A Farewell To Armsby Ernest Hemingway
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
"Under the urging of a friend who had read Farewell to Arms five times I read it once, and told him I thought it a sentimental account of an uninteresting adultery between uninteresting people." --Robertson Davies, "A Rake at Reading"
I didn't have high hopes for this book, or Hemingway in general, but it was even worse than I expected. The style of the writing is extremely spare and I got no sense at all of what the places looked like or anything distinctive about the various people that come into the story.
I recently read Z, which includes Hemingway as a character. He was obnoxious, self-centered, and absolutely horrible to the women in his life. All of this comes through in the characters in this novel. Catherine was one of the flatest depictions of one of the most idiotic women I have ever had the misfortune to read.
There must be some redeeeming quality to this book as it is a "classic," but I didn't find it. As usual, I agree with Robertson Davies.
I applaud your honesty. I always feel a bit...unworthy, to hate what is considered great, but I try to be honest nonetheless. I think with some of these works, there's a bit of The Emperor's New Clothes" going on. I didn't dislike F2A as much as you, but still bit baffling why it has received such acclaim.
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