A Farewell to Arms

Dry. Try munching on kitty litter, and you'll understand how dry the book is. I did not enjoy this book at all. A Farewell to Arms held my interest at moments, of course, and each sentence had weight, but it was weight that became heavy and burdensome to read. Each sentence was so incredibly blunt, short, colorless, and often times redundant, that at one point, I gave up. Yes. Literally, I gave up on Earnest Hemmingway; I put the book down by my bed and did not want to touch it again. I decided to re-read it, and finish it. Every. Short. Worded. Sentence. Of. The f***ing way. Only to realize somewhere around page 290, the best way to go about the book was to spend the entire day drinking heavily, and then read it aloud to myself in the middle of the night, hammered drunk. The book is a romance, written during Hemminway's earlier years as a writer. The story takes place in Italy during World War I. The main character is Lieutenant Henry, an American, serving in the Italian Army (extremely odd). Henry is some sort of medic, who doesn't really do any medical work, but instead drinks excessively and travels around Italy. Eventually he meets an English nurse, falls in love, and the next 200 pages revolve around their relationship. Henry deserts the Italians to run off with this chick and the story ends shortly after. The ending is pretty good, very similar to the ending of The Old Man and the Sea, except with the English nurse being the giant fish... not to say she is a giant fish. Did I enjoy this book, you ask? No. Would I recommend this book, you ask? No. Could I have gone my entire life without reading this book, you ask? Yes. I will give it some credit, since it is definitely a romance novel written from a masculine perspective; a romance novel written for men.

Read the book at 13. Got me hooked to Hemingway's work and to reading in general. I enjoyed the writing style, and the way the surroundings were described flawlessly into the story. For that exact reason it was not a "chore" to read, it was a pleasure. A little sad at the end, but its what makes the book.

A great great novel. War, love, romanticism this novel will leave the reader satisfied.