I finished A Farewell to Arms last week and I am finally getting around to sharing my thoughts on it. I know this article will rub people the wrong way because if you found it, I imagine you’re a fan of Hemingway. I had only read The Sun Also Rises previous to this, so my experience with him is limited. I definitely got The Old Man and the Sea assigned to me in high school, but I definitely didn’t read it. It is my understanding that this was Hemingway’s second novel and The Sun Also Rises was his first. Also, from what I can gather by reading the introduction to this edition, this was the novel where Hemingway really hit his stride as a novelist. Despite this, I remember liking The Sun Also Rises more. But, I read that a decade ago and I was a different person then, so take that analysis with a grain of salt.

Since this is a book report, I will begin by discussing the actual book I read. I picked it up from my local thrift store. It is the Ernest Hemingway Library edition of A Farewell to Arms. There are appendices after the novel ends that have long sections that he crossed out in manuscripts that didn’t make the final draft and alternate endings. I didn’t really care about his process. I know that the book is considered a masterpiece and that how he had the plot progress was an iterative process. I don’t need to see the stuff he left on the cutting room floor.

If you’re a huge fan of this work, that stuff would be meaningful, but understanding the text on its own merits is what I was after. Also, I’m a big fan of separating the art from the artist, but I knew a couple things about Hemingway going in. First, he committed suicide. That is an unfortunate end for anyone, but I also learned from the introduction that his father committed suicide as well. This, of course made me go to Hemingway’s Wikipedia page where I learned that suicide was common in his family. Also, I learned that he had a transsexual daughter and he had a really hard time accepting that. While it would be easy to hold that against him today, it was a different time back then. We weren’t at the same place culturally as we are now. And, by the sheer number of names Hemingway dropped in his 1948 introduction to this book, it is plain to see that his place in the culture was important to him.

So, even though I had armed myself with these prejudicial facts, I embarked on the story of A Farewell to Arms with an open mind. And, with that, I’m ready to share my thoughts.

It was weird reading about how awesome this book was before getting into it, because I really didn’t like it all that much. It is the story of an American ambulance driver named Frederic Henry who falls in love with an English nurse named Catherine Barkley. The story takes place in Italy during World War I.  Frederic, despite being American, is a lieutenant in the Italian Army.

So, here is the most basic of plot synopses. Frederic meets Catherine. Frederic is injured in a mortar shell attack and is shipped to a Milan hospital. Catherine transfers there and they start a sexual relationship. Catherine reveals she is pregnant as Frederic leaves to head back to the front. The war goes poorly and Frederic has to retreat with his team. During this time, he has to kill two Italian soldiers as deserters. The retreat goes poorly and Frederic’s life is threatened by enlisted men near a river. He jumps into the river and finds his way back to Milan as a deserter. He finds Catherine in a nearby resort town. The authorities discover that Frederic is lodging there as a deserter and are planning to arrest him. Frederic and Catherine abscond across the lake to Switzerland in the dead of night. After some time in Switzerland, Catherine goes into labor. The labor goes poorly and Catherine and the baby die. The end.

So, the story is a tragedy. There has to be a meaning though, right? So I’ll take a stab at getting to it. The point of A Farewell to Arms is that the senselessness of war is a prelude to the senselessness of the tragedy that befalls us in life. Hemingway is obviously anti-war and pro-love, but just because something is good and something is bad doesn’t ensure positive outcomes. Life can be good, life can be bad, but in the end, you and everyone you know will die. Everything you love will someday turn to dust. Maybe I missed the point, but that’s what I took out of it.

Now that I’ve addressed the nature and purpose of the book in my estimation, let’s nitpick some of the details. There is one stylistic thing in this book that turned me off reading it. It’s the dialog scenes. I didn’t find the dialog between Frederic and his surgeon friend Rinaldi believable and I especially didn’t find the dialog between Frederic and Catherine believable. Maybe my inability to accept the dynamic of Frederic’s relationships and how they play out in dialog is a function of not having shared life experiences. I never had a wartime buddy or a wartime love affair. But, I had to check the publication date of the book because a lot of the love dialog reminded me of old-timey movies from the 30’s and 40’s. The book was published in 1929, so it was the book that probably inspired the love dialog in old movies and not the other way around. I just didn’t find it believable. I have never spoken to anyone in that way. It could be that this book is over 90 years old and people spoke differently, it could be that I’ve never had relationships with those dynamics, but I couldn’t find a point of personal relation with the characters.

And, isn’t personally relating to the novel you’re reading what always makes it better? So much of media these days is wish fulfillment, but the best art is something that speaks deeply to who you are. The tragedy of this novel certainly would have played better to a generation where 60 million people had just fought in the war and where infant mortality had personally affected the lives of far more people than today. Now, you can relate the individual experiences of the characters to yourself. Like when Frederic feels nothing upon seeing the Catherine’s corpse because she is no longer there. I have felt that. And having such an emotionally powerful ending will cause this book to stick in people’s minds. It just won’t hang around too long in mine.

So, let’s give A Farewell to Arms a grade. It is a classic. I did get through it relatively quickly. I was able to recall all of the details I’ve shared with you today without taking notes or anything. I guess that means it passes. I give it a B. Above average, but not excellent. Okay that’s all for today. Good bye.