A Farewell to Arms (1929)

Hemingway's theme is pretty clear - "The world breaks every one". Despite Frederic's good luck - finding love, escaping death, getting away from the war - in the end the world still breaks him. As a love story, the novel is very one-sided. Catherine really only exists as seen through Frederic's eyes - and she seems a bit crazy to use her word. There's a curious lack of honor in this book. ( )

Took me many years and many books to finally get to this one. I listened to the novel. I think thatif I had not been listening, I might have reshelved the book.
Description, setting, the war - extraordinary. Characters are done well but Catherine and Henry left me cold. No tears. Liked the Italians.
A long time since I first read Hemingway so maybe.., ( )

The way I listened to the audiobook version of this novel narrated by John Slattery didn’t do it justice. Being on holidays, away from home and my usual commuting and exercising habits, I listened in short grabs, either just before going to sleep or when I woke up in the early hours of the morning and wanted to get back to sleep again. I had to re-listen to bits I'd missed by dozing off, which does not make for a smooth and cohesive literary experience. In addition, it’s a reasonably short book, but it’s taken me a month or so to finish, which is not good when I have such a poor memory for plot details.

That said, I enjoyed the book much more than I thought I would. I've not read a huge amount of Hemingway, although I've read enough to know that he's not my favourite writer. However, I like the deceptive simplicity of Hemingway's prose - a simplicity extraordinarily difficult to achieve. I also like the way in which Hemingway used his personal experience of being a volunteer ambulance driver at the Italian front during World War I to ground the plot. And I appreciate the complete absence bull fighting in this novel, a passion of Hemingway's to which I cannot relate.

Slattery’s narration is excellent. Thankfully, he’s not one of those male narrators who heads into the falsetto range when voicing a female character. Overall, this has been an unusual audiobook experience for me, but a worthwhile one nevertheless. ( )

Intimate and devestating. A perfect example of of Hemingway's writing style: Say what you and no more. ( )

I read this for the first time in high school, and perhaps once in college, and I still enjoy it very much. Though the ending is quite tragic, the gradual change in Frederick Henry from one who doesn't care about much of anything to a man who cares only for Catherine is quite compelling. Hemingway's style of writing is blunt and to the point, and while he is often criticized for creating misogynistic, alcoholic male leads, in this case I feel he has created something of the opposite. Henry cuts down on his drinking, to an extent, because of Catherine, and he also truly loves her. Granted, their relationship seems to be one of Catherine being subordinate to him, but this isn't always the case ("I never felt like a whore before" she says upon being brought into a hotel room in Milan, which Henry feels bad about) and I do believe that Frederick comes to love Catherine for who she is, and not merely because she tries to please him.

But more than the relationship between Frederick and Catherine, this book has always been about the absolute destructiveness and ultimate pointlessness of war to me. From the first chapter ("only 7000 died" from the cholera) to Imo's death to the absurdity of Henry being shot at by the Italians because they believe him to be a German, Hemingway shows again and again that in the time of war, chaos and loss are dominant and death comes for all. There are also numerous references to how war in the end does very little for the common man; Frederick mentions several times about there being only victory or defeat, and how in the end, neither changes all that much. ( )