Book Review: A Farewell to Arms

Having just finished my first ever 20-minute Pilates workout, I am now sweating like a racehorse and smelling, ooh, so sweet. I am now leaner, longer, and firmer than ever, and quite irritable to boot. However, my Pilates-workout triumph is nothing compared to the fact that I finally summoned up enough gumption to pick up A Farewell to Arms and read it, it being the second of two books I have read this week which I have been intending to read for some time (The other was The Kite Runner; I'll write a review on that tomorrow).

Speaking of triumphs, a very clever bumper sticker designer said once, triumph is simply try with a little umph on it.

I know. Fantastic sentiment. In the words of Orson Welles (though this remark was made in reference to the lyrical beauty of Dean Martin's immortal song "That's Amore", it is still applicable), "It has all the romanticism of a Tidy Bowl commercial." The interesting thing though is that it took more umph to push the scowl off of my face as I picked it up and thumbed past the title page than to actually read the entire 314-page Hemingway novel (I'm still trying to push the scowl away, and I started the book four days ago; I think it's stuck that way).

Plot: The story takes place during the first World War. The narrator/protagonist/anti-hero is a lieutenant and field medic named Fred in the Italian army during the invasion of the Austrian German army. Why he is there, no one, not even he, knows. He meets a Scottish nurse named Catherine, and they fall in love. Fred ends up wounded and the relationship between him and Catherine escalates. When he is sent back to the front after his recovery, he soon meet with disaster when the Italian army begins to retreat. He deserts, finds Catherine, and they intend to escape to Switzerland.

If you are familiar at all with Hemingway, or at least have read my review on The Old Man and the Sea, the ending of A Farewell to Arms will not surprise you, though you may have wished for it to end differently. If you read the story and are disappointed by the ending, you must realize that it had to be that way. It really did. You can't wear a pretty or warm glove if it doesn't fit; you have to deal with ugly and cold ones if they are the only gloves in your size. It's the same with stories. The story dictates to the writer, not the other way around.

Besides, such self-serving individuals as Fred and Catherine would have been horrible par....Never mind. I refuse to give anymore away. Read it and weep. A great story told in typical Hemingway fashion.