Across The River And Into The Trees

by Ernest Hemingway

On the last day of his life Colonel Richard Cantwell sits in a duck blind in Trieste, reflecting on his life as a soldier and reminiscing about his tryst with a young Venetian woman named Renata. Across the River and into the Trees is the moving account of one man’s thoughts as he nears the end of his life, pondering a love that is stronger than reason and the beauty of Venice.

Originally serialized in Cosmopolitan magazine from February to June 1950, Across the River and into the Trees takes its title from the last words uttered by Confederate General Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson. Panned by critics on its publication, it is now recognized as an important part of the Hemingway canon for its depiction of how man deals with death.

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Genres: Fiction, Classics, Literature, American, Novels, Italy, War

410 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1950

About the author

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Best known for an economical, understated style that significantly influenced later 20th-century writers, he is often romanticized for his adventurous lifestyle, and outspoken and blunt public image. Most of Hemingway's works were published between the mid-1920s and mid-1950s, including seven novels, six short-story collections and two non-fiction works. His writings have become classics of American literature; he was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature, while three of his novels, four short-story collections and three nonfiction works were published posthumously.
Hemingway was raised in Oak Park, Illinois. After high school, he spent six months as a cub reporter for The Kansas City Star before enlisting in the Red Cross. He served as an ambulance driver on the Italian Front in World War I and was seriously wounded in 1918. His wartime experiences formed the basis for his 1929 novel A Farewell to Arms. He married Hadley Richardson in 1921, the first of four wives. They moved to Paris where he worked as a foreign correspondent for the Toronto Star and fell under the influence of the modernist writers and artists of the 1920s' "Lost Generation" expatriate community. His debut novel The Sun Also Rises was published in 1926.
He divorced Richardson in 1927 and married Pauline Pfeiffer. They divorced after he returned from the Spanish Civil War, where he had worked as a journalist and which formed the basis for his 1940 novel For Whom the Bell Tolls. Martha Gellhorn became his third wife in 1940. He and Gellhorn separated after he met Mary Welsh Hemingway in London during World War II. Hemingway was present with Allied troops as a journalist at the Normandy landings and the liberation of Paris. He maintained permanent residences in Key West, Florida, in the 1930s and in Cuba in the 1940s and 1950s. On a 1954 trip to Africa, he was seriously injured in two plane accidents on successive days, leaving him in pain and ill health for much of the rest of his life. In 1959, he bought a house in Ketchum, Idaho, where, on July 2, 1961 (a couple weeks before his 62nd birthday), he killed himself using one of his shotguns.

Reviews

[Louis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. But then again I read it in Verona Porta Nuova station after visiting Venice, waiting for a night train to Paris, in the rain, and I think this may well be the best book to read in Verona Porta Nuova station after visiting Venice, waiting for a night train to Paris, in the rain.

[Luís · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel, considered classic American literature, has death as its central theme.
The action takes place in Venice in the aftermath of World War II. Europe is thinking about its wounds.
We are especially witnessing the last days of the life of Colonel Richard Cantwell, a former official of the American Army. The latter, seriously ill and feeling his end near, lives ultimate happiness in Venice with the love of his life, the young Countess Renata.
The latter knows he will die and accepts his fate with a fatality, without bitterness. But he takes life head-on while striving to fight against the chance that condemns him and, thus, tries to postpone the fateful date of his death, but, unfortunately, this will be the strongest.
This dark novel's plot takes place in the middle of winter and does not add anything to the ambient gloom.
Despite a certain melancholy, a specific depression, and a confident pessimist, a note of hope escapes the lines thanks to "the life's appetite of the two protagonists."
I enjoyed reading this Hemingway novel very much despite the sadness that emanates.
I highly recommend it.

[David Lentz · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Hemingway wrote this novel, he may have known that his masterpieces were behind him. Although this novel is a lesser work, there are moments of tenderness, poignancy and power crafted in his trademark miminalist style that linger. The novel concerns a retired Army Colonel, who has fought in brutal combat, near the end of his life and is desperately in love with a much younger woman. To me the woman signified the Colonel's lost youth and the relationship may take on new meaning if one views it as such. The Colonel looks backward in the novel to the horror and futility of war, which serves as a contrast to the extreme tenderness of his last love affair in Venice. Hemingway's experiences during the Spanish Civil War and in Paris during World War II give him much to draw upon in this literary "moveable feast," which soubriquet first appears here. Against the harshness of his existence the Colonel has retreated to Italian duck blinds, Venice in winter and the adoring young beauty of his life. One senses that at this time in his life, so near the end, that Hemingway sees his own life's lapse into finality in lines from Stonewall Jackson's dying moments to cross peacefully over the river and into the trees. Hemingway is a master of dialogue and there is much between the Colonel and his young mistress to savor. I recommend that you read Old Man and the Sea, A Farewell to Arms and/or For Whom the Bell Tolls before taking on this novel. If you admire and have widely read Hemingway already, then this is a very fine but not great novel relative to his masterpieces. This is a compelling, accessible novel which subtleties will linger and perhaps the greatest aspect of the genius of his craft is that he never fails to have this same powerful impact.

[Kathy · Rating 1 out of 5]

'What did you do in the war, Daddy?'
'I was a pervy old man who wanted to sleep with young girls.'

I suppose if I were a man having a midlife crisis, I might have enjoyed this book. I don't know who else would. Jeremy Clarkson, perhaps?

It's after the war. An American soldier in his fifties checks in to a hotel in Venice. He goes out to dinner with a nineteen-year-old girl. Next morning they have breakfast and go shopping. He checks out of the hotel. He goes and shoots a few ducks. He dies.

That's it. Oh, yes, and he keeps banging on about the war and she keeps acting as though she is interested in hearing about it.

This book is the sad fantasy of a man with a very fragile ego who needs the constant flattery of female attention - and only a very young woman would not get extremely bored and impatient with his total self-absorption. I'm much too old to tolerate this kind of stuff. Poor Ernest Hemingway, foremost among the dead white men.

[Chrissie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Remember for me a three star book IS definitely worth reading.

I know Hemingway is not for everyone, but I like his writing style. I don't read his books for plot; I read them for the lines, for his ability to express complicated things simply and for his ability to capture the inherent differences between the sexes. Differences there are.

There are two principle characters in this novel - Colonel Richard Cantwell and his lover Renata. He is fifty-one. She is nineteen. He is masculine. He is brusque, downright rude, and could quite simply be viewed as a bastard. But is he? Well, I like him. You see Hemingway goes beneath the surface of what is immediately visible and gives you more. I like Renata too. She is the feminine... and smart and curious and willing to do what is not done.

What is good about this book is NOT the plot, because that is practically non-existent! It is a character study. It is an essay on death and how each of us deals with it. And the choices we make. It is also about the folly of war. It is about hunting and food and fishing and ....about the world around us if we just bother to look. Hemingway expresses so simply what is before our eyes and that which we often don't see. OK, the Colonel goes duck hunting, but there is much more to hunting than just killing birds. (Why must people hunt; why can't people instead shoot with their cameras?) Still, Hemingway opens our eyes to the beauty of the land and the birds and the air and that is enough for me.

And there is humor.

Either you like Hemingway or you don't. I certainly do NOT like all his books. A number I have in fact given ONE star, which means I found them totally terrible. I have tried to explain what I see in Hemingway's writing.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Boyd Gaines. I got a kick out of how the word colonel sounds like "co-lo-nel" in Italian.

I don't think the magic of Venice comes through in this book. What comes through is the feel of a duck-blind and of infantry combat....of love and lost youth. You have to pay attention; there are many flashbacks. If you don't pay attention you will find yourself asking, "Which war is being referred to?! WW1 or WW2, the Spanish Civil War or....."

This was the last novel completed before Hemingway’s death.

[Kenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

When people talk listen completely. Don’t be thinking what you’re going to say. Most people never listen.
Across the River and Into the Trees ~~~ Ernest Hemingway



This January, I decided to take a deep dive Into one of my favorite writers, Ernest Hemingway . It was my goal to explore his later and unpublished works as well as rereading his short stories.

My second Hemingway read of January 2023 was Across the River and Into the Trees. History has not been kind to this title.



No American writer since Mark Twain has so captivated and entranced his readers to the extent that Hemingway did ~~ his success had a quality of simplicity and naturalness that was breathtaking.

I consider Hemingway not only one of the finest novelists of the twentieth century, but also one of the two greatest American writers of all time, the other, of course, being Mark Twain. To my mind, his novels The Sun Also Rises, and For Whom the Bell Tolls rank at the very top of the American literary tradition. Hemingway’s nonfiction pieces are great reads and are without parallel in his exceptional combining of memoir and literature. And then there are the many excellent stories and vignettes. Nick Adams was my introduction to Hemingway as a kid; I return to Nick's world often and find great comfort on those visits. Lastly, there is the brilliant The Old Man and the Sea.

Across the River and Into the Trees falls short of the works I've listed above. It was as if Hemingway had become less authentic in his writing. Thankfully, The Old Man and the Sea would revitalize his reputation.

And while Across the River and Into the Trees. is second rate Hemingway, second rate Hemingway is still better than most writers first-rate work.



If I had to pick one word to describe Across the River and Into the Trees it would be heavy handed. The sparse prose and sharp dialogue Hemingway is known for are missing. The short sentences lack power. Initially, I found it to be artificial. It didn’t ring true. I thought Hemingway, the master of truth, had managed to write a mostly inauthentic novel.

And yet …

Across the River and Into the Trees spent 21 weeks ~~ with 7 weeks at #1 ~~ on the best seller lists, despite the novel being savaged ~~ one critic referred to it as a thoroughly bad book.

And yet …

Readers ~~ readers like me ~~ were excited by a new Hemingway work to discover.

Upon rereading portions of this book, Across the River and Into the Trees is more complex than I thought. I’m still thinking about it. I judged ~~ misjudged actually ~~ this as a realistic love story. It is a story of confronting death.

Past themes of war, loss, and love are present here, but they are presented in a more mature way. This is a haunted Hemingway. ~~ a man plagued by uncertainty.



Reading Across the River and Into the Trees didn't initially strike me with the same force that encountering Hemingway did when I first met my friend, Nick Adams. What I did rediscover with this read is why I read Hemingway.

So how do I tie this review together? It’s not the best Hemingway, but it is Hemingway and therefore it is the best.

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Haunting - old warriors who try to capture the youth they sacrificed to war - one of my favorite works of Hemingway. War takes so much away, but it often takes years before that loss is found. It is often the case that once this loss is found it is too late to try to do anything about it. This story is the best example of this situation I have ever read.

[Daniel Villines · Rating 1 out of 5]

Third Reading: December 2025

This third time through may be my last. I found that my sympathies for Hemingway were running very thin and were overpowered by terrible writing.

Throughout the novel, 50-year-old Colonel Richard Cantwell acts like an 8-year-old. He pals around with his fellow war buddies who form an imaginary "Order," which allows them all to constantly talk babbling nonsense to one another. Cantwell's nineteen-year-old girlfriend, Renata, also comes across as a eight-year-old, so maybe the two of them were indeed meant for each other in spite of their age difference.

The most mature thing about the novel is its attempt to impart reminiscences about WWII. This aspect of the novel could have been interesting in that it lightly covers Cantwell's experiences as a commanding officer during the war. Cantwell recalls how he was a pawn to the whims of his politically-minded commanders, discusses the mistakes he made in the name of duty, and gives credit to soldiers on both sides that acted with skill and honor towards their duty.

The problem with the WWII recollections is that the two eight-year-olds are constantly making googly eyes at each other throughout the tellings. Every other statement is a request for one or the other to tell one or the other just how much one loves the other. Added to this is Cantwell’s rather nauseating pet name for Renata, which is "Daughter."

I read what I wrote some 10 years ago after reading this novel for the second time and I still agree with my speculations surrounding this novel’s creation. However, in today’s world, as it has evolved over the past ten years, it has become a bit luxurious and a bit dangerous to give credit to anyone beyond the face value of their deeds and works. At present, Across the River and into the Trees is just a terrible novel.

---

Second Reading: December 2014

Yes, this book is not very good: probably two stars at best. And within the context of itself, that is all it's worth. But I found more to this book within the context of what I've come to know about Hemingway, which is just enough to be a danger to my own integrity.

By 1950, at the time of Across the River's publication, Hemingway had lived a hard life. He sustained injuries during his participation in three wars and he routinely abused himself through his excessive intake of alcohol. His mornings were set aside for writing and the rest of the day was dedicated to drinking. He must have begun to feel the betrayal of his body and his youthful illusions of immortality must have begun to crack. It had been ten years since the publication of his last book. Was he still relevant? I found these realities to be Hemingway's truths, which were instilled into his main character, Colonel (formerly General) Richard Cantwell.

To convey these truths, Hemingway departed from his traditional approach. In his previous novels, Hemingway treated emotions as a burden. It was a product of the plot and it was just another thing that had to be dealt with gracefully by his heroes. In For Whom the Bell Tolls, Maria had to be cared for and then pushed away by Robert Jordan for the sake of duty and the greater good. She was more of a responsibility than a great love.

Within Across the River and into the Trees, however, the emotional state of Richard Cantwell is something that cannot be gracefully managed. Cantwell is physically falling apart and he is grasping for youth and usefulness through his relationship with a young woman, Renata. Cantwell's feelings comprise the central message of this book and they had to be addressed by Hemingway. And even though the parallels between Cantwell and Hemingway's real life are clear, Hemingway falls short in his efforts.

Cantwell's own thoughts about his age, purpose, usefulness, and mortality are engrossing. But when Hemingway translates these thoughts into to dialogue the story falls flat. Hemingway, always stoic and disciplined, could not find the words needed to express Cantwell's emotions.

But Hemingway's downfall in dialogue is what I find to be interesting. Hemingway tried something new, failed, and went on to write a similar book that would win the Pulitzer and Nobel Prizes. In The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway kept and built upon the truths concerning the decay of his body and his usefulness, but he avoided the need for prolonged dialogue about the emotions that such realities instill. He basically used the best parts of Across the River and into the Trees and enhanced them in The Old Man and the Sea.

I think Across the River and into the Trees has a meaningful and useful place among the novels that were published in Hemingway's lifetime. I consider it a study, or a preliminary sketch, even though Hemingway probably never thought about this book in that way, until it was too late.

---

First Read: September 2005

[Lyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

In his classic novel Old Man and the Sea, first published in 1952, Hemingway has the protagonist Santiago land an impressive marlin only to see his great catch mauled by sharks. Scholars have suggested that this is an allegory about how critics can destroy a great work of art.

Two years earlier, Hemingway first published this book and while it enjoyed popular success, was much maligned by critics and many have opined that it is the Nobel laureate’s worst book.

While I did not love this the same way I did some of his other books, Old Man and the Sea for one, The Sun Also Rises another, this was exceptionally well crafted and put together with a perspective unique to the author as he includes autobiographical elements and used his own martial experiences as well as romantic anecdotes to form a narrative that is at once poignant and thought provoking.

The title is a reference to what was supposed to the Stonewall Jackson’s final words, a Christian allusion to the Jordan River and the afterlife. The quote itself is included in this work and Hemingway fills the novel with themes of a dying military man rediscovering elements of his life, while remembering his time in battle decades before and from a long military life.

If there is a problem with this work, it is perhaps that its audience is small: readers who will understand the many military references, will know the colonel and appreciate his perspective, will be a low percentage. Certainly the writing is exceptional, as always with this writer, but much of his message will seem saturnine and labyrinthine to someone without their own military experiences. The star crossed romance and the colonel’s recollections are intertwined so while this is a good book, it’s message is encrypted in Hemingway’s own cryptic dialogue, frequently difficult to follow.

[Emilio Berra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un vecchio di cinquant'anni
Questo libro, scritto da Hemingway a distanza di dieci anni da "Per chi suona la campana" e venti da "Addio alle armi", è ambientato in una Venezia invernale.
Racconta una storia d'amore fra un colonnello cinquantenne, di precaria salute, e una diciannovenne ricchissima e molto aristocratica, "splendente di giovinezza e di slanciata bellezza".

E' interessante sapere che il colonnello ha la stessa età dell'autore al momento della stesura dell'opera. Conoscendo alcuni tratti del carattere dello scrittore, inoltre, possiamo ben ipotizzare che sia fortemente presente l'elemento biografico, non tanto per la relazione amorosa in sé, quanto per la condizione esistenziale dell'autore, che condusse una vita volta all'eccesso tanto da essere invecchiato piuttosto precocemente. La vicenda qui rappresentata può pertanto essere definita un amore senile di un vecchio di cinquant'anni, gran bevitore a qualunque ora del giorno e della notte.
La condizione esistenziale del protagonista è caratterizzata anche da un ambiguo rapporto con se stesso : " 'Vecchio bastardo' disse allo specchio. (...) Lo specchio era la verità e l'attualità" ; "Hai la metà di cento anni, bastardo che non sei altro".

I riferimenti alla Grande Guerra e ai luoghi di combattimento sono numerosissimi, spesso presenti nel ricordo.
L'atmosfera di Venezia pervade tutto il libro, coi suoi alberghi e ristoranti di lusso, caffè dove trovare riparo dalle sferzate di vento e dall'alta marea.
In questa città fascinosa, diventata emblema del languore e della decadenza, non stona affatto la ricerca della dimora sul Canal Grande, che fu residenza di Gabriele D'Annunzio dove convalescente scrisse il "Notturno", amorevolmente accudito dalla figlia Renata : lo stesso nome, che penso non casualmente, dato da Hemingwey alla sua giovane protagonista, che spesso il colonnello chiama "figlia" .

[Jacob Sebæk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is it possible to love a book just for the atmosphere it creates, the pictures you get when reading it? Certainly.
There was, and still is, a lot of pressure and expectations to any Hemmingway novel.
True, some are better ones and some are not quite up to the standard you would wish for from such an acclaimed author.

But, who am I to judge how an author´s life should be allowed to influence his works.
In “Across the River and into the Trees” Hemmingway hits a remarkably melancholic tone, a tone I recognize from Thomas Mann´s Death in Venice.

The scenery is alike, death is at hand and you think of your life, the one you always wished you had lived and the one it turned out to be, and it is much too late to change anything.
Past loves, passed pastimes, wars you fought in, friends you used to have, some gone, some just so far away, all are memories, some clear, some shadows, but memories are all they are.

You want to relive it all and the heavy low hanging mist is not only obscuring your vision of the ducks you are hunting, it blocks the mirror you are trying to see your life through.

I love the book for this reason, I can physically feel the mist cover everything, I can feel the pain of the colonel and I can feel Venice in the misty morning.

[Велислав Върбанов · Rating 4 out of 5]

„Отвъд реката, сред дърветата“ е много хубав и увлекателен роман! В него се разказва за последните дни от живота на американски полковник с болно сърце. Умело съчетани са неговото пътешествие в Италия и спомените му от Първата световна война...



„Знаеше колко досадни са чуждите преживявания от войната и престана да говори за това. Всеки я възприема посвоему, мислеше си той. Никой не се интересува от нея абстрактно, освен истинските войници, а истински войници почти няма. Правиш ги войници, добрите загиват, а докато станат добри, винаги се хвалят за нещо така упорито, че нито виждат, нито чуват. Все мислят за това, което са видели, и докато им говориш, обмислят с какво отговорът им ще допринесе за тяхното повишение или привилегии.“

[Julian Worker · Rating 4 out of 5]

The inability to recapture lost youth and to forget the recent wounds of war, one intangible and one tangible, permeate the thoughts of Colonel Richard Cantrell.

He falls in love with a countess, Renata, young enough to be his daughter and yet he knows they can never be together.

Venice and its canals and palaces are the backdrop to this achingly honest evocation of a love that was never meant to be.

It's not so much what is said as what is not said that is remarkable in this book.

[Bart · Rating 1 out of 5]

This novel is positively dreadful. One of the ten worst I’ve read. In homage to The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms, one gives Hem the benefit of the doubt, believing he never would have published this disaster in any but short-story form – had he been alive when it was released to the public. This novel didn’t have 50 pages worth reading.

You are my one and last and true love, and I love you truly. If Hemingway would have written anything that bad in his prime, he surely wouldn’t have repeated it. And yet, here it is splattered all over the page and constantly. It’s no longer layering and searching for a genuine or “true” effect; now it’s the meat of the story. And yes, true and truly are used obsessively.

The last page is probably the worst one. Climbing in the back seat to die, the colonel shuts the car door “well”. It’s a style that has given up its search for a subject. It’s Hemingway at the height of self-parody mode.

I’m not sure there’s a high school senior in America who could read A Clean and Well-Lighted Place and not then write a chapter of Across the River and Through the Trees better than Hemingway did. Yup, it’s that bad.

[Alan (The Lone Librarian) Teder · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Cringey Death in Venice
Review of the Scribner’s Kindle eBook movie tie-in edition (February 1, 2024) of the Scribner’s hardcover original (1950).

"Jackson," he said. "Do you know what General Thomas J. Jackson said on one occasion? On the occasion of his unfortunate death. ... Then he said, 'No, no let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees.'"

I've read the cringey roman à clef of Across the River and Into the Trees several times without a review. When it came up as a Kindle Deal of the Day in May 2024 as part of the lead up to the expected 2024 release of the movie adaptation I decided to give it one more go. And I actually had a break-through this time.

It is still cringe of course, but I could understand what Hemingway was possibly doing. Perhaps you have heard of the practice of "mirroring"? It is when you are in conversation with someone and you adopt their method of speaking (i.e. you "mirror" them) due to thinking that a) they will better understand you, and b) that you create a bond of empathy with them. An example might be when you are speaking English with a non-native speaker and you start speaking a sort of broken English yourself.

Across... has post-WWII U.S. Army Colonel Richard Cantwell making a visit to Venice, Italy. He has been diagnosed with a fatal heart condition and wants to make a final trip to enjoy the city, his favoured Gritti Hotel and the company of his "best and last and only and one true love", the young Italian countess Renata. The cringe enters in several ways. At the Gritti the Colonel speaks with various hotel workers as if they were all part of a secret (but completely fictitious) society "El Ordine Militar, Nobile y Espirituoso de los Caballeros de Brusadelli" (Spanish: The Military, Noble and Spiritual Order of the Knights of Brusadelli). With Renata, the dialogue is a sort of mirrored baby talk, as Renata is not a native English speaker. The further cringe is that Cantwell is 50 years old and Renata is 18 (almost 19 as she says).


The front cover of the original Scribner’s hardcover edition. Cover art by Adriana Ivancich. Image sourced from Wikipedia.

It is still cringe, but I can at least understand that much of Cantwell's manner of speaking is a "mirroring" of the speech of the non-English speaking of the Italians he encounters. Even among the cringe, there is still some of the old Hemingway magic that will peek through at times:

“When people talk listen completely. Don’t be thinking what you’re going to say. Most people never listen.”

I wrote quite a bit about the roman à clef background to Across the River and Into the Trees when I reviewed Autumn in Venice: Ernest Hemingway and His Final Muse (2019), which was about the relationship between 49-year-old Hemingway and 18-year-old Adriana Ivancich (who was also the cover artist for the first hardcover edition, see above), so I won't repeat that here. Seeing the trailer for the movie adaptation, there is a chance that much of the cringe elements have been eliminated, so let us at least hope for that.


Poster for the movie adaptation. Image sourced from Tribune Pictures.

Trivia and Links
The film adaptation directed by Paula Ortiz is expected to be released in August 2024. It stars Liev Schreiber as Col. Richard Cantwell and Matilda De Angelis as Renata. There isn't an English language trailer yet, but you can turn on subtitles in all languages (under Settings, then Auto-Translate) at the Spanish language trailer here.

If you still have free reads or are a subscriber to The New Yorker, you can read the rather vicious parody that E.B. White wrote after Hemingway's novel which was titled Across the Street and Into the Grill from October 6, 1950.

[Babak · Rating 3 out of 5]

یه جایی توی کتاب همینگوی می‌گه: «هر حرفی درباره‌ی جنگ حوصله‌ی آدم‌هایی رو که نقشی درش نداشته‌ند سر می‌بره. جز البته قصه‌ی دروغگو‌ها»
کتاب خیلی جاها حوصله‌م رو سر برد، پس انگار روایتی که از جنگ می‌کنه، روایت واقعی‌ای بوده. در مجموع خوندنش تجربه‌ی خوبی بود؛ جزئیات زیاد، فضاسازی‌های بکر، دیالوگ‌های خوب و ...
فکر می‌کنم یه مشکلی که با کتاب داشتم این بود که با تاریخ جنگ‌های جهانی اول و به ویژه دوم و اتفاقاتشون خیلی مأنوس نیستم. پس شاید در آینده‌ای که این مشکل حل شده، بتونم کتاب رو مجدداً بخونم و لذت و بهره‌ی بیشتری ببرم.
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همینگوی در هیچ‌یک از کتاب‌هایش، تا این حد بخشی از وجود خویش را برجا نگذاشته است، همچنان که در هیچکدام-با چنین زیبایی و چنین ظرافتی- راهی برای بیان سودای بنیادین زندگی و آثارش نیافته است: بیهوده بودن پیروزی. مرگ قهرمان قصه‌اش، چنان که پیداست در کمال آرامش و به نحوی کاملا طبیعی، تجسم تغییر چهره داده خودکشی خودش بود...

[Sonic · Rating 1 out of 5]

the worst hemingway i have ever read.

[Jean Ra · Rating 1 out of 5]

Voy por la página 238, sólo faltan 13 paginitas, pero tengo miedo que al mirar de nuevo hayan crecido espontáneamente otras 100. Hemingway es criticado por nabokovianos y faulknerianos y este título, sin duda de los más flojos de su producción, es un flanco débil por el que atacarle sin compasión. Cualquier disparo dará en el blanco.

Hay quien se ha atrevido a compararlo con el Muerte en Venecia de Thomas Mann, y aunque yo no soy fan de Mann, ese libro en concreto sí me gustó bastante. Uno de sus valores sin duda es lo sintética y concentrada que es la prosa, a la vez evocadora y melancólica, dejando espacio para interpretaciones literales y en clave simbólica, ese encuentro icónico del viejo profesor con la muerte podría ser un modelo para Hemingway, pero comparar a ambos sería como comparar un basurero municipal con la plaza más tranquila y arbolada por el simple hecho que ambos lugares están en el mismo municipio.

Hay un relato de Hemingway en Las nieves del Kilimanjaro dónde describe un día de pesca de un hombre al que le cuesta mucho esfuerzo cada movimiento y al final se detecta que es a causa de sus heridas de guerra. En un pequeño espacio, Hemingway golpea con fuerza. Es emocionante. En Al otro lado del río y entre los árboles pinta como que buscó repetir esa misma estrategia, la del iceberg, ofrecer unos pocos signos acerca de una realidad mayor que, al intuirse, genera un efecto catártico, el problema es que se le ocurrió añadir cientos de diálogos insufribles y cursis entre el protagonista, un coronel de 50 años del ejército norteamericano, y Renata, su amante, una joven de 19 años.

Un romance que simboliza esa última llama de belleza y luz del enfermo coronel pero que no tiene mucha fuerza como símbolo, pues cada diálogo viene a reforzar, subrayar y enfatizar la idea que ambos se aman mucho y muchísimo a pesar que no hay verdaderos motivos para que un hombre de mediana edad curtido en la guerra se interese en una muchacha florero ni tampoco que una deslumbrante joven se interese en semejante carcamal, tullido y empapado en la autocompasión y una melancolía en la que lo falso resuena con fuerza. Una historia de amor es una línea entre dos puntos. En este caso veo los dos puntos pero no la línea, que ha sido trazada con pulso tembloroso.

A lo falso de la historia y lo alargado del texto se une que su parte bélica, compuesta por los recuerdos del enfermo coronel durante la II Guerra Mundial, tampoco gozan de interés y menos aún de pegada.

Hemingway, siempre tan modesto en lo suyo, decía que el libro es una escala ascendiente de emoción, en al que al final el lector ha de sentir una fuerza desbordante, casi inaguantable. Hay que recordar que Hemingway también era un consumado bebedor, una verdadera aspiradora de todo tipo de alcoholes. Qué Dios me perdone por semejante comentario rastrero. Pero sólo a condición que primero haya perdonado a Hemingway por enviar a la imprenta semejante churro.

[Katie Lumsden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not really for me - I struggle with Hemingway's style and found the characters both frustrating and not especially believable.

[Fidel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Si usted ha llegado hasta aquí, es probable que haya padecido problemas de insomnio. Es innegable; la dificultad para conciliar el sueño es uno de los mayores males de nuestro tiempo. La contaminación lumínica, acústica y la depresión, combinadas con un aparato llamado televisor que rezuma basura hasta altas horas de la madrugada, pueden convertir las aparentemente inofensivas noches en una oportunidad para hacerse adicto a la compra de batamantas y chorrimangueras, a las predicciones del tarot, o incluso a programas de música que no es música.
Usted tiene miedo. Ha buscado en el mercado negro y en la deep web productos que consigan devolverle el deseado abrazo de Morfeo; ha probado Valium y cannabinoides sin que fueran la solución. Pero el momento que ansiaba ha llegado al fin. ¡La dormidina y el ambiatol nada tienen que hacer ante un par de páginas de Al otro lado del río y entre los árboles, amigos! Por fin ha llegado el producto anti insomnio definitivo: Hemingway cazando patos, Hemingway bebiendo, Hemingway paseando por Venecia, Hemingway seduciendo jovencitas, Hemingway haciéndose el listillo con los barman. Hemingway, el único, el héroe, como lo recordabas desde secundaria; preparándose para el ocaso refiriendo batallitas de la guerra, aplicándonos brasa, chapado, contrachapado... sin amilanarse ante nada.
Tan sólo tiene usted que proveerse de un ejemplar de este libro (da igual que sea de Planeta o genérico, lo importante es el principio activo) tumbarse en la cama y esforzarse en la lectura de tres o cuatro páginas. Puede que le parezcan doscientas, está bien. Einstein ya demostró la relatividad hace mucho tiempo. Es un proceso un poco arduo, pero no se desanime, pues compensa. Al igual que los ojos comienzan a ver nuevas formas entre las figuras de esos libros de tres dimensiones cuando bizquean y se concentran, sus párpados comenzarán a cerrarse poco a poco, inexorablemente, bajo el peso del plomo, llevándole muy lejos y dejando paso un sueño plácido y reparador.

[Ehsan'Shokraie' · Rating 4 out of 5]

اولین اثری که از همینگوی خواندم.
داستان مردی که اکنون که صفحه های اخر عمرش را ورق میزند عشق را یافته..اما تسلیم پایانی اجتناب ناپذیر است..
فضا سازی بسیار عالی,و متن غنی..که نشانه تسلط نویسنده و زندگی سرشاری است که همینگوی پشت سر گذارده..
اخرین اثر همینگوی..دوسال قبل از خودکشی او..

[Mattia Ravasi · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Top 5 Hemingway Books

Offers a wonderful portrayal of post-War Venice as a place of thriving life and a symbol of death. Also, one of Hemingway's most delicate love stories. Also: sex on a moving gondola!

[Francesco · Rating 5 out of 5]

una media voti di 3,33 è indice che chi ha letto questo romanzo non ha capito nulla... complice pure una critica, contemporanea al romanzo, che ha affossato il romanzo stesso.. non parlo di chi da 5 stelle ai romanzi di donato carrisi o a quelli di erin doom o a quelli di saviano loro manco sanno dell'esistenza di questo romanzo, si e no che sappiano chi è ernest hemingway... io parlo di quelli che hanno letto più di un suo romanzo che sanno la sua storia quello che ha passato... questo romanzo è un testamento un romanzo di memorie molto più di festa mobile... il protagonista è hemingway anziano che gira in una venezia desolante immersa in una lagauna altrettanto desolante... non è l'hemingway che fa saltare il ponte in "for whom the bell tolls" è un hemingway stanco arreso un leone che in gioventù ha lottato... è un hemingway che fino all'ultimo ha ribadito che la guerra è una merda è un orrore

[Pascale · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dreary, verbose and mawkish. A dying fifty-year old American General, demoted to Colonel, revisits Venice, a city he discovered in his youth and loves passionately. There he drinks to excess and has long conversations with a much younger Italian aristocrat, Renata, whose love for him is doomed both because of his failing health and because he is divorced anyway. The book starts and ends with a duck hunting scene in the marshes. There is no momentum to the story and neither the embittered soldier nor the ethereal contessa comes to life. It's quite obvious why this novel doesn't feature in the Hemingway canon. Having just visited Torcello for the first time, I am even more disappointed that Hemingway failed to communicate the magic of the place in a book largely inspired by it but then again putting an end to his life was probably his chief concern already.

[Niloufar arbabian · Rating 5 out of 5]

داستانی روان و دوست داشتنی از واقعیت ادمها
ما هر چه کنیم گذشته مان را با خودمان حمل میکنیم
ایا اگر میدانست زنده نخواهد ماند، چند ساعت باقیمانده را در کنار محبوبش نمیماند؟ همه ما اشتباه میکنیم...

[Robert Lashley · Rating 1 out of 5]

Across The River and Through The Trees, Ernest Hemingway’s fifth novel, was published to a perfect storm of critical derision ( and Justly so). To a generation haunted by war, Hemingway created a colonel who bragged of killing 122. To an era still traumatized by Hiroshima and Dresden, he wrote of war in scenery flowery enough to be obscene. To a culture grappling with the experiences of blacks and Jews, he name checked a confederate general and forgot one of the most significant reasons World War II was fought. It was one of those epic failures that scar a career, the literary equivalent of Bob Dylan’s Self Portrait or Lauryn Hill’s Unplugged, something so bad it changed the perception of artist work for the rest of his career.

Even with The Old Man and The Sea, a novella IMO as good as anyone has ever written, Hemingway never regained the place in the public’s consciousness. If Papa had rendered his brand of War fiction lifeless all by his lonesome, Joseph Heller, Thomas Pynchon, and Tim O Brien killed it dead. The raised consciousness that came from the feminist movement shed more than enough light on his grotesque sexual politics. The explosion of Jewish and African American writers that saw this country from a new set of eyes rendered his heroism, his philosophy, and his prose style all but moot. There were reasons he had to go away, and this book-a portrait of masculinty in it's own filth-is one of them.

[mai ahmd · Rating 1 out of 5]

الرواية تدور حول كولونيل عائد من الحرب إلى مدينته الصغيرة يحاول أن يشغل نفسه بصيد البط , يلاحظ أن المراكبي يتعامل معه بعدائية , يقيم علاقة مع فتاة صغيرة السن بينما هو تعدى الخمسين عاما الرواية يغلب عليها الطابع الحواري بين الكولونيل مع المراكبي , سائق التاكسي , الفتاة العاشقة , اصدقاءه الذين بقوا على قيد الحياة
ورفاقه في منظمة وهمية
همنغواي كتب آراءه السياسية ونظرته تجاه الحرب والحياة والحب من خلال هذا الكولونيل
طوال الرواية وأنا أشعر بالملل من الحديث عن الحرب والسياسة والألمان والنمساويين
لم أحب هذا الإستطراد الممل الذي لم يختلف مع أي شخصية تحاور معها في روايته عبر النهر ونحو الأشجار
حتى قصة الحب التي كانت بين رجل عجوز وبنيّته وهكذا كان يسميها
لم استطع هضمها

وجدتها مملة إلى أقصى حد

[Shakiba Bahrami · Rating 5 out of 5]

از متن کتاب:
لبخند زد. چشمانش مثل همیشه مهربان بودند. می‌دانست هیچ‌وقت زیادی مهربان نیست. اما دیگر کاری از دستش برنمی‌آمد، جز آنکه نسبت به عشق آخر و تنها عشق حقیقی‌اش مهربان باشد.
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به نظرم تنها کسی که میتونه دویست تا داستان غیرهمشکل از جنگ و شکار و دریا بنویسه، همینگویه! عشق یه دختر نوزده ساله و سرهنگ پنجاه و یک ساله رو جوری نشون میده که توی واقعیت نمیتونه دنبالش بگردی ولی موقع خوندن، ملموسِ ملموسه! موقع خوندن خاطرات جنگ از زبون ریچارد، همون حسی بهم دست داد که وقتی کتاب‌های رضا امیرخانی رو میخونم پیدا میکنم! جنگ همه جا یک شکله ولی عشق نه...

[Ali Salehi · Rating 2 out of 5]

دوستان سلام.
میخوایم راجع به «آن سوی رودخانه ، زیر درختان» اثر «ارنست همینگوی» حرف بزنیم.
همینگوی اینجا نسبت به دو کتاب قبلی که ازش خوندم «مجموعه داستان های کوتاه با ترجمه جناب گلشیری» و «سرزمین غریب» ، یکم بیشتر میفهمه و یکم کمتر درک می کنه.
یعنی چی؟
همینگوی نسبت به اون دو کتاب ، اینجا یکم بیشتر به «داستان» اهمیت میده.
یکم شخصیت ها رو جدی تر می گیره.
یکم فضای ملموس تری برای خواننده می سازه.
اما...
نسبت به «سرزمین غریب»
کمتر اهمیت دیالوگ گویی رو میفهمه
تمرکز بیش تر روی معماری ونیزی که خودش در دهه 1980 دیده و ونیزی که من در سال 2019دیدم ، کمی باعث افزایش جذابیت برای تعدادی از خوانندگان میشه.
همینگوی دوست داره این کتاب رو (به قول جناب گارسیا مارکز) شخصی سازی برای خودش کنه.
روایت ها از جنگ ها و خاطرات زمان جنگش که به کتاب تا حدود 5% فضای ضد جنگ میده باعث خوانش دقیق این حقیر و دیالوگ گویی های شخصیت ها باعث اعصاب خوردی و آزارم می شد.
شخصیت ها برای ما همچنان تیپیکال ولی فضا نسبتا خوبه.
داستان ریتمی بشدت کند و خسته کننده داره و خلاصه داستان در یک خط بی اسپویل این میشه : «سرهنگ پنجاه و اندی ساله بازنشسته در سفری تفریحی به ونیز به همراه سرباز جکسون برای شکار مرغابی و ملاقات با دوستان قدیمی خودش میره»
خب...
اشکالات همینگوی در شخصیت ها و داستان شدیدا زیاده.
همونطور که عرض کردم شخصیت ها همه تیپ اند ولی از تیپ مهم تر ، «رابطه‌ای بینشون ساخته نمیشه»
در مجموع و خیلی سربسته بگم :
این کتاب رو هم میتونم توصیه کنم و هم توصیه نکنم.
به چه عزیزانی توصیه می کنم؟
به عزیزانی که علاقمند به خاطرات جنگ جهانی اول از یک نویسنده هستن.
عزیزانی که به سفرنامه علاقمندند.
و عزیزانی که دوست دارن قدم های همینگوی رو به سوی حرفه‌ای شدن و آموختن فرم تجربه کنن.
و به چه کسانی توصیه نمی کنم؟
به عزیزانی که توقع یک داستان با محتوا در حد «پیرمرد و دریا» یا آثار پر کشش و پر تعلیق داستانی دارن توصیه نمی کنم.
به عزیزانی که دوست دارن در داستان غرق بشن و با شخصیت ها همزادپنداری کنن توصیه نمیکنم.
و در کل به عزیزانی که توقع سرگرمی بلندپایه‌ای از ادبیات دارن توصیه نمیکنم.

[Alireza Danandeh · Rating 3 out of 5]

واقعا به سختی میشد که به این کتاب سه ستاره داد.
این کتاب جز آثار متاخر همینگوی است و دقیقا دو سال قبل از شاهکار پیرمرد و دریا منتشر شده ولی بسیار اثر شخصی و سلیقه ای از همینگوی محسوب می شود.
انگار همینگوی تمام تجربیات زیسته اش از جنگ را در قالب دیالوگ های سرهنگ گذاشته و خیلی رها و آزاد خاطرات جنگ را روایت میکند.
به نظرم صرفا جهت شناخت بیشتر از نثر همینگوی ومسیر داستان نویسی اش می تواند مفید باشد.
من ترجمه آقای اسدالله امرایی رو خوندم
ولی فکر میکنم (حسب تجربه اخیرم در بازخوانی پیرمرد و دریا و داشتن و نداشتن)
ترجمه آقای کسایی پور ، ترجمه بهتری باشه