A Farewell to Arms

[frameofmind6]

I just finished reading A Farewell to Arms -- pretty proud of myself for that one (*grin*). I've been meaning to read it for years (along with about five hundred other books I "really should read someday"), but I finally managed to actually buckle down and finish it this time. I've never been a fan of Hemingway (based on a few short stories of his I've read), but I wanted to give him a fair shot and make it through one of his novels at least once -- still can't say I'm a fan, but I've at least come to appreciate his work more than I did before. I think the stark, dry, dispassionate style just doesn't appeal to me -- I like character-driven stories, and I never really felt very close to these characters at all. They were like paper dolls most of the time, with brief, occasional glimpses of emotion and intellectual insight. There is something to be said for not being overly emotional or sentimental (and I do hate hollow sentiment taken to the extreme -- I have a lifelong vendetta against Nicholas Sparks for just that reason... *grin*), and for trusting the reader to be able to pick up on your meaning and inflections without having to spell them all out -- but the fact is that the general lack of indication of any inflection made the whole thing sound rather flat to me most of the time, and the notable lack of things like dialogue tags in extended conversations was downright annoying. At first I would back up and count lines to try to figure out who was saying what, but eventually I gave up on that after I realized it didn't really matter who was saying what because most of what they were saying wasn't very interesting anyway (lol. Don't mean that as a dig, really -- there was just a lot of very inconsequential conversation throughout the book). Several times I found myself thinking that if I had come across this book in the slush pile at the literary agency, I probably would have tossed it in the bin without much thought. Is that awful? I think the thing is just that this short, straightforward style he's so well-known for must have been a more of a novel concept back when he was first writing, as a contrast to the more verbose and florid writing of the Belle Epoque and beyond. In the era of 140 characters or less, short, bland straightforward (albeit complete) sentences are nothing new. But I can see (having made a stab at the first few pages of A Tale of Two Cities -- haven't gotten back to that one yet) where Hemingway's bullshit-free style would have been very refreshing to an early Twentieth Century audience, and I can definitely appreciate it from that standpoint. After all, if he hadn't done what he did, then the kind of writing I really enjoy most might never have developed in the way that it did.

Overall, it had some really great moments, and there are some things I can take away from it in terms of the inclusion of extensive physical detail, and resisting over-explanation. And I'm glad I read it. But I'm even more glad that I get to read something else now (*grin*).

Next on my list is Hemingway's Chair -- Michael Palin's novel about a man who's obsessed with Hemingway. That's why I was in such a hurry to finish the other one -- figured I should have at least a little more background on the Papa's work before I dig in...

Comments

[knittingknots.livejournal.com]

I like For Whom the Bell Tolls better than Farewell to Arms, myself...

I liked it cause he pulled me in quite quickly and I could see what he said...It may be my favorite of his novels.

(And I read it for fun, not school. Amazing how many of these books I read just for the heck of it.)

[frameofmind6.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've realized they really didn't make us read enough classics in school (and I somehow avoided most of the ones my classmates read in high school, because I chose more interesting lit classes over the standard grade-level ones... *grin*), so I'm trying to make up for that on my own now. It's more fun without all the busywork attached anyway.

Interesting -- might have to try that one. Even though I wasn't completely crazy about Farewell to Arms, I did enjoy it more than I expected, and I was thinking I might try another one of his books someday. Need a break first though... ;)