Book Review: A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

Reading Hemingway is simultaneously comfortable and exhausting. His stripped-back writing style is very easy to read, but he leaves room for so much interpretation, that I found myself re-reading nearly every sentence (at least of dialogue) in case I missed the nuance the first time. Hemingway certainly isn’t for everyone, with his abandonment of commas and of descriptions of mannerisms. In any other writer, this style would repel me, but Hemingway does it so deliberately and intentionally, it draws me in. 

I will admit that I let him get away with objectively bad writing because he’s Hemingway. Some sentences were too staccato, mainly when he described places and generic, everyday actions like “I went here. I stopped there,” etc. (Not a direct quote.) But I loved the sparsely-written dialogue, the casually philosophical moments, and the main action sequences. This passage in the scene where Frederic was wounded always compels me:

“Through the other noise I heard a cough, then came the chuh-chuh-chuh-chuh–then there was a flash, as when a blast-furnace door is swung open, and a roar that started white and went read and on and on in a rushing wind. I tried to breathe but my breath would not come and I felt myself rush bodily out of myself and out and out and out and all the time bodily in the wind. I went out swiftly, all of myself, and I knew I was dead and that it had all been a mistake to think you just died. Then I floated, and instead of going on I felt myself slide back. I breathed and I was back.” 

The parts I loved far outweighed the moments that made me pause and contemplate whether I was giving Hemingway too much leeway.

This is my second time reading A Farewell to Arms, and I was able to connect to the characters quicker the second time around. Frederic’s character was a lot clearer to me than Catherine’s—just like last time, but I absolutely fell in love with Frederic this time, and I learned to appreciate Catherine’s genial nature. I didn’t have a problem understanding any of the other characters. All of the other characters were well-drawn, even the ones that didn’t have a lot of page-time. I don’t know if that is indicative of Hemingway’s ability to write women, or if I simply did not connect to Catherine. I do think Catherine’s character blooms a bit more after a second reading. My edition includes scenes Hemingway edited out, and reading the parts where Catherine and Frederic meet at the hospital in Milan helped as well.

Hemingway’s writing is suited for humor; irony and sarcasm simply thrives under Hemingway’s writing style. This is what upgrades the book. I adore Hemingway’s sense of humor, and it is so understated in the novel, just like his writing. Hands down my favorite part of the book. 

And yes, I cried at the end.