By Ernest Hemingway
I picked up A Farewell to Arms during The Great Book Shortage of 2010. Mr. had started reading it a few years ago and never finished. He warned me it would potentially be a tough-go. Having never read any Hemingway (part of that all girls education of reading almost only women authors), I had my doubts about this book. I had heard some not great things about his writing style. So you can imagine I was pleasantly surprised when I really liked this book. I couldn’t put it down.
A Farewell to Arms recounts the ill-fated (is that really a spoiler? ) romance between the American Lt. Frederic Henry serving as an ambulance driver for the Italian army in WWI and the British nurse Catherine Barkley. I loved Henry’s wryness like when he told the doctor he just wanted him to amputate his leg so that he could have a hook. Yes, he was kidding. Catherine did annoy me a bit because she seemed a bit dim and I would get frustrated with her. The sense of foreboding particularly toward the end of the novel made me keep on reading. My only complaint was that the dialogue wasn’t marked and I would have to go back at times and figure out who was saying what. I would definitely recommend.
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