Reading 1001 discussion

Rating: 3.5 stars

The story of an ambulance driver stationed in Italy during WWI who falls in love with a British nurse. I am not overly fond of Hemingway's writing style and stilted prose, but this is a bittersweet and engaging story. However, there was much room for improvement in terms of character development, etc.

Read in 2013. I gave it 4 stars.

My first Hemingway book and I loved it. Hemingway paints a very vivid picture with his writing. A love story set in Italy during World War I with American ambulance driver Lieutenant Henry and an English nurse Catherine Barkley. Alcohol played almost a character in this book, it is mentioned fondly in every chapter. Hemingway had a love affair with alcohol. I can't recall if I have read any books about World War I so this was a new perspective for me. “Tell me, I have never seen a retreat – if there is a retreat how are all the wounded evacuated?” “They are not. They take as many as they can and leave the rest.” The tragedy of war effects everyone.

I read this in 2011 and did not write a review.

I wrote a review to day; 12/15/2022, Read in 2011 as part of Reading 1001 while still on Shelfari. The story is set during WWI as part of the Italian campaign. it is a first-person account of an American, Frederic Henry, serving as a lieutenant in the ambulance corps of the Italian Army. The protagonist deserts from the army and in so doing is saying farewell to arms. His mistress dies and so there is the farewell of "loving arms". It blends two major themes; love and war.

Hemingway is a very sparse writer any un-necessary words are carefully and clinically parsed away until you are left with a powerful story told in as few words as possible.

I didn’t particularly like any of the characters and the way the story is told kept this reader emotionally distanced from the story but it still managed to give even me a kick in the teeth with that ending.

3 Stars – Read this to see how a professional gets rid of un-necessary words while maintaining a cohesive narrative and then take a moment to appreciate the genius.

A powerful story of love and war set in Italy during the First World War. There is something alienating about our male lead (I love the comment by Diane above that alcohol played a leading part in the story and was almost a character in its own right - several bottles even go to Switzerland with them. The character of Catherine does make you wonder if he had ever properly spoken to a woman. But the ending hit hard and was so well written.

4 stars.

I do enjoy Hemingway, and somehow had never read this one, which is set in Italy during the First World War (when Italy was on the side of the Allies) on the Austrian front. So much literature has focussed on the war in France, or later the Gallipoli campaign, that this part of the war was unfamiliar to me. Hemingway wrote vividly and affectonately about Milan and Stresa, two places I know. He depicts war as stupid, illogical and deeply unfair, common sentiments n the 1920's, when this book was published. My only criticism is that it is impossible to read Hemingway without a drink on hand, so fortunately his books are concise!

I have read The Sun also Rises and For Whom the Bell Tolls. I particularly liked For Whom the Bell Tolls and felt that Hemingway, with his sparse, distanced writing style really captured the war and the love story well. I was somewhat surprised that this book was less effective for me. Hemingway does deliver between the sparse lines. Lt. Henry seems like a tolerant officer in the ambulance corps but shoots a soldier for desertion right before he deserts himself. This short series of events spelled out exactly the craziness of war. The love affair is also held at a distance with Catherine starting out sounding like an idiot, but slowly I began to see that Hemingway only wrote her babble but Catherine was a strong, hardworking women able to ignore other people's judgements. She was steadfast and not "dumb", although Hemingway was not interested in putting intelligent dialogue into her mouth. Tension slowly builds up in both plot lines and we are given a foreshadowing of the ending early on but nevertheless the end is powerful. As Diane and Pip note, the real love affair is with alcohol. My goodness, there was a great deal of drinking. The descriptions of countryside rarely contained an adjective other than dismal but nevertheless I was able to see the beauty of the countryside. All and all I good read.