…relentlessly realistic dialogue…

(book review)

A Farewell to Arms

Ernest Miller Hemingway (1899-1961)

New York: The Modern Library, 1932.

It’s been a while since I read Hemingway.

A Farewell to Arms is a slow starter, and again I learned to pace myself without too much trouble. The action is restrained but steady, and again I realized gradually that a key element is the relentlessly realistic dialogue.

The American protagonist, Frederick Henry, is involved in every scene. The life of the book is his life. His recurring, desultory involvement in his own life and his role in the Italian Army in World War I is the backdrop of his elaborately recounted relationship with the nurse, Catherine Barkley.

A Farewell to Arms doesn’t really seem to be a war novel. On the other hand, except for brief interludes, the characters really don’t seem to be at peace. For Frederick Henry, it’s an ironic farewell.

* * * * * *

Book review: Seven Gothic Tales

by Isak Dinesen

lush and memorable stories…

click here

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Writing Rainbows: Poems for Grown-Ups with 59 free verse and haiku poems,

and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)

and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”