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A Farewell to Arms,
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Elliotte Bagg
I am half way through this book, it's my first Hemingway and it is completely baffling to me after having heard so much hype about him. He constantly uses run-sentences that are exhaustively long. The dialogue, especially between the protagonist and love interest, just feels stilted and unnatural, like something from Tommy Wisseau's film The Room! I am a fan of WW1 era stories but this one feels pretty shallow. I do feel like I am missing something about why he is considered such an amazing author, is it just because his style is so different that it feels special?
Sean Flamand
No, quite the contrary. His style is immensely readable and easy to understand.
Andronikos
Personally I think forcing the reader to do *some work is a good thing... the whole "show don't tell" idea. Gene Wolfe does it: not actually "telling" the reader anything and assuming they know the dynamics of his world so they have to "discover" the setting... makes it much more interesting...
What I was referring to was Hemingway's sentence structure. Farewell to Arms is a great story... I just find myself running into walls because the terseness just defies all logic of writing... I have to read everything three times for it to makes sense. You appear to be a Hemingway fan: to be honest, I kind of envy you for the ability to get past his REALLY AWKWARD style to the meat beneath...
What I was referring to was Hemingway's sentence structure. Farewell to Arms is a great story... I just find myself running into walls because the terseness just defies all logic of writing... I have to read everything three times for it to makes sense. You appear to be a Hemingway fan: to be honest, I kind of envy you for the ability to get past his REALLY AWKWARD style to the meat beneath...
Sixfootamazon
I could not get past the first 100 pages. It was like reading a teenagers diary. I love to read but this was unbearable.
Jamie Flower
I think his style works better for short stories than novels. In my opinion he was an overrated novelist but a great writer of short stories.
Andrew Hyland
My thought: When the sentences are short and choppy, this is him recounting his experiences. When the sentences are long and rambling, he is telling his story. I am not sure if this is true but it has always helped me when reading the book.
Betsy
As a former third grade teacher that read many a student's story with endless dialogue, I can't help but see the comparison. Have to read this as a break through technique. When I read him, I'm looking for his format and analyzing not lost in the story.
Kimberly
I have never understood why Hemingway was a more popular author than Fitzgerald when they were both living. I love Fitzgerald's works but can't read Hemingway though I've made several attempts.
Rachelle Olivia
Initially I found it to be a little slow in parts - but I think it was meant to be that way. In wartime, things pick up pace, then slow to a crawl, then pick up again, then stall, and so on. It makes it more realistic. And Hemingway's terse, short prose is perfectly fitting for the general mood of the story as well as those incredibly moving scenes of soldiers having to cope with the bitter realities of war. I didn't find it unreadable at all.
Dan Marsh
The style really really worked for me in The Sun Also Rises. I loved that book. But in this one it made everything seem fake and incomplete.
I wouldn't call it unreadable, just distracting in this case.
I wouldn't call it unreadable, just distracting in this case.
STEPHEN MACPHERSON
Hemingway compared his style to an iceberg: only a quarter of it can be seen, while three-quarters stays hidden underwater. Readers should bring any previous knowledge they possess to their reading of any of Hemingway's works. Do a little research on him, and you'll see similarities between the author and Frederick, the main character. The terse, compact sentences are born from Hemingway's journalistic background.
Bonnie
I absolutely do not enjoy Hemingway.
Where'sTheAnyKey?
I think many of you may be my second-to-last hope in understanding Hemingway. All the sources I've found, including some of the comments here, say he writes short sentences.
This is what I need help understanding. His sentences appear long, many looking like paragraphs, made of ideas connected by many "ands". Are these sentences still considered short?
This is what I need help understanding. His sentences appear long, many looking like paragraphs, made of ideas connected by many "ands". Are these sentences still considered short?
Marian Wainwright
If you didn't complete reading this novel, I suggest you listen to the audio version read by John Slattery. I found it captivating... but I also wondered if I would have been so if I'd read it. I found it a wonderful story to listen to.
Lisa Lazarus
Interesting that you say this. I was surprised at first by Hemingway's style - this is the first book of his I've read. I've heard so much about his style and that he is arguably one of the greatest writers of all time. I've never read anything like this before. It took me a little time to get into the style, and some of the sentences are quite meandering, but then I got the sense that this was a bit like the war felt like to the character - long, vague, meandering. I find the style - the dialogue in particular, almost, underwritten as if there is so much going on underneath the lines that what is not there is almost more important than what is there. So in the end I found it poignant.
Elsa Kiaitsi
Same... I bought this book as I've read a beautiful love quote-paragraph somewhere on instagram and knew only Hemingway as a very famous author. I'm in Chapter 11, page 63 and im bored my life.. Really forcing myself to read and pass the pages hoping later in chapters will be more interesting!!
Patrick Powell
Someone else mentioned that Hemingway's style is more suited to short stories and that's true. Despite the, well, hype, he is not a novelist and, if truth be told, not much of a writer.
He caused a splash with his first collection of short stories and his first novel, mainly because they were 'different, in style and content, and because - for the time and place mid-1920s USA they were 'shocking'. After that it was a slow, slow decline, though his fame increased, in part because of his gift for self-publicity.
He was a complex man who sadly believed his own bullshit and was convinced he was the a bloody good writer. Actually, there were far better around, but none was as ruthlessly ambitious as Hemingway.
He caused a splash with his first collection of short stories and his first novel, mainly because they were 'different, in style and content, and because - for the time and place mid-1920s USA they were 'shocking'. After that it was a slow, slow decline, though his fame increased, in part because of his gift for self-publicity.
He was a complex man who sadly believed his own bullshit and was convinced he was the a bloody good writer. Actually, there were far better around, but none was as ruthlessly ambitious as Hemingway.
Foad
hell yes !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kevin Teigen
I have listened to A Farewell to Arms and The Sun Also Rises as audiobooks, but never actually read a Hemingway novel. My hunch is that I would struggle through the run-on sentences on the page, but that readers captured the voice in a way that was captivating. Unreadable (for me)? Maybe. Un-listenable? Certainly not.
Herrholz Paul
Hemingway is known for his very sparse style `They drove down a dusty road. The day was scorching. The trees were wilting in the heat...` I found the style suited me well but the story itself, not so much!
Ecem Simsek
I don't agree with you.
Evan Lien
oh, i'm listening to the audiobook now, and to be honest, i love the way he writes! it reminds me a lot of c. s. lewis for some reason. think it's the descriptions. but the guy who reads it is good, too, though, so it might all just be him.
Iva
I'm not a fan but it did serve a purpose at that time. I think H brought an end to Henry James et al.
While today it does seem a bit affected and stylized, I think we need to cut him some slack.
And yes, his short stories work best. Novels seem strained, at least for me.
While today it does seem a bit affected and stylized, I think we need to cut him some slack.
And yes, his short stories work best. Novels seem strained, at least for me.
Carlos
It's the "Iceberg Style", with rare train-of-thought passages (when sleepy or panicked).
look up https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceberg...
look up https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceberg...
Hasnain Zeenwala
I think the best way to read him is not to analyse too much. Just keep reading, and eventually, you will start enjoying the dialogue and his commentary (or lack thereof).
James Buchanan
I read below and don't even understand what is hard to read about Hemingway. I think the story drags in places and is dark in other places, but a story about WWI should do those things in my mind. Seems to me that WWI was slow sometimes while most of the time being pretty dark and soul robbing.
But I don't find it hard to read.
But I don't find it hard to read.
Nuno Virgílio
i had the same feeling the first book i've -tried- to read (fiesta).
gave it another try and loved "for whom the bell tolls", and "the snows of kilimanjaro"
don't judge the forest by looking at one single tree.
gave it another try and loved "for whom the bell tolls", and "the snows of kilimanjaro"
don't judge the forest by looking at one single tree.
David Absalom
I wish I'd read it before. He was very disciplined in his writing. Reading him is like being in a hot, stuffy car and opening a window to get some air.
Mick Tarry
This answer contains spoilers…
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Dave
I have a 3-novel 'big book' (edition not listed in G.R.--it's that old!) and just finished 'The Sun Also Rises'. Now comes 'Farewell to Arms' next. The last, 'The Old Man and the Sea,' I had to read 40-plus years ago, and I may not read it again. I couldn't even describe 'Sun...' in the 'what did you think?' blank -- it's either 'almost unreadable' or the reader has to work so hard (and does, automatically) supplying so many thoughts and side-stories as the reading goes along, because Hemingway has stripped out nearly everything that 'we' usually respond to in a novel. I can't decide if forcing a reader to do so much is a good thing... or a bad thing... ?Wish me luck?
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