A Farewell to Arms
Ernest Hemingway
I have very mixed feelings about this book. I think that I would like to read more Hemingway, though I had to adjust to his very terse style. The plot is where this book really shines, starting slowly and picking up steam until the reader realizes they are in the middle of quite an interesting story, not quite the typical Florence Nightingale effect story. The only complaint I have plot-wise is that the ending is very abrupt. It's just about as abrupt as you can get. You've got the climax and falling action, and then whap! And the book ends. After absorbing the shock, though, I was able to sit and think about it a little bit, realizing that this kind of sudden stop could actually be quite powerful. After all, it perfectly mirrors the emotion it literally conveys.
I feel that a weak point here was the dialogue, which was really contrived and completely unbelievable. It made the characters, especially Ms. Barkley, one-dimensional and flat. The passages that were only prose soared and the insights offered were qutie amusing, Hemingway's wry sense of humor shining through and giving the book itself personality.
All told, the book wasn't at all what I was expecting, which was a hard core war novel along the lines of All Quiet on the Western Front. It is, instead, romantic in more ways than one (though not to be confused with trashy novels- it is never pornographic and at least in my edition all the swear words are blanked out). It engages the reader, though trailing off when the dialogue is prevalent, and overall makes for a good read.
Ernest Hemingway
I have very mixed feelings about this book. I think that I would like to read more Hemingway, though I had to adjust to his very terse style. The plot is where this book really shines, starting slowly and picking up steam until the reader realizes they are in the middle of quite an interesting story, not quite the typical Florence Nightingale effect story. The only complaint I have plot-wise is that the ending is very abrupt. It's just about as abrupt as you can get. You've got the climax and falling action, and then whap! And the book ends. After absorbing the shock, though, I was able to sit and think about it a little bit, realizing that this kind of sudden stop could actually be quite powerful. After all, it perfectly mirrors the emotion it literally conveys.
I feel that a weak point here was the dialogue, which was really contrived and completely unbelievable. It made the characters, especially Ms. Barkley, one-dimensional and flat. The passages that were only prose soared and the insights offered were qutie amusing, Hemingway's wry sense of humor shining through and giving the book itself personality.
All told, the book wasn't at all what I was expecting, which was a hard core war novel along the lines of All Quiet on the Western Front. It is, instead, romantic in more ways than one (though not to be confused with trashy novels- it is never pornographic and at least in my edition all the swear words are blanked out). It engages the reader, though trailing off when the dialogue is prevalent, and overall makes for a good read.
Grade: A-
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