A Farewell To Arms
by Ernest Hemingway
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Book Reviews of A Farewell To Arms
Book Review: Landmark and breakthrough style!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
A Farewell To Arms
Set in the environment of Word Ward II, this novel, anti-war novel per excellence, conveys the story of love between young lieutenant Frederick Henry and the young English nurse Catherine Barkley and the inexorable happenings thereafter. Henry is an American ambulance driver at the Italian front who gets his legs and head wounded by a trench mortar- and decorated for that- on the Isonze north of Plava, north of Gorizia and is therefore hospitalized in Milan. It is in the latter that the love among the two youngsters starts to develop beautifully until his convalescence leave is over and he has to go back to the front. The story goes on but as many reviewers have already done their job at summarizing this novel I so will only concentrate on Hemingway's writing style.
His writing style is modern and unprecedented, definitely a landmark style where from the first person singular or plural narrations of events and feelings are put into paragraphs and dialogs with concise, short, straight to the point precise sentences, with almost lack of punctuation and not one "surplus" word nor sentence. In addition the use of adjectives and adverbs is therefore minimized. However, Hemingway accomplishes to convey both the uttermost feelings and actions of the protagonists involved and the outstanding descriptions of the sites and happenings related to WWI. In particular, is it a masterwork in itself the description of the happenings surrounding the retreat of the Italian Army due to the German attack on Capporeto with lines of tired men marching in the rain, in utterly disbelief, hungry, demoralized, dispirited, exhausted, weary...
As for Hemingway's anti-war comments, they are all throughout the novel, especially in the dialogs of Lieutenant Henry and his friend Dr. Rinaldi, the priest and his subordinates. Nevertheless there is a paragraph towards the end of the novel that struck me the most- and really got me heartbroken and I will transcribe part of it below:
"Once in a camp I put a log on top of the fire and it was full of ants. As it commenced to burn, the ants swarmed out and went first toward the centre where the fire was; then turned back and ran toward the end. When there were enough on the end they fell off into the fire. Some got out, their buddies burnt and flattened, and went off not knowing were they were going. But most of them went toward the fire and then back toward the end and swarmed on the cool end and finally fell of into the fire..."
The novel is a master piece of work and I certainly look forward to reading more of this Nobel Price winner literature titles... It is well worth the read and definitely a breakthrough in writing style.
Book Review: Why Even Bother With This?
Summary: 1 Stars
*The plot: American Lt. Frederic Henry is stationed in Italy during WWI. He meets a nurse named Catherine and fancies her. He gets her pregnant. He drinks. And drinks. And drinks--a different brand of alcohol on every page. He flees the retaliation of the Italian army after a loss to the Austrians by running to Switzerland. And he drinks. And he drinks. Oh, and he gets injured once and spends many dull afternoons in a hospital. He also has lots of sex with Catherine.
*The prose: flat and toneless and emotionless and totally devoid of any discernible passion for writing. While, unbelievably, many seem to enjoy EH's "flatness", I find his writing and narrative voice to be among the worst I have ever read. A typical chapter might read something like this: "I went to the road. I looked up the road. The road was wide. It was very long. I saw cars and trucks moving up the road and I drank some beer. Then I started walking up the road." So profound, so luminous--how ever did he do it?
*The dialogue: Through the spoken word we learn about a character's nature and thoughts--right? RIGHT? Nope, at least not in EH's world. This literary titan has decided that dialogue needs to be an endless series of meaningless exchanges meant to give the impression of depth while not actually having it. Lt. Henry and Catherine are rendered almost childishly in dialogue. Here's an example:
"I wanted to kiss her.
'No,' she said.
'Kiss me.'
'No, I'm tired.'
'Kiss me.'
'Okay.' We kissed."
Absolutely riveting. Hold the show, folks, we've got a writer in the house that needs an encore.
*The characterization: unbelievable, to the point of the novel becoming an earlier more G-rated version of those movies sold in stores where you have to present ID before approaching the shelf. Catherine becomes a one-dimensional stereotype with her simpering dialogue and need to please Hemingway (I mean, Henry, cough) at every moment. "Can I get you anything? Are you comfortable? I'm awfully stupid. Even though I'm pregnant you should go away on a skiing trip and have time with your friends while I sit here alone." Henry is more unresponsive than a cadaver in an icebox. Even after shooting a man, he has no emotional reaction. His stoicism is supposed to be artful--but actually it's just an excuse for EH to not have any depth to his writing.
Hemingway, in all his glory. I don't care how this man changed English prose or influenced writers or did anything; he was a bipolar nutcase with no talent for writing at all. His only mission in life seemed to be boring generations of helpless students with his mind-numbingly tedious stories. His works are NOT literature; they are nothing but firewood with ink on them.
Book Review: Addresing Some Criticism
Summary: 5 Stars
It seemed that most people enjoyed this book, but several people had complaints about a thing or two, some justified, others? Well...Justified Complaints:
1) Stilted Dialouge
2) Not Much Else
Somewhat Justified
1) Lack of Plot
Unjustified:
1) Simplistic Sentence Structure
2) Lack of Characterization
-- Now, the three complaints I'm going to address all can be answered by a two word phrase "ICEBURG EFFECT" Now, for those of you who already know of the Iceburg effect, you might want to skip the next couple of sentences. THe Iceburg effect, plainly put, is only showing 11 percent of whats there, the rest being under the surface, this is acheived by simplistic sentence style, and sparse outward clues to motivation. The reason for this effect is to give the reader something to think about, at the same time allowing multiple ways to look at the same thing.
-----Now, on to simplistic sentence style. One woman said that her three year old nephew used bigger words than Hemingway, BUT, look deeper into what her nephew is saying, and you'll probably find something along the lines of (Cricket Chirp). (That is, of course, unless her nephew is a genius of some sort, though judging from her aunt powerful review I don't believe this to be the case)
-----I'm sorry if someone read this in hopes of it being a book review, I'll get to that.
-----This book is probably one of the finest to come out of the First World War, and like many books of the time, (One Example: All Quiet on the Western Front) it carries a strong anti-war message(This may throw off some of those who ardently beieve in fighting for a cause, so I'll defend the pacifistic message by saying "You gotta understand, World War One was actually a bigger cluster (Add certain Word Here) than even the vietnam conflict (Ever notice when America loses its always called a conflict?)).
-----Its the story of Lt. Henry and Nurse Catherine, and argueably the best American love story ever written. (Second would probably be Lolita). As I said before, this novel works best under the surface, so thinking over what you've read and what certain things mean is quite rewarding. But if you're not into that and you don't think that using nickel words is a sign of stupidity, I still (reservedly) recommend this book because this, like several other Hemingways, works on the most basic level also.
Book Review: Great war story, mediocre love story
Summary: 4 Stars
Both a love story and a war story, Hemingway manages to mesh the two opposing ideals in a powerful novel. The protagonist, Henry, is surely no hero. His existentialist outlook on life and his rejection of ideals of honor and glory contrast sharply with a typical romanticized war hero. Heny is neither an eternal optimist nor pessimist, yet his stark, realistic outlook on love and war are both refreshing, as well as depressing. In the end, it seems, the world will either break you or kill you, be it in love or war. There is no happy ending in life, for life is just a sequence of events, seemingly without rhyme or reason.
Hemingway uses a direct, no-nonsense approach in his writing. There is neither flowery prose nor endless paragraphs of illustrative descriptions. Hemingway's words are power-packed and provide the most poignant imagery in the least amount of words. From his almost journalistic account of his lover's last breath, to his detached depiction of a land ravaged by war, Hemingway does not mince words. It is his direct style that is, perhaps, his greatest asset, and that which has gained him fame.
This novel is at its best in the war chapters, especially in detailing the Italian retreat from the Austrian border. In these chapters, Hemingway masterfully describes the ravages of war in simple, yet powerful, words. The grim reality of war, devoid of any grandiose ideals, permeates into the soul of the reader. There may be a worthwhile cause to war at times, but certainly not in this war, and certainly not for the lives lost.
The weak point of the novel, though, would be the depiction of his relationship with his lover, Catherine. Although she does convey some feelings of hopelessness and despair for the war, she is overly melodramatic toward Henry. Her self-deprecating manner and vapid comments prove to be a distraction. In contrast with the chapters focused on the war, the love story is slow-moving and tedious. Fortunately, the war chapters are intermixed with the love story. But then again, I shouldn't fault Hemingway for not portraying their relationship as compelling as the drama of the war.
The bottom line: if you are looking for a gripping World War I novel, choose "All Quiet on the Western Front," for Remarque's work is superior to Hemingway in describing the horrors and meaningless of this war. However, if you are looking for a war novel plus a love story, then you can't go wrong with "A Farewell to Arms."
Book Review: a beautiful story of love and war among the inarticulate:
Summary: 5 Stars
I liked this book much more than I'd expected to. The prose was quite familiar, knowing and being somewhat indifferent to some of Hemingway's other work. The difference is with the story itself, one of the historical documentation of World War I and the possible varities of emotional crippling such a wide and vast conflict might inspire.Our main characters, a battle-scarred ambulence corps leiutenant falls in love with a damaged nurse who cares for him both before and after his injury. The romantic scenes are rather sweet, if also ominous in the childish simplicity these two express their innermost feelings to each other. Here is a story less of blissful true love (in itself far too fantastical to occur within the gritty realism of this narrative) and more of co-dependancy, that of two people who genuinely need one another and then seperated by the chance of death of one versus the opportunities for astrangment of the other. Each of these two characters are involved in both of these dialectics, each taking one side versus the other at random times. I was surprised by the force and the power of a story chronicling mostly the 'down times' of men-at-war. The scenes of battle themselves are almost a blur, no doubt rather reprsentitive of the actual confusion among participants in any sort of battle, whether organized offensive or defensive or coming under fire without actual warning. It is a brutal, raw, at times desolating book that dares you to care about these characters and then forces you to endure the ultimate failure of even their most noble of causes. Here is a book that must have made a forceful impact when it was first published, for alongside the man other famous works of fiction dealing with WWI, this one tells a story all the more straight-forward, ignoring much of the political complexities and social disorder of the era and focusing on the effects of this on one man's broken and hopeless heart. It is a thing of beauty, a fine example of a passionate opposition to war from one who has run out of justifications for fighting for human and individual freedom and who is barely able to function outside of another person's order.
Hemingway, never one of my favorite authors, has gone up unquestionably in my estimation and this particular experience will, if not get me to re-read previous books and stories I have read, will certainly inspire me to pick up something else sometime in the relatively nearby future.