I posted yesterday for the first time in ages - I've been telling myself that I've been too busy writing other stuff - and had only posted once in the month of May; the last time before that was mid-April, when I mentioned I would be reading Hemingway's 'For Whom the Bell Tolls'.
I finished it a few weeks ago, and here are my thoughts.
By simple maths, you can work out how long it took me to read 'For Whom the Bell Tolls'; it didn't immediately grab me like the only other book I've read by Hemingway, 'A Farewell to Arms'.
I found the first part of 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' fairly hard-going - I guess I didn't feel as much for the characters or care about their fate - initially - as I did with those in 'A Farewell to Arms'.
This may be because you're introduced to more characters in 'For Whom the Bell Tolls', and they have more dimensions to them, so it is harder to form quick opinions on them - although you would think this would have the opposite effect, of drawing you into the book, with the characters being more fleshed out.
I have heard Hemingway's prose described as "masculine", and, based on 'A Farewell to Arms', didn't understand this - however, having read 'For Whom the Bell Tolls', I now do.
The main character, Robert Jordan, whose mission, during the Spanish Civil War, it is to blow up a bridge, soon establishes himself as the alpha male in the guerilla gang tasked with helping him.
Robert Jordan is masculine, perhaps even hyper-masculine; he is more machine than man - throughout the book he is constantly referred to as 'Robert Jordan', labelled like a Lee-Enfield rifle, or a M4 Sherman tank. I cannot remember one occasion on which he is called anything but Robert Jordan.
This shows the dehumanising effects of war.
In 'For Whom the Bell Tolls', there are obvious parallels between Robert Jordan and Hemingway - even to my basic knowledge of the writer's life - in that we know Robert Jordan's father committed suicide, as did Hemingway's, leaving Robert Jordan feeling that his father is a coward. I am unsure if Hemingway felt the same.
On a more positive note, 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' introduced me to some mind-blowing swearing.
In the book, Hemingway uses archaic English language, such as 'thou', to show that the characters are actually speaking Spanish - which could be another reason why it took me a while to get into the story. He translates a famous, bizarre Spanish profanity, "Me cago en la leche", as "I obscenity in the milk" - obviously sparing some blushes, as it actually means, "I shit in the milk".
I shit in the milk. I hope to write more about Spanish swearing in a later post.
The narrative in 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' really begins to pick up as the day of the bridge bombing nears. I truly believed in the passion of the characters, as the day they fear they will die approaches, and especially in that between Robert Jordan and Maria, the young Spaniard with whom he falls in love.
The pair dream of life together after the war. Without giving too much away, I was absolutely heartbroken at the book's end.
'For Whom the Bell Tolls' has a very ambiguous ending - finishing with the narrative device often used since, of the story just cutting off. I don't know if the book was the first to do this, but would be interested
