"A Farewell to Arms" by Ernest Hemingway

I feel like I always have to find a new way to write about the book I have just read. Each time it is a struggle. Usually if something about the work really moves me, then it is that very thing that takes the focus in my response to the work. But a lot of time I have to ask myself what it is that I can write about the work. Sometimes the simplest question such as what is the book about is very tough to answer.

I thoroughly enjoy reading "A Farewell to Arms," mostly because of the writing style. Hemingway's prose is simple yet poetic. He keeps the story moving all the time while making every scene and every emotion very vivid in the readers' mind. He has a way of describing a lot of things without wearing the readers out.

It is a story about World War I, and at the heart of it is a love story between Frederic Henry, the narrator who is most often referred to as "Tenente," and Catherine Barkley, his nurse. The novel portrays the soldiers' mentality superbly; what I find lacking is the emotional effect in the love story. Despite being inspired by Hemingway's own affair, I don't feel moved by the love story. Too often I found myself unsure of the love they felt for each other. Most of the scenes in this novel, including the scenes between the two lovers, are constructed with one spoken line after another with barely any narrations incorporated into the dialogues. That might have made the romance more believable and effective.

Despite not being completely enthralled by the story or the characters, I find the writing style infectious, making me want to read more of Hemingway's works soon. I didn't mention that this is my first Hemingway. It is a surprise I had waited this long. I have been spending most of my time reading British literature and missing out on a lot of American goods. Now that I'm not in school anymore I'm learning to give myself more freedom to explore the world of literature. I don't think my ever-growing list of books to be read immediately, or books I should have read years ago, or books I have been wanting to read in forever, will ever end. My life will before it does.