A Farewell To Arms | Ernest Hemingway

A Farewell To Arms | Ernest Hemingway | A Bit Streaky But Good Overall

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A Farewell To Arms

	A Farewell To Arms Ernest Hemingway Scribner, 1995 - 336 pages average customer review:based on 379 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Anti-Anti-War Novel

Every once in a while you read a novel so supreme in the handling of its subject, that you can only read in awe as it unfolds. This is an anti-war book unlike any anti-war book I've ever read. This is because it's not even really about war, it's about a love affair between a soldier and a nurse. And as the book proceeds the reader will shown that even the subject of the book is not what it appears, there is something deeper still. Truly remarkable and an absolute must read.

A Bit Streaky But Good Overall

I remembered enjoying this book in high school, and since Hemingway has such a reputation for writing fine prose in short declarative sentences, I thought I'd give this one another go. To be honest, though, the first quarter of the book felt a little choppy and rushed to me - not nearly as clear and concise as I had expected coming into it. Not only that, but the characters didn't seem to differentiate themselves in my mind at first. It took a little while to get used to reading the prose, and I wasn't sure how convinced I was by Catherine and Frederic's initial exchanges and attraction to each other.

But once I found my stride I enjoyed the most of the story, especially as the war began to take its emotional toll and Henry and Catherine's relationship deepened and felt more believable. I do think Catherine Barkely serves as a good example of why Hemingway has been criticized for writing stereotypical women characters, but I still felt there was at least a bit of depth and some hints of conflict lurking beneath Catherine's blissful surrender to domesticity. In general it was also interesting just to see such a detailed account of what day-to-day life might have been like in Europe during WWI. Ultimately I thought the writing had a pleasantly distinctive feel to it - kind of dreamy and sad - and as I read the effect kept building until the end of the book hit me emotionally, which I wasn't necessarily expecting. Overall I'd recommend this one to anyone who's interested in trying out Hemingway.

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LOVE AND WAR

I have spent a political lifetime arguing that the nature of modern society has turned on the dramatic and deadly events that became what we know in history as World War I. A Farewell to Arms is Ernest Hemingway's attempt to come to grips with that notion in novelistic form. He combines the two themes that he is noted for and accomplished at writing about - love and war- and demonstrates how hard that combination is on the love side of the equation. Here we find the first flourishes of that angst, desperation and sense of futility in the persons of the main characters, a young fancy-free American officer and a British nurse who had recently lost her fiancé in battle, that would characterize the survivors of the war- the `lost generation'.

When I reviewed Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises I argued that Scott Fitzgerald had the truer ear for the pathos of the `lost generation' after the war. I also noted that Hemingway had a much better ear and style for the love and war combination. Here Hemingway clearly wins. Maybe it is the trauma of war that makes his sparseness of language and stripped emotion work. Maybe it is his eternal quest for honor and the other attributes of machismo closely associated with the war experience. Maybe it is because he could just flat-out write a hell of a war story. But, damn, you had better read this novel if you want to know what writing is all about.

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One of Hemmingway's best

This is one of the better classical literature books I have read. I enjoyed it more because of my interest in the World Wars. Hemmingway writes about his experiences in Italy towards the end of the war showing what the war was like from the American prospective before we entered officially. It is well written and the story flows from page to page. Well worth the read.

My book

This book is ok. It is very slow and dosen't get supenseful until the end.It is mostly about how a soldier falls in love with a nurse. But get seperated when he has to go back to the front line after an injury.When they get back together she goes into labor and dies after having the baby.

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