Published: 1929 (Scribner)
Ernest Hemingway’s novel, A Farewell to Arms, reads like a long sip of whiskey that burns the throat while in the same turn calming the senses. Immersed in tales of the Italian Front of WWI, I read each short chapter staring out at a lake, fitting for a novel that is set on rivers, war-torn roads, wind-swept lakes, and calm bars and hotels. The protagonist Frederic Henry is an American ambulance driver for the Italian Army, joining up and receiving the rank of lieutenant after ditching architecture school due to the war. Being an American in the Italian army brings skepticism and admiration in equal measure, widening the cast of characters around Henry. Throughout the novel, hard drinking nights of grappa and vermouth and conversations with other soldiers, priests, barkeepers, and nurses are interspersed with extended descriptions of northern Italy. Hemingway essentially gave the reader a Google Maps reading of the front with his detailed and descriptive prose, as well as a sample bar menu for Yelp.
When Henry wasn’t out transporting wounded soldiers back from the front, he was, along with his mates, flirting with the nurses. One nurse, Catherine Barkley from Scotland, caught his eye and after some witty banter and subtext the two started a short-lived fling. But as this novel is want to do, the front comes calling and Henry, almost unceremoniously, bids Cat farewell to help on the front. Each turn of the novel, front to Cat and back again, starts to flip the script on the thematic dynamics present. Henry initially is bound by honor and encouraged to perform his duty with only a sprinkle of anti-war pessimism early on. By the end of Henry’s tour with the Italians, he is fully against the war and abandons his post to flee and return to Cat. Conversely, when he first meets Cat he has lust for her but no real plan or longing to commit. As his experiences with war push from the mid to late 1910s, he gets less romantic about the war and more romantic about Cat, capped off by Cat’s announcement that she is pregnant. Henry and Cat end up fleeing the Italian front after Henry is accused of being a traitor because he was involved in a retreat in his last offensive. He escapes with Cat and leaves his silver-studded uniform aside, rowing to the safety of Switzerland. By the end of the novel, this thematic change fuses into a chimera of pain and suffering. Just as Cat and Henry get settled in to their new life in Switzerland away from the horrors of war, Cat struggles with her pregnancy. Cat and the baby pass away tragically at the end of the novel leaving Henry with scars and a dull sense that life is hell and you die. These themes, as they are presented, are ones usually reserved for war and the trauma associated with it, but what Henry rejected the war for ultimately brought him to that low, hollow pit.
Some final thoughts:
- I love how Hemingway paces his novel. The whole novel consists of war scenes in short six page bursts that are filled with thick description, an immersive experience that moves you through spaces and conversations but doesn’t leave you drowning in meaning. The whiskey burn of the horrors of war is almost always quickly alleviated by natural wonder and brotherhood. Right when you settle into this similar flow with Henry and Cat at the end of the novel, where their lives are grand and loving in a Swiss chalet, a torrent of a 20-plus page last chapter leaves the reader breathless and hopeless as Henry walks into the rain, despondent. Just as he surgically describes the Italian countryside, he describes a delivery room C-section and the grasp for good news amidst peril.
- Hemingway has a certain ethos and masculinity which is not valued by a large section of society anymore, and I am not saying that I ascribe to his lifestyle or antiquated values in a modern age, but it makes for the type of prose which sits closer to the heart than the head. I find myself feeling with his characters, thinking along with them, seeing through their eyes. I don’t feel the need or want to dissect or criticize his characters because he doesn’t feel the need to. Sometimes asking less questions of the reader helps the reader find more answers.
Rating: 4.6/5
Will Reviews Things 