A Farewell to Arms
16 May 2006, lunch time
I finished reading A Farewell to Arms on the bus this morning. The rest of the bus ride was depressing. It was raining. I suppose if there is one thing wrong with Hemmingway’s books, it is that you know how they all will end. A Farewell to Arms is no exception to this rule. While the book isn’t as depressing as For Whom the Bell Tolls, which I think is the saddest book ever written, it’s still pretty damn sad. I think as human beings we have a natural revulsion to the sorts of endings Hemmingway writes. Deep down I knew how a A Farewell to Arms would end, once the story got going, but the ending your mind conjures up is so depressing you just can’t accept it as the probable outcome. So you read hoping for something else, a more typical conclusion to the story, and when you come to the end its like being punched in the stomach.
Yes Hemmingway is a kind of ruthless writer.
He tells us the life, however.
We try to avoid reality, dipping in the world of beautiful movies, reading happy-end books. And there are writers, reminding, that not every story ends well. It is sadly when you meet sad stories in life and then in books… Anyhow I’m for diversity:)
by Alessandro from Greece on May 17 2006, 8:11 am #