Book Review: A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

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Hemingway is one of those world-famous authors that I've heard about all my adult life, but never actually got round to reading. I became interested in giving him a try after I found out that he had the same inherited health condition that I suffer from - although in my case, I was diagnosed before any major damage could be done to my organs, and management's quite simple. Unfortunately for Hemingway, he was diagnosed way too late and he'd developed cirrhosis of the liver due to iron overload. So when I saw a scruffy copy of "A Farewell to Arms" on the charity shelf of a local supermaket, I made a donation and took it home with me. I've just finished reading it. First published in 1929, the novel is set during the First World War. The hero is Lietenant Henry, an American who had been studying architecture in Italy when the war started, and who joined the Italian army for unspecified reasons. The timeframe of the novel is a bit vague, but it's probably set between 1916 and 1918, with the action taking place over the course of a year or two. Henry is in charge of a unit of ambulance drivers, stationed in a small town a few miles away from the front line. Fierce fighting is going on in the mountains to the north as the Italians fight the Austrians for control of the area, but Henry sees little of it. A fairly typical young soldier, he spends his time drinking, chatting with his fellow officers and frequenting the local army brothel. The war goes on in the background, with neither side having an obvious advantage. At times, Henry wonders if he's living in the early years of a conflict that will go on for generations. Things start to change when Henry meets a British nurse called Catherine. They embark on a relationship, initially just for the sake of having one. They don't really love each other at first, but they go through the motions of being in love. Catherine seems slightly mentally unstable, her fiance having been killed the year before and Cat wanting a taste of the life she could have had. Henry seems a bit immature when it comes to relationships with women, but finds Catherine attractive so is happy to humour her. Things change when Henry is badly injured in the legs by a mortar strke while visiting the front line, and he's sent to a hospital in Milan. Catherine manages to get herself transferred to this hospital and they truly fall in love while she's caring for him. During Henry's long recuperation, they have a discreet affair with Catherine sharing his bed at nights, and they start to regard themselves as a married couple. They decide that they can't legally get married until the war's over though, because Catherine would be transferred back home and they'd be seperated. As Henry becomes more mobile, he and Catherine spend their time eating out, going to the races and associating with other wealthy foreigners. Then the time comes for Henry to return to his unit. The Central Powers break through the Italian lines and Henry's ambulance unit is part of what starts as an orderly retreat. The retreat soon becomes chaotic though, with Henry's unit getting seperated from the rest of the army, losing their vehicles, and finally losing men. Morale has collapsed among the army generally, with troops turning on their officers. Henry himself is almost killed by some police who are summarily executing officers who they suspect of desertion. Now having to hide from his side, Henry reunites with Catherine, who is now pregnant, and the couple flee to Switzerland. I won't say how the story ends, but the story generally reflects the chaos, insanity and random destructiveness of life during wartime. I was expecting a more dramatic writing style, based on the book's reputation, but the story is told in the first person by Henry, and he has a tendency to focus on small details, and the trivia of everyday life. He doesn't talk much about his own motivations or background, more about what he and Catherine and the other characters do. The relationship between Henry and Catherine is an odd one, at least to me - they go from role-playing to being totally in love, and they both seem to spend a lot of their time mirroring each other's statements and trying to fit each other's image of the ideal spouse. In between the almost journalistic focus on details though, there are some quotable passages, my personal favourite being: "If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.” I'm not sure that this book deserves the classic status that it's often credited with. On the other hand, I'm not a big one for romances, so maybe I'm not the target audience. I found it a fairly enjoyable read. I'm not likely to read it again, but I'll probably read other Hemingway stories. Bearing in mind that it all comes down to personal taste, I'd give this one 3/5.