Farewell To Arms

I was kind of excited to read this book since I had enjoyed the last two Hemingways as much as I did. Well, I can tell you, For Whom The Bells Toll it wasn't. Farewell to Arms is the semi-autobiographical story of Hemingway and his misogny...ok, so I'm a little cynical. It's actually a story of the love between Henry, an ambulance driver during the war, and Catherine, a nurse.

The book wasn't that bad, I guess. Maybe this is horrible, but I just wasn't that interested in what was going on. I just wasn't. Basically it tells the story of Henry and his experience in war. He gets wounded and ends up, conveniently, in the hospital that Catherine is working. They fall in love and over come all obstacles to be together. Well, not quite as neat as that, but more or less, and isn't that what we expect out of a love story?

Sadly, the farewell to arms is not actually in reference to Hemingway, or Henry, for that matter, losing his arms. I was sort of hoping that this would be the plot, simply because one armed people are funny. But alas, it is a farewell to the arms of war, which isn't quite as fun. Although, I guess that peace is always better than war.

We journey through the relationship between Henry and Catherine, which, surprisingly, is very calm and neither really fight with the other, which is so unrealistic. It's even more surprising because Henry, is as a general rule, such a selfish pig. But, I guess it works because Catherine is so submissive. It's a good relationship. Healthy.

I guess I was more disappointed than anything. I really wanted this to be another For Whome The Bells Toll and it just wasn't. I didn't really have an interest in the characters. Henry was so withdrawn from emotions and everything was just, eh, it happens. I felt as if this book was much more characteristically Hemingway, and it reminded me why I don't like him. I wish I could make all this great insight into the book, I just can't. I just wasn't interested.

I apologize.

Moral Of The Story: Books that have interesting characters that you care about, are much more interesting than books with characters that you're bored with.