Jul 21, 2013 08:44 AM
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(Updated Jul 21, 2013 08:47 AM)
The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kill. It kills the very good one and the very gentle one and the very brave impatiently. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.
I read Hemingway at least once a year. Last two years I read ‘The Sun Also Rises’ and then ‘To Have and Have Not’, in both the cases my experience was a mixed bag of feelings. I was overwhelmed by the writing style of Hemingway but somehow weak plot and too much dragging make them an average affair. This year, however, I picked one of the best works of Hemingway – ‘A Farewell to Arms’ (AFTA). This year again it was an awesome experience but not only in terms of Hemingway’s unique and moving style of writing but also because of a very interesting plot. From start to finish, writing sticks to the plot, there are no unnecessary characters and there is no dragging from the plot; some of the things that were missing in my earlier reads of Hemingway.
ABOUT THE STORY: AFTA is chiefly the love story of Frederick Henry and Catherine Berkley in the times of WW1, which plays a major role their lives by making circumstances leading to their meeting and then separating and then uniting again. Henry is an American Lieutenant in the Italian Army. He leads a team of ambulance driver during the combat times to bring back the injured and wounded from the front. Catherine is an English nurse in the hospital serving the ones wounded in war. Henry’s Friend Rinaldi introduces them and after a meeting or two they start to like each other. As the fight starts again, Henry has to leave to serve at the front. He gets wounded in the leg and is sent to Milan for cure where he meets Catherine again. There they spent some time together, during which they fall in love and start to dream about the future together.
After recovering Henry is sent to Caporetto wherein he participates in a major battle. But Italy has to retreat and Henry somehow manages to save his life – from the army of Germany as well as that of Italy, while they execute the officers who run away from the front (to create an example). He arrives in Milan, tired and exhausted, with no wish to return to the war. He has already bid his Farwell to Arms.
"It was no point of honor. I was not against them. I was through. I wished them all the luck. There were good ones, and the brave ones, and the calm ones, and the sensible ones, and they deserve it. But it was not my show anymore."
He meets Catherine, who is pregnant now with his child and plans to escape from Italy. They cross the border through a lake, during night time, with a boat and flee to Switzerland (neutral country during WW1) .
In Switzerland they find some peace and spend some nice time together waiting for the delivery of the child and for the war to end. Hemingway leads these two characters so beautifully till the end, going through so many ups and downs, that readers starts to expect that finally they will get the happy ending, as always is the case, but this is no happy affair. Hardly a story with background of War could get a happy ending. A tragedy follows towards the end of the tale, making your heart break. How I wanted to change the climax for the sake of miserable Henry and Catherine! But from the books perspective it could not have been better. But that’s something I leave for you to find in the book.
Parallel to the love story runs the story of War, Infact they are quite inseparable. Hemingway himself worked as a Red-Cross Ambulance driver during WW1 in Italian Army and was severely wounded in the legs as well. There is lot of autobiographical elements in the books, love story, though I guess, form the imaginative part though, who knows. Lots of characters in the book seem to have been driven from locales and people that he met during those days of War.
ABOUT THE BOOK: Beauty with which Hemingway brings to life the love story of Henry and Catherine is inexplicable. He has hardly used words to make reader emotionally involved in the story. The narrative is too direct and with dialogues he has hardly associated any adjectives to explain the emotions of the characters. Still through dialogues, and only through dialogues, he manages to make a reader involved with his characters; you start to feel for them. By the time Climax approaches, you laugh and cry with Henry and Catherine and so, when tragedy happens, you are too absorbed and involved with them not to feel sad and depressed, not only for them but for yourself as well.
"They were beaten to start with. They were beaten when they took them from their farms and put them in the army. That’s why the peasants have wisdom, because he is defeated from the start. Put him in power and see how wise he is."
Same way, Hemingway succeeds in bringing to life the pains and horrors of a War. Soldiers tired of guns and war, with opinions totally anti-war; they hardly have anything to feel proud of. ATFA speaks about the common man’s perspective of the war as well; what a soldier really fighting at the front thinks of War.
Other than Henry and Catherine, there are many more unforgettable characters like Henry’s friend and sub-ordinates, Rinaldi and the Priest (There conversations are good to read and tells about general thinking about war); the barman in Milan who helps them escape to Switzerland; and Old Count Craffii (brings in Old man’s view on War).
First published in 1929, AFTA was Hemingway’s first major work which established him as a writer. It was received well with liking from both general readers and the critics. They call it Novel that made Hemingway and many consider it to be the best book that’s been written about the World War I. They say Hemingway wrote and re-wrote AFTA making the first draft in 8 months and then 5 months he spent on finalizing it. Last page of the book he wrote 29 times before finalizing on the one. Amazing!!
Most of Hemingway’s works are known to be tragedies; you should not read his work expecting a happy ending. Same is the case in AFTA. Right from the very first chapter a reader can sense the doom that hangs on its protagonists. Mastery of Hemingway lies in not making it an austere heartbreak. A reader is lead through a roller coaster of a sort with punch of Happy-Sad; Life-Death, Adventure-Emotion kind of varying feelings. Tempo is gripping throughout, which makes sure that a reader reaches the last chapter with uplifted excitement expecting a happy ending but what he really gets is a drowning into the depth of Sadness.
LAST WORDS: Well, there are so many things I want to write about this book, seems like I can keep writing forever. But let’s get to the point here. ‘A Farewell to Arms’ is one of the best books that have ever been written. What makes it special? Here goes the list: Hemingway’s powerful descriptive writing, you don’t read the words you listen to them; a taut plot with lots of ups and downs, happy-sad moments; gripping to the end; the way it covers the War bringing to the reader lively images of the WW1; one of the best love story that has ever been written with the background of war; unforgettable characters like Henry and Catherine; and lot many things that I am not able to convey in words here. So ending this review with one small Quote from the book that speaks a lot about the way nations generally perceive Wars.
No one stop when they have won a victory. It is in defeat that we become Christian.
P.S : 21st July(Today) marks the 114th Birth Anniversary of Ernest Hemingway. This review is my tribute to the prodigy of descriptive writing on his special day.
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PYAR HUMEIN PHIR MILAAEGA....
