A Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway
1929 355pgs. ( ~ 73,000 words)  Realism

A Farewell to Arms is a classic by Ernest Hemingway, inspired by his experience as an ambulance driver for the Italian Red Cross in World War One and his real-life love affair with Agnes von Kurowsky, a Red Cross nurse.

Frederick Henry, an American serving in the Italian Army as a Lieutenant and director of ambulance drivers, is injured during an attack and taken to a hospital. While recovering, he falls in love with a British nurse. He returns to the front line to continue his duty, and when the Italian army retreats in 1917, he is captured by battle police and escapes. He reunites with Catherine and the two flee to Switzerland to escape the Italian army.

This is considered one of Hemingway’s classics and was his first bestseller — yet I cannot figure out why. The dialogue is sometimes difficult to follow. As Frederick collaborates with his Italian medics and doctors, much of the chatter feels disjointed. Perhaps that’s the appeal — that the confusion mirrors the experience of war itself. I also encountered, for the first time, sentences loaded with far more commas than I thought were allowed, and I often felt that Hemingway was describing things in way too much detail. That said, the overall story is easy to follow.

The way it ends is almost melodramatic. The final section follows Frederick and Catherine — who is pregnant with their child — as they wait in Switzerland for the birth. As the birth unfolds, you can feel what is coming. It’s almost as if Hemingway wrote the ending as a man whose inspiration had died, given that Agnes chose to marry someone else instead of him.

Would I recommend this book? It is not a horrible book, but it never gripped me enough to keep coming back to it. I actually read another book alongside it over two weeks before finally sitting down and finishing it in two hours just to have it done. I would recommend reading it in one or two sittings if you can. I’ve been told that For Whom the Bell Tolls is the best Hemingway — and I have already added that to my reading list.

Enjoy a cup of coffee and a good book!

Lopaka