get to read is the daily routines of several people in rotation. Hemingway lets us loose at the Italian front of the war where he is an ambulance driver and a shrapnel in the leg while you crouch to cover and hide gets you a war medal. He lets us loose and then keeps us stranded in a no-bullet land. A bullet you would be happy to take. His description is so bland in stretches that for starters you feel good about war. The alcohol, the women and a basic lack of responsibility. But then, it also makes you wonder if war can make people stripped of the emotion. Then I think about Hemingway and realise, its him at the protagonist's place. He loudly states the need of a clean prose, short sentences and a story that moves at its own pace however broken at places, though connected. The emotion has sharp edges instead of smooth ones and you would feel flabbergasted.
The priest, Catherine, the colonel, Rinaldi are all stale characters, but then hemingway never created characters. He simply replaced them with real people and the times of their lives where they simply drank and enjoyed themselves. It is not a soldier's account of war, but of an officer who has privileges that would put many people to shame. It is very evident that Hemingway wanted to write about war and not participate in it. He seems to be in a hurry to sit down and write a book.
Though the book did something simple which makes things interesting. We have all the literature available of Hemingway and after this being my first read written by him, I am drawn towards his other collection, intrigued by how he went on and ended with that fateful day in 1954.
The priest, Catherine, the colonel, Rinaldi are all stale characters, but then hemingway never created characters. He simply replaced them with real people and the times of their lives where they simply drank and enjoyed themselves. It is not a soldier's account of war, but of an officer who has privileges that would put many people to shame. It is very evident that Hemingway wanted to write about war and not participate in it. He seems to be in a hurry to sit down and write a book.
Though the book did something simple which makes things interesting. We have all the literature available of Hemingway and after this being my first read written by him, I am drawn towards his other collection, intrigued by how he went on and ended with that fateful day in 1954.
emotional
sad
medium-paced
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Death, War, Injury/Injury detail