For Whom the Bell Tolls

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For Whom the Bell Tolls begins and ends in a pine-scented forest, somewhere in Spain. The year is 1937 and the Spanish Civil War is in full swing. Robert Jordan, a demolitions expert attached to the International Brigades, lies "flat on the brown, pine-needled floor of the forest, his chin on his folded arms, and high overhead the wind blew in the tops of the pine trees." The sylvan setting, however, is at sharp odds with the reason Jordan is there: he has come to blow up a bridge on behalf of the antifascist guerrilla forces. He hopes he'll be able to rely on their local leader, Pablo, to help carry out the mission, but upon meeting him, Jordan has his doubts: "I don't like that sadness, he thought. That sadness is bad. That's the sadness they get before they quit or before they betray. That is the sadness that comes before the sell-out." For Pablo, it seems, has had enough of the war. He has amassed for himself a small herd of horses and wants only to stay quietly in the hills and attract as little attention as possible. Jordan's arrival--and his mission--have seriously alarmed him.

"I am tired of being hunted. Here we are all right. Now if you blow a bridge here, we will be hunted. If they know we are here and hunt for us with planes, they will find us. If they send Moors to hunt us out, they will find us and we must go. I am tired of all this. You hear?" He turned to Robert Jordan. "What right have you, a foreigner, to come to me and tell me what I must do?"

In one short chapter Hemingway lays out the blueprint for what is to come: Jordan's sense of duty versus Pablo's dangerous self-interest and weariness with the war. Complicating matters even more are two members of the guerrilla leader's small band: his "woman" Pilar, and Maria, a young woman whom Pablo rescued from a Republican prison train. Unlike her man, Pilar is still fiercely devoted to the cause and as Pablo's loyalty wanes, she becomes the moral center of the group. Soon Jordan finds himself caught between the two, even as his own resolve is tested by his growing feelings for Maria.

For Whom the Bell Tolls combines two of the author's recurring obsessions: war and personal honor. The pivotal battle scene involving El Sordo's last stand is a showcase for Hemingway's narrative powers, but the quieter, ongoing conflict within Robert Jordan as he struggles to fulfill his mission perhaps at the cost of his own life is a testament to his creator's psychological acuity. By turns brutal and compassionate, it is arguably Hemingway's most mature work and one of the best war novels of the 20th century. --Alix Wilber

Book Description

In 1937 Ernest Hemingway traveled to Spain to cover the civil war there for the North American Newspaper Alliance. Three years later he completed the greatest novel to emerge from "the good fight," For Whom the Bell Tolls. The story of Robert Jordan, a young American in the International Brigades attached to an antifascist guerilla unit in the mountains of Spain, it tells of loyalty and courage, love and defeat, and the tragic death of an ideal. In his portrayal of Jordan's love for the beautiful Maria and his superb account of El Sordo's last stand, in his brilliant travesty of La Pasionaria and his unwillingness to believe in blind faith, Hemingway surpasses his achievement in The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms to create a work at once rare and beautiful, strong and brutal, compassionate, moving, and wise. "If the function of a writer is to reveal reality," Maxwell Perkins wrote Hemingway after reading the manuscript, "no one ever so completely performed it." Greater in power, broader in scope, and more intensely emotional than any of the author's previous works, it stands as one of the best war novels of all time.

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In 1937 Ernest Hemingway traveled to Spain to cover the civil war there for the North American Newspaper Alliance. Three years later he completed the greatest novel to emerge from "the good fight," For Whom the Bell Tolls. The story of Robert Jordan, a young American in the International Brigades attached to an antifascist guerilla unit in the mountains of Spain, it tells of loyalty and courage, love and defeat, and the tragic death of an ideal. In his portrayal of Jordan's love for the beautiful Maria and his superb account of El Sordo's last stand, in his brilliant travesty of La Pasionaria and his unwillingness to believe in blind faith, Hemingway surpasses his achievement in The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms to create a work at once rare and beautiful, strong and brutal, compassionate, moving and wise. "If the function of a writer is to reveal reality," Maxwell Perkins wrote to Hemingway after reading the manuscript, "no one ever so completely performed it." Greater in power, broader in scope, and more intensely emotional than any of the author's previous works, it stands as one of the best war novels of all time.

Customer Reviews:

A classic - buy it........2007-09-25

I first read this about 40 years ago. I just re-purchased it. This is a classic novel.

Lazy and messy.......2007-09-06

The Spanish Civil War was surely the most brutal and tragic civil war of the twentieth century. It not only pitted Spaniard against Spaniard, but became a kind of bloody curtain-raiser for World War II, with Nazi Germany and Mussolini's Italy lining up on the side of Franco's insurgents and the USSR backing the embattled left-leaning Republic. (The Western democracies - who might have prevented Spain from going fascist - followed a pusillanimous "hands off" policy which only emboldened the insurgents and their supporters.) Into this vortex came many writers and intellectuals. They were to witness brutality, betrayals, great valour, the corruption of ideals, and the consequences of ruthless Realpolitik.

So with all that in mind, here's an interesting question. If you were an author trying to write the great Spanish Civil War novel, would you choose to (1) sequester your handful of characters up in the mountains away from the main action; (2) write 500 pages covering a mere three days during which time nobody has anything to do; and (3) make the central character non-Spanish?

500 pages about three days of waiting is the book's central problem. It turns the novel into the opposite of an epic. To have taken a canvas as sweeping as the three years of the Spanish Civil War and shrink it down to such a compass-point was an unfathomable decision on the author's part. From this self-inflicted literary ambush there is no escape for Hemingway: you either need excellent descriptive prose or superb psychological insight to carve a good story from such crooked timber, for, after all, what else is left to describe in such a situation save inner musings and the outer landscape?

The prose is the next problem. Much has been made of Hemingway's 'deceptively simple' writing style. However, I found it impossible to read "For Whom the Bells Tolls" without forming the impression that that his reputation for putatively well-masked complexity is itself the deception. Consider the following extracts [from the Vintage edition]:

A hole in a hillside is described as:

"both deep and profound"
[p. 444]

Characters exchange such dialogue as:

'Well, then. Oh, then. Oh, then. Oh.'
[p. 166]

'Maria.'
'Yes.'
'Maria.'
'Yes.'
'Maria.'
'Oh, yes. Please.'
[p. 272]

'But use thy head. Thou hast much head. Use it.'
[p. 444]

Which brings us to the Hemingway penchant for meaningless repetition:

"In an impossible situation you hang on until night to get away. You try to last out until night to get back in. You are all right, maybe, if you can stick it out until dark and then get back in."
[p. 174]

"So a woman like that Pilar practically pushed this girl into your sleeping bag and what happens? Yes, what happens? What happens? You tell me what happens, please. That is just what happens. That is exactly what happens."
[p. 175]

Followed by some impressive run-on rants as the author becomes completely carried away describing love scenes (How many women - even in the thirties - were seduced by being repeatedly called 'rabbit'?)

My favourite passage is when one of the characters reveals to Joaquín that la Pasionara has a son in Russia. Instead of naming the character, Hemingway chooses to write the following clanking line:
"'If we insult them a little?' the man who had spoken to Joaquín about la Pasionara's son in Russia asked."
[p. 324]

On and on it goes like this. For three days. In a cave. This book has now gone into the umpteenth printing and neither the spelling nor grammar have been corrected ("... the flakes was dropping diagonally ..." [p. 185]; "... and then brining it down ..." [p. 213]; "... the felling when the Inglés gave the order ..." [p. 380]; at one point André Marty is referred to as "Mary" [p. 437]).

So it needs to be said openly. Hemingway pundits who make excuses for this sort of thing have a lot of explaining to do: otherwise they are obliged to defend similarly poor writing when they find it outside the world of Nobel laureates.

Oh, Buttercup.......2007-08-30

I read this book a couple years ago and loved it. War, adventure, love, it's like The Princess Bride minus lighthearted fairytale-ness. I highly recommend it.

excelsior!.......2007-08-05

must be where Metallica got the song name from. Anyways this is one of but many authors that, like Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain decided to take the easy way out. In the meantime he penned this great literature that is a great book. I don't care what anybody says, the old man and the sea is boring and short and so with that I bid you good day and happy reading!

My first venture into Hemingway.......2007-08-03

This was my first time reading a book by Hemingway, and it was not all I had hoped for. The Spanish Civil War is one of my major interests (it was the subject of my undergraduate research thesis) and so I ordered this book with great anticipation. Unfortunately, I was not completely satisfied.

"For Whom the Bell Tolls" gives a great understanding of the personalities and characters of the Spanish people. It also is balanced in the sense that it shows that atrocities were committed by both sides.

However, my main complaint with the book is that it seems like nothing happens. It is not until probably the last 100 pages or so that action begins to take place. (Granted, there were many instances during the Spanish Civil War where the lines were at a standstill and nothing DID happen, so perhaps in that sense it is quite accurate). But despite how much Hemingway tries to build up to the destruction of the bridge, it's not exciting by the time you actually get to that point.

The other thing that irritated me (and this is just as a Spanish speaker) was that the dialogue is written as though it was literally translated word-for-word from Spanish conversation rather than translated for meaning. For example, the dialogue reads, "That he comes soon," ("que venga pronto") instead of, "I hope he comes soon," or "He better come soon." It just makes the dialogue awkward and unnatural.

Despite my complaints, I will not let this be my only reading of Hemingway and I will try out something else of his in the near future.

Blowing the Bridge: Essays on Hemingway and For Whom the Bell Tolls (Contributions in American Studies)

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Blowing the Bridge: Essays on Hemingway and For Whom the Bell Tolls (Contributions in American Studies)

Manufacturer: Greenwood Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0313284512

Book Description

This collection of recent essays on Hemingway and For Whom the Bell Tolls demonstrates the centrality of this Spanish Civil war novel in the author's life and canon and reestablishes the book's status as an American masterpiece. It provides a long overdue reassessment of the novel, which was an overwhelming critical and popular success in 1940. Following Rena Sanderson's introduction, the volume begins with a reconsideration of Hemingway's career by novelist Kurt Vonnegut. Ten literary essays by both well-known specialists and new voices follow. Employing a diversity of critical methods, including the biographical, historical, political, textual, ethical, feminist, religious, mythic, generic, and post-structuralist, these essays reveal the literary and historical richness of Hemingway's novel. Informed by recent developments in Hemingway scholarship, the chapters add up to a valuable Hemingway resource. The book is an important contribution to Hemingway studies, American literary scholarship, and American studies. It is essential reading for anyone working on For Whom the Bell Tolls.

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Cliffs Notes helpful but does not replace reading the book
A classic, but....

A Farewell to Arms (Cliffs Notes)
Adam Sexton
Manufacturer: Cliffs Notes
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0764586599

Book Description

The original CliffsNotes study guides offer a look into key elements and ideas within classic works of literature. The latest generation of titles in this series also features glossaries and visual elements that complement the familiar format.

CliffsNotes on Farewell to Arms explores a potent and memorable love story set against the historical and geographical background of World War I.

Following the growth of a rakish, indifferent soldier into a mature man capable of real love for the worldly-wise nurse who falls for him, this study guide provides summaries and critical commentaries for each chapter within the intense and descriptive novel. Other features that help you figure out this important work include

Personal background on author Ernest Hemingway, including honors and awards
Introduction to and synopsis of the books
Character analyses of primary figures Frederick Henry and Catherine Barkley
Critical essays on weather symbolism and Hemingway’s influence
Review section that features fill-in-the-blank questions, quoted passages, and suggested essay topics and practice projects
Resource Center with books, articles, video and audio recordings, and Web sites that can help round out your knowledge

Classic literature or modern-day treasure — you'll understand it all with expert information and insight from CliffsNotes study guides.

Customer Reviews:

Cliffs Notes helpful but does not replace reading the book.......2007-02-07

Quick and short synopsis to the book's story. Read the book first and get a friend who has read it or someone with a good argumentative view to bounce the ideas in Cliffs Notes with you.

A classic, but...........2000-04-10

I know this book is a classic, but I did not enjoy it. Though I liked Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea, Farewell to Arms seemed rather boring. It gives a realistic and fairly hopeless view of war, revealing of Hemingway's own experiences. The soldier and the nurse's love affair is also autobiographical, but somehow has an unrealistic quality. Maybe I just don't like the nurse's characther, disregarding her own identity. The action is pretty slow and though the ending is foreshadowed, it felt more like a chopping off of a story than a closing. Overall, some interesting themes and classic messages about human nature, but a slow and terse writing style.

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Perfect visual complement to "The Sun Also Rises"
A Permanent Feast
Informative text with contemporary color photography
Hemingway Resource Center Review
Hemingway's France: Images of the Lost Generation

Hemingway'S France
Winston Conrad
Manufacturer: Duane Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Customer Reviews:

Perfect visual complement to "The Sun Also Rises".......2006-06-26

No writer has done more to further Paris' reputation as an artistic Mecca than Ernest Hemingway. In this wonderful photographic exploration of the mythical city, the reader gets to take a sightseeing trip through the places only previously glimpsed in fiction. The World War II photos are particularly interesting as they exposed me to something I hadn't previously seen -- Hemingway in full army garb.

The author presents an excellent collection of photographs showing France in Hemingway's time and then today. A few modern photographs are contrasted against the past incarnations of the same places. Often the locations retain their quaint picturesque quality. The accompanying text is well written and informative. It does a workable job of presenting Hemingway, Piccasso, and Fitzgerald in the era that the photographs witness.

An interesting tidbit in the text was the fact that American "starving artists" during the Lost Generation years were hardly starving. Because the dollar to franc exchange rate was so advantageous, a full 3 course meal with wine could be had for the equivalent of $.20.

A Permanent Feast.......2003-05-11

Owning this book is like owning a great piece of art, a priceless painting.

This is a book Hemingway would wish he had written himself.

Unlike so many books that have been published about this man in France in this era, this volume is evocative. All of the emotion associated with the people, places and things of that time in that place come through clearly, connecting to reader's hearts.

This book is literature, art. The great painting Conrad has created is one where all the subtle nuances are on the canvas. EH is not allowed to dwarf the other extraordinary characters like Gerald Murphy. Everyone is portrayed evenly. There is a fullness, a deeper appreciation of these people and that time than one finds in other books. The things that are familiar to the reader appear to be new because they are drawn in the actual context in which they originally existed. Conrad has not reconstructed Hemingway's France. He has found it and brought us into it. We are with Hemingway, Gertrude, Pablo et. al.

Hemingway beautifully remembered those people and that time in "A Moveable Feast," a favorite among devotees of Hemingway's work. To say Conrad's treatment is better than Hemingway's is a strong statement to make. It is a true statement.

The photographs are extraordinary but no more extraordinary than the prose that accompanies the pictures. This slim volume is, as said, like a large oil painting accurately depicting the scene, capturing the action and mood, and evoking emotion in those who view the art.

Informative text with contemporary color photography.......2001-02-21

France in the 1920s was home to some of the most groundbreakingly creative artists of the 20th century and included Pablo Picasso, George Braque, James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, Cole Porter, Sergei Diaghilev, Sinclair Lewis, and Ernest Hemingway. Indeed, it was in his major work, The Sun Also Rises, which epitomized Paris during the jazz era and became one of the most powerful forces in this expatriate art colony's vortex of talent and experimentation. In Hemingway's France: Images Of The Lost Generation, Winston Conrad augments his informative text with contemporary color photography and a large collection of vintage black/white photographs to beautifully illuminate Hemingway's life during those "lost generation" years, during World War II, and his subsequent visits to France in the 1950s. Hemingway's France is "must" reading for all Hemingway fans, and for the non-specialist general reader with an interest in the writings, paintings, and poetry created in those turbulent times by the now legendary personalities of yesteryear.

Hemingway Resource Center Review.......2000-09-29

From Hemingway's early romantic days in the Lost Generation Paris of the 1920's, to his swashbuckling exploits in the French countryside and his liberation of the Paris Ritz Hotel during World War II, and to his troubled final years when he returned to Europe and France in a failed search for rejuvenation, it is clear that Hemingway truly loved France.

With "Hemingway's France: Images of the Lost Generation," it is clear that Winston Conrad loves France as well. Conrad traveled extensively in France to gather the material for this book, and his passion for France and Paris (and of course Hemingway) are evident on every page as he attempts to show the reader why this country and city left such a grand impression on the biggest star of 20th century literature.

Conrad writes a clear, thorough biography of Hemingway, with France serving as a common thread throughout, but the feature that makes this book stand out is the great number of rarely seen photos of Hemingway and friends. We see Hemingway demonstrating deep sea fishing gear in the late 1950's, we see him dressed in dapper travel attire as his driver prepares their car, we see him riding on the back of a sidecar motorcycle during World War II, we see him sitting on the windowsill of his Paris apartment in the late 1920's, we see him in a rocking chair with his infant son Bumby...and for the Hemingway fan who has seen it all, these "new" pictures are like seeing an old friend after a long time apart. Not only do we see him, but we are treated to views of Hemingway's France that give a clear and confirming image of all those wonderful settings that we find in Hemingway's books. Conrad, a photographer of obvious talent, shows us Hemingway's haunts as they appear today, and often contrasts his own beautiful color photos with the vintage black and white photos of the same haunts from Hemingway's day; it makes for an effective mix of nostalgia and immediacy.

Conrad divides the book into nine chapters, each focusing on a different part of the French experience that today would be hard to discuss without mentioning Hemingway's name: The Literary Scene in Paris, Cafes, Restaurants and Nightlife, The Artists, Sports, The South of France, World War II, Bullfights, The Feast Moves On. All are well written, but the chapters on Hemingway's early years in Paris and later, his experiences as a combination soldier/journalist during the second World War stand out.

A pleasant surprise comes in Chapter 4 ("The Artists") with the reprints of some of Gerald Murphy's paintings. Murphy, in most Hemingway and Fitzgerald biographies, always serves as a footnoted rich benefactor to the talented writers and painters in 1920's France. But he was also an accomplished painter, and Conrad shows us some of Murphy's wonderful paintings (particularly Cocktail), revealing a talent that if it were more widely known would certainly elevate him above his current footnote status.

The usual cast of characters show up as well, with F. Scott Fitzgerald in a starring role before his crack-up, and his wife Zelda revealing in many pictures a nervous look that foretells her later mental disintegration. But the true star of this book is France itself. Hemingway always had a knack for selecting interesting places to live and for making those places his own, but of all the places he lived, Paris seemed to be the one that affected him most. It was the city of his earliest successes, and it was the city he chose to write about in A Moveable Feast, when at the end of his life he couldn't write about anything else. In between it was a city and country he could always return to for comfort, inspiration and excitement.

Winston Conrad, in the final chapter, says "If Hemingway could come back to life for a day, he might very well elect to spend it in France." After reading this book it would be hard to argue that Hemingway would choose otherwise.

Hemingway's France: Images of the Lost Generation.......2000-09-15

A book that will make you want to see Paris for the first time and check out the haunts of Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Piccasso. The book's narrative, photographs and illustrations, and use of quotations by Hemingway and his contemporaries, take the reader on a remarkably vivd tour of the writer's France.

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The focus is on the life, not the works
Fourth Part of a Five-Part Hemingway Biography
Easy-to-read informative biography
Responding to the reader from Buffalo, New York
Excellent side dish - not the main course.

Hemingway: The 1930s
Michael S. Reynolds
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0393317781

Amazon.com

If Paris and Spain in the '20s provided the scene for Ernest Hemingway's writing apprenticeship, it was the decade that followed that saw the writer mature to the height of his powers, as told in the third volume of Michael Reynolds's five-part biography of the American writer. It was also the time that marked the creation of the "Hemingway myth," the burden and eventual doom of his later years. Hemingway "the great white hunter," "the boozing brawler," "the literary pugilist" began to take shape during his 30s, and the brilliance of his mature work carries within it the inevitable ripeness of decline and self-parody. (His friends would comment on the "long white whiskers" that Hemingway would metaphorically assume when talking about art, life, and literature, even as a young man.) Reynolds stretches his timeline back to 1929 to cover both the publication of A Farewell to Arms and the stock market crash. The next 10 years saw the publication of many of his major novels and some of the finest short stories, as well as such "nonfiction" as Death in the Afternoon, The Green Hills of Africa, and the collected pieces of war correspondence that would serve as source material for For Whom the Bell Tolls. The writer, increasingly celebrated and successful, made new friends, quarreled with old ones (including John Dos Passos and Edmund Wilson), and met and fell in love with the glamorous Martha Gellhorn--the writer with whom he covered the Spanish Civil War and later married. As with his other biographies of Hemingway, Reynolds balances a clear enthusiasm for his subject with a keenly honed critical sense, chronicling not only the triumphs but also the ruthless nature of the writer's ambition to achieve them. He is particularly good at tracing how his subject's experiences--from fishing with friends off Key West to the African veldt to the battlefields of Spain--were translated into his fiction, through Hemingway's uncompromising effort to "put a thousand intangibles into a sentence." --John Longenbaugh

Book Description

In the years between A Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway matured as a writer against the backdrop of Cuban revolutions, African game trails, Key West impoverishment, and the Spanish Civil War. He experimented in fiction and nonfiction, pushing his limits as a writer, in such works as Death in the Afternoon, Green Hills of Africa, and To Have and Have Not. In this "masterpiece in the making," Reynolds brings us so close to Hemingway that "you can all but smell Hemingway's whisky breath coming off the pages" (Library Journal).

Customer Reviews:

The focus is on the life, not the works.......2007-05-05

The fourth volume in Reynolds's multi-volume biography of Hemingway. Unlike other Hemingway biographers (James Mellow, for instance) who are mostly interested in how the author incorporated his own life into his fiction, Reynolds approaches his subject in a strict chronological fashion and hardly touches upon the works at all. This volume begins in 1929 with Ernest and Pauline returning to Paris while he put the final touches on "A Farewell to Arms," and ends with Ernest beginning to write "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and taking up residence with Martha Gellhorn in Havana. Very detailed in terms of H.'s life and doings, much less so with regard to his works and art. Definitive in that respect, but not where to go to get an appreciation of Hemingway the writer and the forces behind his artistic creations.

Fourth Part of a Five-Part Hemingway Biography.......2002-04-19

This is the fourth installment in Reynolds's five part Hemingway biography. During this period Hemingway lived mostly in Key West. He wrote his first non-fiction bullfight book, Death in the Afternoon, To Have and Have Not and For Whom the Bell Tolls. He also spent a lot of time in latter part of this decade as a journalist covering the Spanish Civil War. He meets the journalist Martha Gellhorn in Key West and begins the relationship that will break up his second marriage.

Reynolds does a good job here but it is not as good as the two previous installments. There is much less detail given here compared to those books especially with regards to Hemingway's thoughts and state of mind while writing the books of this period. The other books had a nearly page by page account of what the great man was doing and thinking while he wrote The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms. This is noticeably lacking here. The account of the writing of For Whom the Bell Tolls is especially curt. That book, which is regarded as Hemingway's masterpiece, doesn't get the attention Reynolds gave to earlier works. I read somewhere that Hemingway contacted his publisher Charles Scribner during the writing of For Whom the Bell Tolls, telling him that one of the Spanish Civil War short stories he was writing had taken off in his mind and that he already had written 40,000 words. This information is nowhere to be found here. Instead there are gossipy details of the relationship with Gellhorn and the unkind treatment Hemingway's second wife, Pauline, received at the end of their marriage.

There is a long account of Hemingway's first African safari which I found uninteresting. Reynolds stresses his subject's need to recreate the "summer people" of his youth, the group of friends that would gather at Walloon Lake in Michigan every summer of Hemingway's boyhood. Reynolds's tries to force every single relationship to fit this "summer people" thesis even when it is less than apt. There is overlong attention given to hunting trips and less attention to the actual writing than I would have liked. Reynolds has a disturbing tendency here to introduce a new person into Hemingway's life story without much explanation of how they came to meet and what caused them to be friendly. On several occasions a new friend will enter Hemingway's life and without any explanation immediately become the center around which the narrative revolves. This is unsettling and made me page back on several occasions looking for the first appearance of this person. Overall, a poor follow up to the previous books in this series.

Easy-to-read informative biography.......2000-06-09

Though this is the fourth of a five book series, and the first I chose to read, I had no trouble keeping up. You could argue that Hemingway the man was more interesting than his fiction and Reynolds goes a pretty good distance to show why. Hemingway takes his first safari, catches Marlin in Key West and fights in the Spanish Civil War, and switches women before the end of the decade.

Reynolds paints a fairly descriptive portrait of Hemingway, but also reminds us of other current events as the decade unfolds. Hemingway begins the decade mostly apolitical, but he is very critical of the New Deal Programs he sees running in his hometown of Key West Florida. In 1936 he likens President Roosevelt's plan to socialism, but his support two years later of antifascist guerrillas in the Spanish Civil War allies him with downright communists.

It was also interesting to watch Hemingway's friendships crumble. Reynolds describes how Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Sherwood Anderson went their separate ways from Papa for various reasons, but mostly because Hemingway was an explosive character. His larger than life dominating personality coupled with his fatigue for certain personality types doomed a great deal of one-time friendships.

What I like mostly of Reynolds work is that he likes Hemingway a great deal, and this comes through, despite Papa's many flaws.

Responding to the reader from Buffalo, New York.......1999-09-09

Hemingway: The 1930s is the fourth installment in Mr. Reynold's series; he does not "dump you into the story midstream." Anyone with even a little knowledge of Hemingway is familiar with this series and knows that Mr. Reynolds is THE Hemingway biographer. My advice - do at least a little research before expressing an opinion.

Excellent side dish - not the main course........1998-07-31

This thorough and "personable" slice of Hemingway's life in the 30's is quite readable and almost literary itself. Reynolds' periodic but careful use of correspondence and journalistic fragments, interspersed with the narrative is thought-provoking and draws the reader into the time. The only problem with this book is the necessity that the reader bring a somewhat extensive background to the reading in order to thoroughly enjoy the material. If you do not know the Hemingway cast of characters, Reynolds does not go to great lengths to introduce you. Since the book, by its nature, dumps you into the "story" midstream, its failure to catch you up is somewhat frustrating at times. However, the expertise with which it is written only leaves you wanting more and seeking additional sources to fill in the missing pieces of the puzzle. I highly recommend it to all who are somewhat familiar with Hemingway. If you are among the uninitiated, you may wish ! to start elsewhere and keep this in mind for later.

Our War Was Different: Marine Combined Action Platoons in Vietnam

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Our War Was Different: Marine Combined Action Platoons in Vietnam
Albert Hemingway
Manufacturer: Naval Institute Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1557503559

Men at War: The Best War Stories of All Time

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A Collection of Battle Stories
This Best is the Best

Men at War: The Best War Stories of All Time
Leo Tolstoy , T. E. Lawrence , William Faulkner , Winston Churchill , Rudyard Kipling , James Hilton , C. S. Forrester , and Stephen Crane
Manufacturer: Wings Books (Random House)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books

Anthologies | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0517066602
Release Date: 1992-01-21

Customer Reviews:

A Collection of Battle Stories.......2004-02-19

Very well written stories of battle through the ages. Nothing glamorous here, just plain and accurate writing, often by a participant of the action. Several stories give pause for thought.

This Best is the Best.......2002-05-05

Hemingway's introduction states: "This book has been edited in order that...boys, as they grow to the age where they can appreciate it and use it and will need it, can have [a] book that will contain truth about war as near as we can come by it." As a result of careful selection and organization, this collection of war stories accomplishes what Hemingway set out to do. As a teacher, I've found these stories useful in class -- from Caesar's notes on his invasion of Britain and Charlotte Yonge's "Pass to Thermopylae" to Aldington's heartbreaking WWI story, "At All Costs." This collection contains the works of fine writers (Faulkner, Kipling, Forester, Crane, Kipling) and historical figures (Churchill,T.Roosevelt). As a parent, I am encouraging my adolescent son to read this book so that he will understand what others have done and what he may one day be called upon to do for his country. This book will one day be rediscovered and reprinted for a modern America once again engaged in a discussion of war and courage. In the meantime, join me in being grateful for these used copies which are available at (usually) reasonable prices.

Average customer rating:

A Soap Opera
A classic!
Brilliant
"I thought she might be a little crazy"
Classic

A Farewell to Arms (Scribner Classics)
Ernest Hemingway
Manufacturer: Scribner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0684837889

Amazon.com

As a youth of 18, Ernest Hemingway was eager to fight in the Great War. Poor vision kept him out of the army, so he joined the ambulance corps instead and was sent to France. Then he transferred to Italy where he became the first American wounded in that country during World War I. Hemingway came out of the European battlefields with a medal for valor and a wealth of experience that he would, 10 years later, spin into literary gold with A Farewell to Arms. This is the story of Lieutenant Henry, an American, and Catherine Barkley, a British nurse. The two meet in Italy, and almost immediately Hemingway sets up the central tension of the novel: the tenuous nature of love in a time of war. During their first encounter, Catherine tells Henry about her fiancé of eight years who had been killed the year before in the Somme. Explaining why she hadn't married him, she says she was afraid marriage would be bad for him, then admits:

I wanted to do something for him. You see, I didn't care about the other thing and he could have had it all. He could have had anything he wanted if I would have known. I would have married him or anything. I know all about it now. But then he wanted to go to war and I didn't know.

The two begin an affair, with Henry quite convinced that he "did not love Catherine Barkley nor had any idea of loving her. This was a game, like bridge, in which you said things instead of playing cards." Soon enough, however, the game turns serious for both of them and ultimately Henry ends up deserting to be with Catherine.

Hemingway was not known for either unbridled optimism or happy endings, and A Farewell to Arms, like his other novels (For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Sun Also Rises, and To Have and Have Not), offers neither. What it does provide is an unblinking portrayal of men and women behaving with grace under pressure, both physical and psychological, and somehow finding the courage to go on in the face of certain loss. --Alix Wilber

Book Description

The best American novel to emerge from World War I, A Farewell to Arms is the unforgettable story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front and his passion for a beautiful English nurse. Hemingway's frank portrayal of the love between Lieutenant Henry and Catherine Barkley, caught in the inexorable sweep of war, glows with an intensity unrivaled in modern literature, while his description of the German attack on Caporetto -- of lines of fired men marching in the rain, hungry, weary, and demoralized -- is one of the greatest moments in literary history. A story of love and pain, of loyalty and desertion, A Farewell to Arms, written when he was 30 years old, represents a new romanticism for Hemingway.

Customer Reviews:

A Soap Opera.......2007-09-23

I re-read this recently. I don't know why. I guess a friend of mind is into Hemingway. Here's what I found: this seminal work of the American 20th century fiction reads like a chick flick or soap opera, especially the rather embarrasingly overwrought last chapter.

A classic!.......2007-08-27

I read this book in high school and I fell in love. This book has it all: adventure, love, and a incredibly tragic ending. This is the type of book that should be required reading in schools!

Brilliant.......2007-08-13

At first I was not a fan of Hemmingway's writing style but the story overpowered whatever problems I had. Wonderful depictions of war and love. Emotional when you least expect it. An amazing journey. Must Read Classic.

"I thought she might be a little crazy".......2007-07-26

The only justification for WWI, if there is one, is that it serves as a great backdrop for this marvelous novel, the story of wounded ambulance driver Frederick Henry and his nurse -lover Catherine Barkley as they try to survive that ignoble war (which began with dancing in the streets of Vienna and ended in the pointless slaughter of millions. Remember?). Early in the book, Frederick says of Catherine, "I thought she might be a little crazy." Well, Yeah! Is it any wonder considering she has treated about a thousand casualties with injuries ranging from self-inflicted foot wounds to splintered limbs and assorted other dripping war wounds? Together they make the only sane decision they can make under the circumstances: they escape to neutral Switzerland where they manage to make a life for themselves, away from the war--but never really free from its underlying curse. Out of a time when kings and keisers (not renegade vice presidents) made war, Hemingway, the master of macho angst, creates the premier anti-war novel. If only Bush had been reading it to the kids in Sarasota the morning of 911 instead of the lamb book, what a different world it might be today...

Classic.......2007-06-27

A Farewell to Arms is considered a "classic" of American literature. And rightly so. This novel is an excellent portrayal of the horrors of war (World War I in particular), in which the main protagonist, Frederic Henry, becomes involved in an ambiguously "loving" relationship with an English nurse named Catherine Barkley. Not to spoil any important plot elements, let's just say that their relationship ends...weirdly (and, in a sense, disturbingly) and leaves the reader feeling a million feelings at once (sadness, confusion, contemplativeness, reflectiveness, etc.).

Again, Hemingway pulls the reader in with his minimalist approach and his understatement (sometimes, incredibly "under"). The book's plot basically involves Henry's time spent on the Italian front that is being challenged, at the beginning of the book, by the Austrians, and by the end of the book, by the Germans. Henry experiences every nuance of war: from intense hunger and starvation, to the anxiety of escaping death, to the death of a comrade, to injury to himself.

Overall, the book as a war novel is excellent, as a love story: excellent, and as a classic in American literature: legendary.

Average customer rating:

Most intense storm in US history...............
Uses eyewitness accounts to detail these days of calamity and reconstruct the events in each camp as the hurricane made landfall
History, Politics & Victims=A Great Read!
Good story, ironic twist
Scott made me care

Hemingway's Hurricane
Phil Scott
Manufacturer: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

21st Century | World | History | Subjects | Books

Natural Disasters | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0071479104

Book Description

THE FINAL BLOW

They were the forgotten members of the Lost Generation, traumatized veterans of the Great War who grasped for one last chance at redemption under Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. Six hundred of them were shuffled off to the Florida Keys to build a highway to Key West. On Labor Day weekend 1935, the most intense hurricane ever to strike the U.S. took aim on their flimsy shacks, and the two men responsible for evacuating the veterans from harm’s way waited too long.

After the storm, Ernest Hemingway took his boat from his home in Key West to aid the veterans in the Upper Keys but he found few survivors on the wreckage. His public cries of outrage bound him forever to the storm. quotes

“Brilliantly and compellingly captures the events surrounding the 1935 storm, showing how human factors compounded the awful force of sky and sea.”—from the Foreword by John Rennie, Editor in Chief, Scientific American

“Hemingway’s Hurricane describes a scenario tragically similar to the one surrounding Hurricane Katrina . . . little preparedness and no timely rescue for victims.”—The Sacramento Bee

“Phil Scott does a favor with this book, reminding [us] that deadly storms aren’t a new event.”—Chicago Tribune

“A timely topic and a compelling read.”—The Indianapolis Star

Customer Reviews:

Most intense storm in US history......................2006-05-29

The hurricane that hit the Florida Keys in 1935 is still listed as the most intense hurricane to make landfall in the US. It is estimated to have had 200 mph winds and although it's eye was not large, the power of this storm surpassed anything imagined.
The victims numbered 423 known dead, 259 of them were veterans of World War I. These men had been "employed" to build a highway connecting the Keys all the way through to Key West. It was a "make work" program seemingly designed to remove the veterans from the spotlight in Washington D.C., like a splinter in the FDR political eye. The veterans had been marching on Washington and camping there demanding pay bonuses that had been promised to them. Many were in desperate situations with the Depression in full form. Sending them far away to the Keys to work and make money must have seemed like the answer to everyone's desires. Tragedy was to unfold.
In September of 1935, as the veterans labored on, the Weather Bureau was tracking a tropical storm that would become the most intense hurricane in US history. Due to a lack of coverage in many areas, the path of the storm had to be projected, leaving room for error. Even so, warnings were put out to the Keys and while locals begin to make preparations, the veterans had no prior experience with hurricanes. They depended on their camp director and other in charge to make the evacuation decisions, which was to include sending a train to remove them from the path of danger. Decisions were either made to late or not made at all and the train would not arrive in time. The train itself, would be washed off the tracks and nearly washed out to sea. 259 veterans would loose their lives.
While there are amazing parallels between this storm of 1935 and Katrina, there are also striking differences. The forecasters urgently warned about Katrina, a more direct and well broadcast warning than in 1935. In both storms people waited to be evacuated by others for a variety of reasons. While the reasons are varied, the reality is that government is not all powerful nor is it capable of dealing with huge scale evacuations. When individuals give up their personal responsibility, the results will be haphazard and even deadly as is proven true in both these hurricanes. When those directly in charge fail to take reasonable steps to protect the very lives they are charged with protecting, the result will be disastrous. In this case the camp director in 1935 and the Mayor of New Orleans seem to have a lot in common.
This is a vivid account of the 1935 hurricane. The stories of the victims and survivors as their island is virtually swept clean, inundated by the storm surge is intense and electrifying. These are stories that have a depth of emotion that was not expected from men who had become inured to hardship and death in WWI. The attempted downplaying of the disaster for political reasons is stunning. While the role of Ernest Hemingway seems nearly minute, he did draw attention to the plight of the veterans.
Phil Scott has written a clear and vivid account of a disaster in the making and the lives that were battered and destroyed. The politics and the human faces of the intrepid veterans combine to form a story well worth the reading.

Uses eyewitness accounts to detail these days of calamity and reconstruct the events in each camp as the hurricane made landfall.......2006-03-04

The great Florida hurricane of 1935 came as no surprise - in Key West Ernest Hemingway had enough warning to secure his boat and house against the storm - yet superintendents in three nearby government work camps did almost nothing to evacuate the men in their charge. Phil Scott details these days of calamity when the Keys were hit by one of the most powerful hurricane to hit the U.S: Hemingway's Hurricane: The Great Florida Keys Storm Of 1935 uses eyewitness accounts to detail these days of calamity and reconstruct the events in each camp as the hurricane made landfall. The probe of the underlying problems involved in evacuation procedures holds plenty of drama and meaning for today's residents.

History, Politics & Victims=A Great Read!.......2006-01-27

I found this book to be a wonderful blend; part history lesson, part Political overview and to a large part, tragedy.

Phil Scott concisely provides the necessary background for a complex period in American history, and deftly sets the stage for the main event.

The "Back story" he tells of the forming of the Veterans Bonus Army, the March on Washington DC, and their dispatched to the Florida Keys as much to get them out of the way as to build a Highway across the Keys, is a story in itself. Once we understand the circumstances of their situation, it almost seems inevitable that they will be abandoned in their time of need.

The author does a marvelous job of introducing us to a variety of characters, from many of the imperiled vets, to the seemingly clueless men responsible for their safety, and the locals, like Ernest Hemingway who were forever changed by this tragedy.

While there certainly are parallels with the mistakes made during Hurricane Katrina, I believe this story is compelling, and stands well on its own merit. And while the Gulf Coast in 2005 had advanced knowledge of the terribly destructive force bearing down on it, the hundreds of veterans in their "temporary" housing on the Keys had very little warning of the Category 5 hurricane that would send hundreds of them to their deaths.

I heartily recommend this book to readers with an interest in the History of this period, Hurricane's as a force in nature, or anyone simply looking for a gripping,highly readable and true story of how quickly things can go wrong.

Good story, ironic twist.......2006-01-27

Phil Scott's book, "Hemingway's Hurricane" is a quick and good read about the century's most powerful hurricane....the category 5 storm that smashed into the Florida Keys over Labor Day weekend in 1935. Finished before Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana, Scott's book takes on a narrative with some unintended consequences and supreme ironies.

Set as a timeline, the author briefs the reader well with his background of the Bonus Army of World War I veterans, their 1932 march on Washington D.C. and the veterans' subsequent detour to the Florida Keys, courtesy of Franklin D. Roosevelt, to give them low-paying jobs. "Hemingway's Hurricane" centers around these hundreds of veterans, their work in the Keys (much of it building roads) and the misfortune they had at being directly in the path of the hurricane. Scott relates all of this in a nicely paced way. Yet two things stand out in his book....there's very little to do with Ernest Hemingway....he makes not much more than a minor appearance at the beginning and at the end, so the title of the book is confusing. The author also provides too many cameo appearances by others who were part of the storm and the recovery. Fewer characters with more time spent with them would have increased my enjoyment of Scott's work.

Yet it is the comparison to Katrina, not mentioned in "Hemingway's Hurricane" that makes for the unintended attraction. The 1935 storm had its own version of FEMA (FERA) and a major player, Fred Ghent, the director of the veteran's camps, who was the Michael Brown of his day. His decision not to get a relief train down in time to evacuate the veterans was one of the worst miscalculations of the storm. It's almost as if we can hear FDR saying, "Ghentie, you're doin' a heckuva job!" Perhaps the oddest and saddest comparison is that Katrina, hitting Louisiana almost seventy years to the day after the Keys hurricane, underscores that government hasn't come all that far in preparedness, rescue and recovery.

"Hemingway's Hurricane" is a good book but not a great one. However, Scott's attention to detail make it worth the read and the story is one that has needed to be told.

Scott made me care.......2005-12-23

I've never had an interest in visiting the Florida Keys, nor truly understood the plight of post World War I veterans -- even though my grandfather had been one -- but with the publishing of Hemingway's Hurricane by Phil Scott, I found myself caring. I now want to visit the Keys and explore, where this amazing tragedy took place, and to see first-hand just what it meant to span approximately 130 miles of water and islands by both train track and roadway. Scott's book provides both the necessary exposition to pave the way, while building suspense for the pending storm, much like those of us in television land find ourselves checking cable channels for updates on where and when storms will hit in the present day. From the building of a rail line as early as 1912 (the year the Titanic sank), known as Flagler's Folly, all the way to Key West to the semi-permanent Hooverville encampments and Bonus Marches near the White House during the Depression years, which encompasses public dissatisfaction with the federal government
(long before the Civil Rights Movement and Vietnam Anti-War activities occupied our nation's attention), this book truly prepares the reader for nature's destructive force. Scott also manages to draw the reader in long before Ernest Hemingway enters the picture, but the Hemingway angle helps make a timely connection between gross
negligence in 1935 and the equally unexpected results of 2005's Hurricane Katrina
and the combined slow response from today's federal, state, and local governments.
I always expect my high school English and journalism students to "extend the text" to seek connections and meaning outside of the printed pages. For this reason, I highly recommend this book to anyone who cares about how our government operates. There are lessons to be learned here, even if the events took place 70 years ago. And although the book moves quickly, I find myself stopping to check one or both of the two maps detailing both the Florida Keys and placement of the work camps, plus I find myself delving into the internet to pursue further inquiry. I do this because Scott's narrative and depth of information has given me reason to care and explore further this fascinating true story.

Average customer rating:

An occasionally beautiful mess
A STUNNING NARRATION OF THIS CLASSIC TALE
Introspective tale of a dying man's last days - underated EH in my opinion
Maddening
Self-Indulgence

Across the River and into the Trees
Ernest Hemingway
Manufacturer: Scribner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0684844648

Book Description

In the fall of 1948, Ernest Hemingway made his first extended visit to Italy in thirty years. His reacquaintance with Venice, a city he loved, provided the inspiration for Across the River and into the Trees, the story of Richard Cantwell, a war-ravaged American colonel stationed in Italy at the close of the Second World War, and his love for a young Italian countess. A poignant, bittersweet homage to love that overpowers reason, to the resilience of the human spirit, and to the worldweary beauty and majesty of Venice, Across the River and into the Trees stands as Hemingway's statement of defiance in response to the great dehumanizing atrocities of the Second World War. Hemingway's last full-length novel published in his lifetime, it moved John O'Hara in The New York Times Book Review to call him "the most important author since Shakespeare."

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Customer Reviews:

An occasionally beautiful mess.......2006-11-27

Across the River and Into the Trees is definitely Hemingway at his weakest. But the thing is that even the weakest Hemingway is much better than what most mediocre writers produce in their entire lives. What we have here is a short plotless novel about an old army Colonel and his young mistress spending a romantic weekend in Venice. There is nothing inherently wrong with this set up: Venice is a beautiful city, and Hemingway describes it well; the relationship is unconventional, but believable (I recall that Hemingway had a very similar love affair at some point in his life); and last, the lack of plot is nothing new-- The Sun Also Rises was a brilliant bit of meandering. The reason why the novel is a failure is that the relationship between Renata and Col. Cantwell is dull, trite, and meaningless. The entire 280 pages is full of inane lines like "oh, don't talk so rough" and "you are my one and only love." The vast majority of these pages is taken up by conversations between the two lovers which is, unfortunately, the least interesting part of the novel. If Hemingway had spent more time exploring the Colonel's psyche and less time having him exchange trivialities, he might have pieced together a good book.

A perfect example of the ruined brilliance of this novel is on page 213 where the Colonel says "Every day is a new and fine illusion. But you can cut out everything phony about the illusion as though you would cut it with a straight-edge razor." Classic Hemingway. But then Renata follows up this great line by saying "Please never cut me," and he says "You are not cut-able." The profound insight of the conversation degenerates that quickly into mindless pillow talk.

In the end, this novel is definitely worth reading if you're a Hemingway completist, or even if you have any special affection for the city of Venice. I suspect too that former or current soldiers would especially relate to the Colonel's frustration and nostalgia after decades of harsh battle. But to someone new to Hemingway or someone looking for classic modernist literature, you're much better off reading The Sun Also Rises or even For Whom the Bell Tolls.

A STUNNING NARRATION OF THIS CLASSIC TALE.......2006-09-29

Surely one of Ernest Hemingway's most memorable novels, Across the River and Into the Trees, is the touching story of love that comes too late.

First released in 1950 the novel covers three days in the life of Cantwell, a retired Army officer. He is now 50-years-old and has returned to the place where he nearly lost his life during World War II. Cantwell is a bitter man, feeling that he was unfairly demoted after losing a major part of his brigade during a forest battle. He was actually following orders, and believes the Army simply needed someone to blame and chose him.

He spends his time in Venice dictating his memoirs, railing against top brass - Eisenhower, Patton, Montgomery. He also becomes involved in a love affair with a 19-year-old girl. This character is said to be based, at least in part, on a young girl Hemingway met when he visited Venice in 1948.

For those unfamiliar with the story, there'll be no spoilers here by revealing the ending. Suffice it to say it is both moving and memorable.

It's thrilling to hear voice performer Boyd Gaines read. The opening lines "They started two hours before daylight, and at first, it was not necessary to break the ice across the canal as other boats had gone on ahead." set the stage for a remarkable performance. Gaines is an experienced award-winning stage, film, and television performer, and he brings this wide range of experience to his audio narration resulting in a stunning rendition of this classic tale.

- Gail Cooke

Introspective tale of a dying man's last days - underated EH in my opinion.......2006-08-20

This story is set in Venice a few years after World War II, the main character is (former) US Army colonel Robert Cantwell. Col. Cantwell is a veteran of the European campaign and commanded an infantry regiment during the war, and is now dying of a heart condition. This story is the tale of his last few days. There are two main threads to this story. First, Col. Cantwell reflects on his life as a soldier, what he has seen, what he has done, and his regrets. He is somewhat angry and embittered, but is trying hard to put these emotions behind him. Second, this is a love story as Col. Cantwell has fallen in love with a young Venetian girl. He is experiencing true love probably for the first time in his life. He was married once previously, although that relationship ended poorly.

This is an introspective tale, and there is very little `action' in this story (I would say virtually none). It is really a character study of a man who has seen more than most men should, who is undergoing a great transformation through the love of the young woman Renata, but who ultimately realizes that he and his relationship are doomed by his age and failing health. I loved this story and thought it was one of the top novels written by EH, although judging from some of the other reviews, there are clearly many that felt otherwise. This is not, generally, considered to be one of EH's best works. This book is also an homage to Venice (I would love to have the means to lounge around the city as Cantwell and Renata do in this novel!), and it is a vehicle for EH to comment on the European War and some of the principal actors.

I found this to be a wonderfully engaging tale, better than some of the nominal EH classics. EH has wonderfully captured the emotions and regrets of Col. Cantwell. My enthusiastic opinion is not uniformly shared, however, and this book should be approached with caution. I think the reason that this novel is not generally loved is that there is virtually no `action'. This is an introspective story from start to finish. If you are new to EH and looking to read your first novel, you should not start here.

Maddening.......2006-07-23

This novel encapsulates all the frustrations of late Hemingway. It begins well, but lapses rapidly into sollipsism and self-parody. Just when the reader has his arm cocked to hurl it across the room, the novel improves; and just when the reader leans forward, savoring the Hemingway prose and waiting for what happens next, it goes bad again.
Like The Garden of Eden and Islands in the Stream, Across the River and Into the Trees contains wonderful elements that are worthy of the best Hemingway but it is marred by a central flaw: There seems to be no compelling reason for the book to exist other than to update Hemingway's personal mythology.
Hemingway's early work was powered by several powerful elements: the author's willingness to face hard realities unflinchingly and without romanticism; and an ability to frame his characters' situations so that they took on the force of universal metaphors.
Alas, in this novel, flashes of the old brilliance can't overcome the main character's self-absorption and his creator's wishful thinking.
And yet . . . and yet . . . after I finished rereading Across the River and Into the Trees, I went to a bookstore and found that all the books I examined looked slight by comparison.
And the next day I found my emotions were very close to the surface, proof, I think, that Hemingway's power to move his readers and embed archetypal themes in his narratives persisted despite his decay.
Very strange.

Self-Indulgence.......2006-01-25

I think Hemingway wanted to do two things: (1) critique certain aspects of how WWII was fought (particularly the politicalization of battle plans); and (2) pay homage to his beloved Venice. To do so, he crafted a fairly thin story about an old soldier who finds himself in one last love with a girl a fraction of his age. The plot (to the extent there is one) and the relationship between the characters would probably make a nice short story. The bulk of the book is taken up by tourist writing about Venice (locales, architecture, food, markets, layout, and, of course, the canals) and a journalist's rants about US generals in WWII. Diehard Hemingway fans will find some jewels worth the read; others should stay away.

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