WRITER.

Rating: 5 out of 10 stars

304 pages

Classics, Historical Fiction

Spoiler-Free section

I read this book for my Literary Classics book club, and I didn’t have high expectations going in. I’ve never particularly enjoyed any writing by Hemingway, the king of booze and disillusionment. Knowing him, I’m just surprised he didn’t sneak a bullfight in there.

Hemingway had this theory of writing being like an iceberg. Only a small part of the story was above water, explicit, while the rest was beneath the surface, implicit. While I appreciate the writing metaphor and I do think it applies to good storytelling, I did not feel like A Farewell to Arms had much hidden depth.

While it was true that Hemingway used a minimalist style, I found much of the dialogue to be superfluous, bland, and shallow. Filled with all the “do you love me” and “darling,” whole conversations felt trite. Perhaps they were realistic – often people talk aimlessly and repetitively. But that’s the beauty of fiction: It doesn’t have to follow boring aspects of life to a tee.

Most of the vocabulary – with the exception of a handful of Italian words – was at a low level, and he uses the word “very” a lot. Not only that, but some of his sentences are practically a paragraph long, a lengthy stream of “ands.” Basically, he broke a plethora of the rules writers used today to judge good writing. If he tried to publish this book today, I don’t believe any publisher would accept it.

Anyway, the story follows Lieutenant Frederic Henry, an American ambulance driver serving in the Italian army. This book is both a war story and a romance. He falls for Catherine Barkley, an English nurse.

In the beginning, he shares a room with Lieutenant Rinaldi, who is my favorite character in the whole book. He is a source of humor in the novel, frequently teasing Henry. He always calls him baby and hints at Henry being homosexual because of his close relationship with a priest.

Disillusionment is one of the strongest themes of the novel. Early on in the book, Henry says he does not love God but sometimes fears him. I understand that. I don’t believe in God, but when I think back on the mistakes of my past, I fear punishment. At least on my worst days. Henry also tells the priest he has never loved, and the priest says someday he will.

Catherine is equally agnostic/atheist. She gives a St. Anthony medal to Henry for protection, but doesn’t truly believe in its effects.

“You’re my religion. You’re all I’ve got.”

Catherine to Henry

There is also some humor in the novel, such as when Catherine tells Henry he has “a lovely temperature” and Henry replies that maybe their kids will have lovely temperatures too.

Spoiler time!

The random cruelty of the universe is evidenced by the bomb that hits near Henry while he is eating cheese with macaroni. He gets shrapnel in his leg and has to go to the hospital, where luckily Catherine cares for him. One doctor tells him to wait six months for surgery, but he wants it done right away so he gets a second opinion. If I were him, I wouldn’t be so eager to go back to the war. He gets time after his surgery to heal before being sent back to the front. During his convalescence, he spends lots of time with Catherine in their vapid romance, and Catherine becomes pregnant. There’s a lot of back and forth about marriage, but ultimately nothing comes with it because they mostly already consider themselves married.

After he goes back to the war zone, things get out of control when they are told to retreat. He is pegged for his American accent and almost executed possibly due to that but also possibly for being in an lieutenant’s uniform without being with his troops. He escapes in the river and never comes back to the military. Honestly, I don’t blame him. They were going to kill him for things he couldn’t control.

The ending is far too predictable. Partly because it’s a classic and partly because it is Hemingway, I was fully expecting Catherine and the baby to die. It’s like Hemingway wants to get one last sucker punch in, but the real twist is that we see it coming from a mile away. Hemingway apparently rewrote this ending 39 times.

Fortieth time’s a charm, I suppose.

Feel free to comment with your opinions and thoughts on this timeworn classic!