Ernest Hemingway
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Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Authors, A-Z -> ( H ) -> Hemingway, Ernest -> General
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 379
Average rating: 4.0 of 5
Excellent Despite its Flaws 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
This book is extraordinary for its description of the fog of battle and for its ability to capture the disgust for war that prevailed in the U.S. and in much of Europe after World War I. Most impressive is Hemingway's ability to portray the courage of his protagonists without glorifying war. The decision of the hero, Lt. Henry, a volunteer in the Italian army assigned to ambulance duty, to walk away from the war is symbolic of the choice of an entire generation. And his discovery that this choice hardly ends death and suffering is also powerfully symbolic.
Also impressive is the famous Hemingway style of spare descriptions and terse dialogue. The scenes Hemingway sketches are remarkably vivid. The book is one of his finest.
An important flaw in the novel, however, is the love story that is at its core. This is a glaring flaw and perhaps explains some of the negative reviews. For me, the initial meeting and lovemaking between Lt. Henry and the English nurse, Catherine, is neither compelling nor even credible. The love simply happens, suddenly and inexplicably, like the "zipless f**K" imagined by Erica Jong 50 years later. Falling in love can be inexplicable, but a great writer can convey the matter without the reader having to suspend his disbelief. No one, for instance, questions the love between Daisy and Jay Gatsby in "The Great Gatsby" or even the (albeit frustrated) love between Barnes and Brett in "The Sun Also Rises".
In "A Farewell to Arms", the reader is left to question the sanity of Catherine. Lt. Henry's motivations are less open to question, given male sexuality, though one is left wondering if Catherine is a figment of the male imagination.
In any event, the dialogue and dealings between Catherine and Henry become more believable as time goes by. There is a certain compelling intimacy conveyed between the two as Hemingway sketches their ordinary day-to-day concerns and conversations. And their flight from the war and difficulties experienced thereafter are believable and moving.
Hemingway's ending of the novel is abrupt -- and the better for it. No maudlin dwelling on the tragedy, just a walk back to the hotel in the rain.
Editorial Review:
The best American novel to emerge from World War I, A Farewell to Arms is the unforgettable story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front and his passion for a beautiful English nurse. Hemingway's frank portrayal of the love between Lieutenant Henry and Catherine Barkley, caught in the inexorable sweep of war, glows with an intensity unrivaled in modern literature, while his description of the German attack on Caporetto -- of lines of fired men marching in the rain, hungry, weary, and demoralized -- is one of the greatest moments in literary history. A story of love and pain, of loyalty and desertion, A Farewell to Arms, written when he was 30 years old, represents a new romanticism for Hemingway.
