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3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
My friend told me I couldn’t hate on Hemingway if I’d read nothing but a few of his short stories, so I picked up the copy of A Farewell To Arms that had been sitting on my shelf unread for the last couple months, just to spite him!! And now I’ve read it!!! And guess what?? It’s still bad!! I will say something about Hemingways style is addictive (or possibly just easy to digest), but it gets to a point. The whiplash between his three word sentences and page long descriptions of scenery I couldn’t give less of a shit about, plus his horrifying characterization of woman throughout the book, is pretty bad!!! Catherine is a nothing character. She is a wife to Henry, a lady friend, his woman, and that is ALL. She has no characterization beyond Henry (or even her late fiancé). Again, and again, she emphasizes how she would be nothing without him, how she wants nothing but him, and how worried she is that she bores him, because of course it’s acceptable for the man to want more. I truly believe Hemingway cannot write woman, and honestly, cannot really write either.
sad
tense
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
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This edition of the book was divided into 4 sections.
The scenes with Catherine and Frederic, and their dialogues are very enjoyable. The war stuff was slightly dull at times, but I appreciate Hemingway’s bleak description of the impersonal WW1 warfare. The prose is quite wooden, and difficult to follow at times, which is probably why it took me so long to get through it. The romance between Catherine and Frederic is nice, but the book mostly focuses on narration of events rather than characters thoughts and feelings, which hurts the book’s emotional aspects, which have the potential to be more powerful.
I also found the love interest, Catherine Barkley, to be a little flat in terms of emotions, I won’t say Hemingway can’t write women, however she was the most prominent female character by far, and there were no women in The Old Man and The Sea, the only other Hemingway I’ve read so far.
Section 1 was quite slow, and took me a while to really immerse myself in the book, it gets interesting whenFrederic is caught in a battle and has his legs injured by a shell, whilst several named characters die in front of him.
Section 2 has much more romance, asCatherine treats Frederic in the hospital. Whilst he’s recovering they go on dates, and get drunk, and spend time together. Hemingway conveys the sense of love really well, the love the characters develop feels natural and real. I read Section 2 much faster than the rest of the book. At the end of this section Catherine tells
Section 3 took me the longest.Back on the frontline, Frederic gets caught in a retreat. I was waiting for him to find Catherine again, so this part didnt grip me as much as I wanted. Still it’s fairly well written, and as bleak as war probably is in reality. I had mixed feelings about Frederic shooting (but not killing) a man for attempted desertion, as he was always saying how pointless he was finding the war. The man does die though, the final shot was delivered by another soldier. This was especially strange to me, as Frederic then becomes a deserter himself.
I loved the part where Frederic narrowly escapes execution after witnessing the mock trials of the officers before him, when he jumps into the icy river, I found that to be the second most tense scene of the book. Then he deserts, and finds Catherine again.
Section 4 was the best, and shortest section. WhenFrederic and a heavily pregnant Catherine escape to Switzerland across the lake I loved the dialogue and hope they had. Every scene after this was very well written. The ending is devastating, after enjoying winter in Switzerland, their son is stillborn by Caesarian, and Catherine dies of haemorrhaging shortly after. As with the scene where he shoots a man, I had very conflicted feelings about how he didn’t love his son, even for a single second. The ending Hemingway chose felt like a natural conclusion, even though it was incredibly sad .
I enjoyed this book, but I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone, especially not as a light read. I would recommend it if you are interested in war novels, or Hemingway, or Italy, and are aware that it is a slow burn of a book.
The scenes with Catherine and Frederic, and their dialogues are very enjoyable. The war stuff was slightly dull at times, but I appreciate Hemingway’s bleak description of the impersonal WW1 warfare. The prose is quite wooden, and difficult to follow at times, which is probably why it took me so long to get through it. The romance between Catherine and Frederic is nice, but the book mostly focuses on narration of events rather than characters thoughts and feelings, which hurts the book’s emotional aspects, which have the potential to be more powerful.
I also found the love interest, Catherine Barkley, to be a little flat in terms of emotions, I won’t say Hemingway can’t write women, however she was the most prominent female character by far, and there were no women in The Old Man and The Sea, the only other Hemingway I’ve read so far.
Section 1 was quite slow, and took me a while to really immerse myself in the book, it gets interesting when
Section 2 has much more romance, as
Section 3 took me the longest.
Section 4 was the best, and shortest section. When
I enjoyed this book, but I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone, especially not as a light read. I would recommend it if you are interested in war novels, or Hemingway, or Italy, and are aware that it is a slow burn of a book.
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
The plot itself was alright, but I found the prose uninteresting. It was a narration of events with barely any insight or exploration into the narrator’s thoughts and feelings, which made it feel shallow to me. It did make me think about war but that was only by virtue of the setting and my own imagination, not because the book was particularly evocative. I felt slightly sympathetic towards the characters but again, that was because of my own compassion, not because the author made me care about them. Henry and Catherine’s conversations were mind numbingly mundane and I struggled to believe they actually liked each other until the last 30 pages.
Overall not my thing, but I don’t regret reading it. Rest in peace, Hemingway, but we could have done without this book.
Overall not my thing, but I don’t regret reading it. Rest in peace, Hemingway, but we could have done without this book.
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
Ik ben de laatste tijd bezig met een omnibus van Edgar Allan Poe te lezen, maar zo'n 19 kortverhalen achter elkaar.. Het is een tikkeltje teveel. Vandaar dat ik er eens even een ander boek heb tussen gelezen. De oplettende lezer heeft ondertussen al beseft welk boek dat was en ik moet zeggen dat ik eigenlijk erg benieuwd was naar deze A Farewell to Arms. Hemingway behoort sowieso al tot één van mijn favoriete schrijvers en dit scheen één van zijn beste te zijn.
Al vind ik A Moveable Feast nog net iets beter, maar het mag duidelijk zijn dat A Farewell to Arms een erg sterk boek is. Hemingway verdeelt zijn semi-autobiografisch (in de zin dat hij de inspiratie bij zichzelf haalde, hij is effectief ambulancier in Italië tijdens de Eerste Wereldoorlog geweest, maar verzint er flink wat bij) verhaal in 5 'boeken' waarvan enkel het derde wat slepend aanvoelt. Het is vooral Hemingway's afstandelijke stijl die gecombineerd wordt met een liefdesverhaal dat erg goed blijkt te werken. Het derde boek is dan ook het enige deel waar de geliefden uit elkaar zijn en dat voel je. Wat daarna volgt is Hemingway op zijn best. De liefde tussen Henry en Cat is voelbaar in elke zin en alles is rozengeur en manenschijn waarna Hemingway je een serieuze schop in de maag geeft met het laatste hoofdstuk. De dood van zijn zoon, Catherine die sterft (wat nog eens sterk wordt weergegeven door Henry's gedachtegang) en Henry die eenzaam door de regen terug naar het hotel slentert. Schrijnend en toch o zo mooi.
Wie dit boek nog niet heeft gelezen kan het beste de film Silver Linings Playbook mijden aangezien daar een serieuze spoiler inzit, maar je doet er sowieso goed aan om A Farewell to Arms zo snel mogelijk te lezen. Er schijnt een speciale editie te bestaan met onder andere alternatieve eindes dus naar goede gewoonte (ik deed het ook met A Moveable Feast) daar eens achter gaan.
Al vind ik A Moveable Feast nog net iets beter, maar het mag duidelijk zijn dat A Farewell to Arms een erg sterk boek is. Hemingway verdeelt zijn semi-autobiografisch (in de zin dat hij de inspiratie bij zichzelf haalde, hij is effectief ambulancier in Italië tijdens de Eerste Wereldoorlog geweest, maar verzint er flink wat bij) verhaal in 5 'boeken' waarvan enkel het derde wat slepend aanvoelt. Het is vooral Hemingway's afstandelijke stijl die gecombineerd wordt met een liefdesverhaal dat erg goed blijkt te werken. Het derde boek is dan ook het enige deel waar de geliefden uit elkaar zijn en dat voel je. Wat daarna volgt is Hemingway op zijn best. De liefde tussen Henry en Cat is voelbaar in elke zin en alles is rozengeur en manenschijn waarna Hemingway je een serieuze schop in de maag geeft met het laatste hoofdstuk. De dood van zijn zoon, Catherine die sterft (wat nog eens sterk wordt weergegeven door Henry's gedachtegang) en Henry die eenzaam door de regen terug naar het hotel slentert. Schrijnend en toch o zo mooi.
Wie dit boek nog niet heeft gelezen kan het beste de film Silver Linings Playbook mijden aangezien daar een serieuze spoiler inzit, maar je doet er sowieso goed aan om A Farewell to Arms zo snel mogelijk te lezen. Er schijnt een speciale editie te bestaan met onder andere alternatieve eindes dus naar goede gewoonte (ik deed het ook met A Moveable Feast) daar eens achter gaan.
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
slow-paced