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em_wemily 's review for:
For Whom the Bell Tolls
by Ernest Hemingway
1.5
This is one of my least favorite books I've read so far this year.
For a war novel, this was one of the slowest, most terribly boring books I've ever read in this genre and certainly the most boring out of war-related fiction. It's actually impressive how boring this was, given that there were interesting parts of the plot. I attribute most of this lackluster experience to the combined facts that the prose was awkward, the nonessential details lengthy, and the thought-tangents criminally long. More details below:
What I liked:
1. Pilar - she was the most interesting character in the book, though as with the rest of the characters, I wish I had gotten to know them more through their actions and dialogue relevant to the present-day plot line, rather than their stories from memory. She seemed to be a FOIL character for Maria, who was as dependent as Pilar was independent.
2. The story's potential - Beneath all the verbiage, this was a decent story. It was apparent from the book's atmosphere that this was not going to have a triumphant end, so I had my expectations nice and low for a 'happily ever after.'
What I didn't like:
1. Awkward writing - No contractions were used, ever. It made the writing, especially the dialogue feel strangely formal and forced, as though I were watching this story unfold in an old-time theater. Additionally, I read a few explanations for why Hemingway used the old English 'thee' and 'thy' forms. It didn't take away from the strangeness of the words (given that this story didn't take place during a time when English-speaking people were actually using those words).
2. Incessant Spanish phrases/words - It was made clear from the beginning that the characters were in Spain, speaking Spanish. I don't know why Hemingway felt the need to continuously include Spanish phrases and words (sometimes providing definitions, sometimes providing partial definitions, and sometimes providing no definition at all). It didn't take away from my understanding of the story at any point (I can read/speak a little Spanish), but I found it was another thing that made the writing in this book unnecessarily clunky.
3. Drawn-out plot - As I already mentioned, this book could have been much shorter. There were so many things in here that just weren't necessary to the main plot at hand. Hemingway took a story that could have easily been 100-150 pages and stretched it out so thin that it was practically translucent.
4. Self-indulgent musings - There were plenty of sections in this book that read like journal entries, basically pages and pages of internal thought-monologue. I just don't find that interesting, especially when the information being presented has little to no impact on the plot as a whole. One paragraph is more than sufficient for me to understand what I need to know about a character's internal workings, especially ones that might inform their actions/words later on. 8+ pages is overkill!
5. Trips down memory lane - There was more than one chapter in here which were essentially trips down memory lane, from Pilar's experience with Pablo when they slaughtered a town full of Fascists, to Robert Jordan's memories of the hotel he wants to take Maria to. They were detailed, vibrant explanations of what those memories were like, but... I was never given a reason to care. So, they just became giant info dumps that I had to trudge through, since I was never given a reason to want to hear in detail about those particular memories. That was a constantly recurring issue with this book; I wanted to hear about the main plot, which was the plan to blow up the bridge, but Hemingway kept jerking me down subplots that seemingly just didn't matter to the big-picture story.
6. Juxtaposed Perspective Shifts - There was one scene in particular (around page 194) that was a good example of this, when Anselmo faced Fascist soldiers. This also appeared when Sordo died on the hill. Basically, I usually expect to hear the story from the perspective of one central character. That character might change between chapters or between two very different scenes. That character might also change, following a section of writing that one specific character's perspective isn't necessary for (like description of the setting). But in the above mentioned sections, Hemingway immediately switched between one character's POV and another character's POV with no separation. I can't say it was impossible to follow, but it was definitely a speed bump upon the road of reading this - something that pulled me out full immersion in the story.
Ex: In the Anselmo scene, Hemingway jumped from:
- Anselmo's POV to...
- soldier's POV to...
- Anselmo again...
- to the 3rd P narrator's opinion about Anselmo...
- back to Anselmo's POV
(all the above occurred within a 2-page window)
By Chapter 30, I was not even interested in what was going to happen anymore. I had given up most of my curiosity about the bridge. I even admit that for the final chapter, I looked up a summary of the plot and skimmed through. For all the potential this book had, it ultimately fell flat for me. I am so grateful that no one ever assigned this to me in school.
This is one of my least favorite books I've read so far this year.
For a war novel, this was one of the slowest, most terribly boring books I've ever read in this genre and certainly the most boring out of war-related fiction. It's actually impressive how boring this was, given that there were interesting parts of the plot. I attribute most of this lackluster experience to the combined facts that the prose was awkward, the nonessential details lengthy, and the thought-tangents criminally long. More details below:
What I liked:
1. Pilar - she was the most interesting character in the book, though as with the rest of the characters, I wish I had gotten to know them more through their actions and dialogue relevant to the present-day plot line, rather than their stories from memory. She seemed to be a FOIL character for Maria, who was as dependent as Pilar was independent.
2. The story's potential - Beneath all the verbiage, this was a decent story. It was apparent from the book's atmosphere that this was not going to have a triumphant end, so I had my expectations nice and low for a 'happily ever after.'
What I didn't like:
1. Awkward writing - No contractions were used, ever. It made the writing, especially the dialogue feel strangely formal and forced, as though I were watching this story unfold in an old-time theater. Additionally, I read a few explanations for why Hemingway used the old English 'thee' and 'thy' forms. It didn't take away from the strangeness of the words (given that this story didn't take place during a time when English-speaking people were actually using those words).
2. Incessant Spanish phrases/words - It was made clear from the beginning that the characters were in Spain, speaking Spanish. I don't know why Hemingway felt the need to continuously include Spanish phrases and words (sometimes providing definitions, sometimes providing partial definitions, and sometimes providing no definition at all). It didn't take away from my understanding of the story at any point (I can read/speak a little Spanish), but I found it was another thing that made the writing in this book unnecessarily clunky.
3. Drawn-out plot - As I already mentioned, this book could have been much shorter. There were so many things in here that just weren't necessary to the main plot at hand. Hemingway took a story that could have easily been 100-150 pages and stretched it out so thin that it was practically translucent.
4. Self-indulgent musings - There were plenty of sections in this book that read like journal entries, basically pages and pages of internal thought-monologue. I just don't find that interesting, especially when the information being presented has little to no impact on the plot as a whole. One paragraph is more than sufficient for me to understand what I need to know about a character's internal workings, especially ones that might inform their actions/words later on. 8+ pages is overkill!
5. Trips down memory lane - There was more than one chapter in here which were essentially trips down memory lane, from Pilar's experience with Pablo when they slaughtered a town full of Fascists, to Robert Jordan's memories of the hotel he wants to take Maria to. They were detailed, vibrant explanations of what those memories were like, but... I was never given a reason to care. So, they just became giant info dumps that I had to trudge through, since I was never given a reason to want to hear in detail about those particular memories. That was a constantly recurring issue with this book; I wanted to hear about the main plot, which was the plan to blow up the bridge, but Hemingway kept jerking me down subplots that seemingly just didn't matter to the big-picture story.
6. Juxtaposed Perspective Shifts - There was one scene in particular (around page 194) that was a good example of this, when Anselmo faced Fascist soldiers. This also appeared when Sordo died on the hill. Basically, I usually expect to hear the story from the perspective of one central character. That character might change between chapters or between two very different scenes. That character might also change, following a section of writing that one specific character's perspective isn't necessary for (like description of the setting). But in the above mentioned sections, Hemingway immediately switched between one character's POV and another character's POV with no separation. I can't say it was impossible to follow, but it was definitely a speed bump upon the road of reading this - something that pulled me out full immersion in the story.
Ex: In the Anselmo scene, Hemingway jumped from:
- Anselmo's POV to...
- soldier's POV to...
- Anselmo again...
- to the 3rd P narrator's opinion about Anselmo...
- back to Anselmo's POV
(all the above occurred within a 2-page window)
By Chapter 30, I was not even interested in what was going to happen anymore. I had given up most of my curiosity about the bridge. I even admit that for the final chapter, I looked up a summary of the plot and skimmed through. For all the potential this book had, it ultimately fell flat for me. I am so grateful that no one ever assigned this to me in school.