04 April 2010

WEEK FOURTEEN - 'A FAREWELL TO ARMS'

'A Farewell to Arms' by Ernest Hemingway
March 30 - April 3, 293 pages

First of all, let's take a moment to appreciate how brilliant the name 'Ernest Hemingway' is. Good.

This was the first Hemingway I have read and it was quite different to what I expected. That's not to say it wasn't great. I really enjoyed reading it. The passages when Henry is drunk are just perfect and the conversation about luge and toboggans is particularly amazing. 'You see he has never even heard of luge-ing!' Hilarious. Also a commentary on WWI and war itself - 'War is not won by victory' - and a beautiful love story - 'I want you so much I want to be you too' -, this novel is an experience. I really enjoyed it. It was like a perfect scoop of those ice cream flavours that you never want to choose between. Did that make sense? Probably not.

I will most definitely be reading more by Hemingway.

Here are some other quotes that I enjoyed:

'We never get anything. We are born with all we have and we never learn. We never get anything new. We all start complete.' I like this because it is an interesting idea. I never even considered entertaining such a thought. I can't decide whether I agree with it. I must ponder it some more.

'Let's go to sleep at exactly the same moment.'

'I've always wanted to have a tail like that. Wouldn't it be fun if we had brushes like a fox?'
'It might be very difficult dressing.'

Yeah, the conversation in this novel is brilliant. Especially between Henry and Catherine. I just love it. I wish I hadn't read some of it just so that I could discover it for the first time again.

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