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A Farewell to Arms

Ernest Hemingway

Start date: February 1, 2016

Finish date: February 29, 2016

Discussion: New School Classics- 1915-2005

Why we're reading this: Revisit the Shelf Reread, February 2016

Past Reads:
Book of the Month, April 2012
[close] Revisit the Shelf Reread, February 2016

Past Reads:
Book of the Month, April 2012

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Feb 22, 2013 Peggy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: modernist-novel

Because I lost my review (didn't save it when moving to a new page to change the edition), I am going to comment briefly, though I think I could easily write a 20 page college term paper on this novel in one night, it was so inspiring. The action takes place in Italy during World War I. Lt. Frederic Henry is an American who has joined the Italian army as an ambulance driver. In a nutshell, Henry meets a British nurse named Catherine, and develops a powerful intimacy with her. Due to the times in Because I lost my review (didn't save it when moving to a new page to change the edition), I am going to comment briefly, though I think I could easily write a 20 page college term paper on this novel in one night, it was so inspiring. The action takes place in Italy during World War I. Lt. Frederic Henry is an American who has joined the Italian army as an ambulance driver. In a nutshell, Henry meets a British nurse named Catherine, and develops a powerful intimacy with her. Due to the times in which he wrote, Hemingway had to denote their sexual relationship off the page, hinting at it through dialogue and brief sum up statements, but it is compelling to them both. This love affair changes Henry from a passive, numb, alienated, cynical alcoholic into a man of action, who saves his own life, risking much in the process (though he remains an alcoholic). His union with Catherine comforts him and inspires him during the worst of times.

A Farewell to Arms is an indictment of war and it faithfully describes war's chaos, unpredictability, and terror. As the story of a relationship, it is more muddled. Catherine is wonderfully witty and engaging, and her lack of interest in bearing a child is entirely believable, judging by her independent spirit and her career. She seems a mature and experienced woman, and is not interested in motherhood or even marriage. She minimizes her pregnancy, and lets Henry know that she won't let it interfere with their sex life. (I couldn't help but remember poor Tonya and Lara, over in Russia during the same time period, each abandoned by Zhivago during their pregnancies.) Like Henry, Catherine seems to have no past, no family ties, no personal history. The sum of her character is in relation to Henry, which doesn't necessarily ring a false note. I do admire her sweetness and bravery.

Catherine seems absolutely content just to be with Henry, but it could be because all the other options are awful. Only once does she drop her consistently loving and charming persona, and then she grabs it back again, quickly. She's a very modern female character, though stuck in a historic era that suppresses her (e.g., lack of access to birth control, abortion, good medical advice). Had that all been available to her, though, the novel's theme would have been diminished, because this is the story of two people buffeted by uncontrollable forces, cornered by them, with no way out, at the end. The end is perfect, and there is no doubt that Henry will soon inhabit his former character again, though now doubly cynical and world-weary.

This novel reads almost as if it were published within the past thirty years. It's so contemporary that I see it as part Oprah's Book Club (a tragic literary romance)and part action/adventure men's novel (Henry's escape from the army's retreat is gripping). This novel rightfully has attained great literary status and it has convinced me that Hemingway deserves all the accolades that he's received as a writer. I'm so glad I read it again.

Note: I read it in high school--and missed quite a bit of the plot. It didn't leave much of an impression then. What a difference several decades can make!
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