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a Hemingway masterpiece
“A Farewell to Arms is one of Hemingway's masterpieces.The story focuses on the love affair between anAmerican medic and a British nurse during the Italian campaign in WWI. Hemingway was a medic inItaly whose first love was with the nurse who was assigned to him. It is replayed in the Jake Barnes- Britt Ashley relationship in The Sun Also Rises and is at the center of this novel with the Fred Henry and Catherine Barkley relationship.This relationship is compelling and one cares about both people though one senses that it will not turn out well in the end, The military aspects especially the Italian retreat from Caporetto are also realistic and well done and I confess that Ilike Hemingways terse laconic style and his tough dialogue so that is also a major plus.Irecommend this novel highly. Hemingway was no pacifist but the novel shows the folly of WWI a war that could have been avoided with some intelligent diplomacy and leadership among the heads of nations who started the conflict”
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-10-13. -
1 of 1 members found this review helpful.
Not Hemingway's best novel but some strong writing:
“This was a difficult read for me. I felt no continuous connection with the hero - I barely want to call him by his name, Frederic Henry, because he barely seems to HAVE a name. As for the heroine, Catherine Barclay, well. I felt that I knew her better, but technically, if she called him 'darling' one more time... I wanted to go back in time as Maxwell Perkins and edit out all the 'darlings'.
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-10-06.
There are passages in the book; observations, that have such strength and beauty -- I'm thinking of the opening, where the description of soldiers' feet marching by the house brings in a sense of foreboding. When the hero is wounded and carried to safety; his ride in the ambulance - these scenes are brilliantly alive, and real.
SPOILER ALERT: SPOILER ALERT:
I didn't think Catherine's deathbed scene had any great pathos. It could have been shortened, I think to greater effect. What she says seems most unrealistic. I've been through childbirth, not to the point of being in extremis, but I don't think a woman who's just been through hell to give birth and is now dying from hemorrhage would say, "you won't do our things with another girl, will you". That's a guy-thought. Although when he says, "it was like saying goodbye to a statue", after her death, that rang true.
:END OF SPOILER
Catherine and Frederic don't live for me. It's not that they are frequently unhappy, discouraged, emotionally wounded characters. To me they remained the author's fictional creations, they don't linger in the reader's memory, with their moments all alive. I just don't know how to express it. Yet in a completely opposite direction, the brief appearance of the aged Count (I think he was), the 93-year-old aristocrat, in the scene with the hero where they play billiards together -- HE was a living character - a fully realized person, even so briefly. This character didn't remain a fictional creation.
In sum, although I admired some sections individually, I can't say I admired the work as a whole. My advice is that it's not the Hemingway to start with - examine his short stories, or The Sun Also Rises, first. ” -
0 of 2 members found this review helpful.
Why Even Bother With This?
“I don't even care to describe the plot. The prose is flat and toneless and emotionless and totally devoid of any passion. It's as if Hemingway didn't even care when he wrote it. He has one of the worst narrative voices I have ever discovered in a writer. Here's an example of what a typical chapter is like:
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-09-22.
"I went to the road. The road was wide, very wide. I looked up the road and saw [here is inserted a dull dull dull page-long description of the Austrian strategy for victory, and the Austrian battle lines, and the geography of the ambulance route]. Then I went home and drank beer [here is inserted a ten-page-long conversation between Lt. Henry and other drunk characters who make fun of the resident priest, lambast religion, talk about the hopelessness of the war and make crude jokes]. Then I went to sleep."
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.
My only consolation is that when I begin my career as a novelist, I will know that I have written books far better, far more entertaining and with far more depth than this so-called literary giant ever scribbled. The only thing "giant" about him is the number of trees that have been cut down to print his worthless books. ” -
0 of 1 members found this review helpful.
A Farewell to Summer Reading
“I odered this book for my son's summer reading assignment for school. IT arrived in plenty of time and in exactly the condition that the seller stated. It even had some notes in it to help my son with his studies. Of course, he waited until the last minute to do his reading, but that is HIS fault!”
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-08-28. -
0 of 1 members found this review helpful.
conveys love like a paper cut-out
“I can not understand how this has made it to so many top book lists. It was like reading catch 22 without the catch. I had the constant urge to skim the pages and be confident that I would not miss out on any important dialogue that would not be repeated again on another page or not be repeated on another page again. The love story conveyed love as well as a paper cut out conveys the moon.”
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-07-21.
