Reviews with content warning for Medical content - A Farewell to Arms

Hemingway is one of those "must read" authors, whom I personally have never been interested to read, but I couldn't base my opinion on just prejudice and so I decided to read this — and yeah, it was awfully average. What annoyed me the most was the protagonist's lack of interest in his surroundings, he was very passive about everything and we didn't get to hear his inner voice, feel his emotions — anything much at all — so how was I supposed to care or cheer for him? If I wanted to read an objective war story, I'd much rather read non-fiction!
kinda spoiler but

I thought the name Farewell to Arms had a deeper symbolic meaning, something around how war is bad and violence is never the solution, but no, it was just about this American man leaving the Italian army because as a foreigner there will be no negative consequences to him or his own home country. bruh.

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seanml's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

There aren't many things to say about A Farewell to Arms, but then again there doesn't need to be. Isn't that the whole point of Hemingway? Yes, Hemingway was not the greatest person to live, and because Lieutenant Henry is a near-self insert, the thought comes up from time to time. Somewhat apathetic, privileged and nonchalantly racist, the main character doesn't change those qualities very much. But that's not the point of the story anyways. Hemingway paints a very clear picture, using very little words, of the small daily pleasantries and happinesses of life - and their ultimate futility and inefficacy in comparison to the grandest of life's problems. It is a very somber gaze into the shadow of human history. 8.5/10.

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mildlypretentiousreader's review

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adventurous emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms is a novel that tells the story of a tragic love affair between Lieutenant Frederic Henry, an American ambulance driver, and Catherine Barkley, an English nurse who had recently lost her fiancé in World War I.

One could describe A Farewell to Arms as a love story set behind the backdrop of a war or a war story encompassed by a romance. Catherine and Frederick’s love story takes center stage as the war serves as a means to unify the two and also separate them. The war is a unifying and relatable event the two lovers are able to bound over. On the other hand, the romance serves as an escape from the traumatizing, taxing, and tiresome war. Catherine and Frederick escape their harsh realities with each other. I theorize that that is why their relationship progressed so quickly as well.

Either way, A Farewell to Arms is a visceral, passionate work of literature with undertones of the simplicity and pain that constitutes life. The juxtapositions and contradictions found with A Farewell to Arms lead to effortless yet sparse writing. This style allows the reader to focus on the essence of the story and the characters, and to experience their emotions without being distracted by extra descriptions.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the novel is the way in which Hemingway explores the concept of war. He does not present it as a heroic, noble endeavor, but rather as a senseless and brutal conflict that leaves its participants scarred and disenchanted. Throughout the novel, Henry struggles with his role in the war and his feelings of guilt at not being able to do more for the wounded soldiers he transports from the front lines.

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annoyingtwig's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

wish i was aymo

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birtelesemann's review

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emotional tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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hannasandmann's review

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I find it really hard to give a star rating to this book. I enjoyed reading it and I admire Hemingway's skill and I know I am going to come back to this book very often in my head, but quite often felt disconnected from what I think Hemingway's intentions were for the reader, e.g. I did not root for the romance at all. To the contrary, I hated their relationship.

So the ending did not have the devestating effect on me, it could have had, had I actually enjoyed their relationship.

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ameliez's review against another edition

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dark reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

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sophee_568's review against another edition

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challenging dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

Don't take anything I've written here seriously.
Between 2.5 and 3. I'm pretty traumatized by this book. It's so dark and heavy. The last chapter was good because the writing finally clicked with me. I managed to relate to Frederic's suffering.
I didn't like most of the book because of multiple reasons. Firstly, I didn't care about the war. The main character worked as an ambulance driver on the Italian Front, and he told his side of the story during WWI. He was just a random guy, who drank a lot to suppress the horrors of war. Later on, he suffered a major injury to his legs and had to spend time in the hospital. After his legs were mostly healed, he was forced to go back to the front, which he didn't want to do. Understandable. Secondly, the whole romance was weird from the beginning. Catherine has a funny way of talking and she's such an insecure, submissive woman. It was tedious to read about Frederic and Catherine. Catherine's colleague nurse Ferguson is even worse. She seemed normal in the first half of the book but later, the scene where Frederic, Catherine, and Ferguson are in a restaurant happens. Ferguson's behavior was irrational and unnecessary. I think Hemingway really knew how to accentuate the "feminine" traits into absurdity.
Reading this book felt like watching a pointless war movie that was longer than it should have been. In the end, the course of the story completely changes because of Frederic's actions. That's where the story was slightly more interesting. It almost seemed like a slice-of-life story about a man and his pregnant wife living peacefully in the mountains. But alas, it had to be ruined for the sake of even further trauma. I heard that there were alternate endings to this book because Hemingway didn't know how to end the story. I think that only shows that maybe he should have written a different book. I don't want to come off as mean or rude. Is it too late to say that?
A Farewell to Arms is such a weird little book. Is it supposed to show the mundane terror of war? -Yes. Does it want to show a slow progression of a war-torn relationship between two random people? - Also yes. Except it was the most uninteresting, uninspiring story, with extremely dry simplistic writing. Although I have to give Hemingway props for that one sentence that spans a whole paragraph, where he talks about taking Catherine to Milan. I love a good long sentence. Also, he didn't seem to know where to put commas. Me too, Hem, me too.

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