For Whom The Bell Tolls

Robert Jordan's orders are simple enough. At least on the surface they are, though he has his share of misgivings about them. Jordan, an American demolition expert who is fighting with Spanish Republicans versus the Fascists in the vicious Spanish Civil War, is assigned to destroy a key bridge with the aid of a band of a partisan band. Sound simple enough? However, unprofessional allies, bad weather, worse infighting, a budding romance, the threat of betrayal, and a growing realization that his orders are impossible to fulfil all collide to greatly complicate Robert's task. Will Robert succeed in his mission? Or will his obstacles get the better of him?

Ernest Hemingway's For Whom The Bell Tolls, in addition to having a title that yours truly thinks is one of the coolest on the market, is one of the world's classic war novels and is widely considered Hemingway's best novel. I was particularly impressed with this novel's intense realism. Hemingway was a soldier in WWI and served as a war correspondent in the Spanish Civil War, so his portrayal of combat and partisan life behind enemy lines is authentic and gripping. (Warning: A few of the scenes describing brutal atrocities against civilians, though told through flashback, are a bit difficult to read. The chapter describing the liquidation of one town disturbed me profoundly. I thought my readings about Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia had made me hard to shock. I stand corrected.) The real treat for me, though, was the characters. Robert Jordan is not my favorite protagonist, but I do like how complex Hemingway makes him. He is practical and levelheaded, but a bit distant and isn't always sympathetic. Robert's personality quirks were refreshing, because they made him seem more real than the flawless hero of many books. The supporting cast is superb. Hemingway's Spanish guerrillas are so colorful that the come alive: the brutal, inscrutable guerrilla leader Pablo; his brash, willful wife Pilar; morally upright, noble guide Anselmo; foulmouthed, hotheaded Agustin. By the time I finished this book, I felt like I knew them all.

I enjoyed this book, but I thought the pacing was uneven. The first and last parts of the book focus on the complicated mission to destroy the bridge and were suspenseful and entertaining. The middle part, however, slows down to focus on Robert's romance with Maria, a traumatized young woman who the partisans rescued from the fascists. I thought the romance was overly simplistic and a bit too pat. I just couldn't buy the "I saw you and immediately decided to devote my life to you" aspect of their relationship. Part of my problem was that, despite the constant talk of how wonderful their relationship was, it seemed more like blatant lust than true love to me. Also, Maria struck me as being so bland, especially as compared to the other Spaniard characters, that I didn't find her that interesting. I didn't dislike her; on the contrary, I felt sorry for her, but she seemed one dimensional and didn't intrigue me. My only other problem (and this is an odd one) is the profanity. Hehe No, I don't mean that there is too much. In fact, there was too little of it, if that makes any sense. Hemingway, in order to make this novel more marketable, choose to use euphemisms in place of cursing, That didn't bother me, novels with really heavy cursing annoy me, but he also chose to use the word "obscenity" in place of cursing. This confused and distracted me, especially when it was used multiple times in one sentence! This caused me to stop and try to decipher what was being said, so it ended up just disrupting the reading experience. As long as language is not used gratuitously, I do not mind it and actually would have preferred it in this case, because it would have been easier to read.

Pacing and language aside, For Whom The Bell Tolls is a powerful war novel with an exciting story and compelling characters. I have always been fascinated by Spain, but I am not as familiar with the Spanish Civil War as I should be. (Most of my knowledge is about foreign involvement in the war, rather than the actual conflict itself.) Hemingway's realistic, well-crafted book intrigued me and made me want to learn more.

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Announcement: I loved posting three times a week during my winter break, but, alas, I returned to school this week. I like school, but this means that I can only post once a week now. (Waaa!) I will continue to use Wednesdays as my day to post reviews, as I did last semester. (My apologies for being late! Life has been crazy lately.) Unlike last semester, my reviews will be posted in the afternoon or evening, rather than the morning. Thanks to all of you for reading! I will try to continue to give you at least one post a week while I am in school. The good thing is I am taking World Lit. II with my amazing professor, so I should get to blog on some of my assigned reading.

Next Week: I will try my best to review Terry Pratchett's Guards, Guards! I have fallen in love with Discworld and am looking forward to blogging about this combo of humorous fantasy and crime.

All Quiet on the Western Front

Paul Bäumer and his classmates were impressionable teenagers when they signed up to serve in the German army during WWI. They enter the military as idealistic young soldiers, but years of brutal trench combat hardens Paul and his comrades into disillusioned cynics. As the war drags on, Paul begins to question the war's purpose, yet he finds himself incapable of imagining himself in a world without the war which he has come to despise.

All Quiet on the Western Front is a stunning novel. This is one of the most moving novels I've ever read. Author Erich Maria Remarque served in the German military during WWI, and the remarkable amount of detail he uses to describe battle scenes and military life in general adds an exceptional layer of realism to this novel. I have never read more gut wrenching descriptions of battle - several scenes left me teary-eyed and physically ill. I also adored the characters. The sensitive, perceptive Paul is an endearing narrator and his friends, including the resourceful Kat, vindictive Tjaden, and bullheaded Muller are memorable. I always have read that All Quiet on the Western Front is a biting condemnation of war, so I expected to find a lot of blatant pacifistic philosophizing. I don't mind this in a book, (I actually enjoy it), but I do not enjoy being beaten over the head with it. I was relieved that Remarque didn't resort to such heavy-handed tactics. A lesser author would have blatantly told the reader that war was terrible; Remarque, on the other hand, shows the reader the horror of war and his book is all the more compelling because of it.

I watched the classic 1930 film adaptation of this book before I read it. I loved the movie and that's why I became interested in this book. When it comes to films vs. movies, I am usually biased in favor of whichever I encountered first. Not this time. The movie is excellent, but the book is much, much better. The movie stays with the story, for the most part, but the book has so many touching vignettes, which range from amusing to heartbreaking, that add atmosphere, humor, and character development that a film just cannot achieve. I do like the film's striking, famous end scene over the novel's more anticlimatic ending, but it's two entirely different mediums, so a comparision is a bit unfair.

All Quiet on The Western Front is an intense, powerful tale about courage and camaraderie. I highly recommend this excellent novel. I wish I would've read it sooner.

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Next Time: Welllll, it depends. I want to open up the new year with that list of book links and updates to my blog that I have been promising forever. I also want to review Gary Paulsen's Hatchet, which comes highly recommended to me by my dear friend Bev. If I can get Hatchet read before Friday, I will post the review and then do a post on the book links over the weekend. If I don't get it finished in time, my post on my new blog look will be the first one of the new year and then Hatchet will follow.

The Red Badge of Courage

I think it would be fair to say that we’ve all had at least one moment of epic cowardice in our lives. You know…one of those moments where you totally wimp out and run away from your problem rather than facing it, whether your problem is the SATs or that big bully down the street. And, usually, that wimping out moment stays with you for life. You constantly berate yourself, “I could’ve, should’ve, would’ve done it this way…” We’ve all been there, right? Well, welcome to Henry Fielding’s world.

The whole shame from cowardice complex is the major theme of Stephen Crane’s classic The Red Badge of Courage. In this novel, young Union soldier Henry Fleming runs from the battlefield in a moment of panic. He spends a lot of time agonizing over his actions, tries to justify his actions to himself, and then realizes that he can’t justify his actions. Henry is then motivated to redeem himself in battle to pacify his nagging conscience. I have always liked this novel. I first read it when I was eleven and recently decided to reread it. Crane is considered one of the first psychological realists in fiction, and for good reason: His description of Henry’s shame, halfhearted excuses, and mental self-berating is very believable, even if you have no way to relate to his battlefield experiences. Not to say that Crane isn’t adept at straightforward narration as well. Quite a few of the battle scenes are very intense. Crane also writes with a more direct style than most 19th century writers…you won’t get lost under a mountain of adverbs and adjectives with him. I love wordy writers, but Crane’s conciseness adds to the realism of his work and makes it much easier to read. My only issue was that some of the dialogue is a bit stilted and cliched, especially some of the officers. (Their lines sometimes sound like they come from a very stereotypical Disney cartoon about the Civil War.)

Although I liked this novel, I have talked to many people who can’t stand it. I believe you have to approach this novel with the right frame of mind. Don’t read this book expecting tons of dramatic action. The dramatic tension comes from Henry’s mental wrestling, not the battle. Therefore, there is a lot of narration dwelling on Henry’s thoughts, rather than his actions. I know this drives some readers crazy, but Crane is very effective at writing this kind of narration. I think Crane could be considered the forerunner of more complex, later psychological writers. If you like psychological novels, but find experimental stream of consciousness novels, a la Faulkner, impossible, try Crane. I really love Faulkner, but Crane is much more accessible.

The Red Badge of Courage is a powerful mediation on shame, courage, and cowardice. It’s easy to relate to Henry. If you go into this novel with the right frame of mind, you’ll find that a good book awaits.

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Scott suggested I start giving teasers of my next reviews. I thought this was a splendid idea, so I am very excited to announce that next week I will be reviewing Terry Pratchett’s Going Postal! (I do always have a backup book, just in case I can’t get around to the one I want to review. If I don’t get to finish Going Postal, I’ll throw an Agatha Christie review together at the last minute.) But I hope I don’t have to resort to that, because I really, really, really want to review the Pratchett novel.

I also have a question for you guys. Well, several questions. Adding the previews led me to also consider adding some more gadgets to my blog, such as links to some of my favorite book websites and to genre specific websites (like mysteries, sci fi, fantasy, etc.), feeds from the NY Times’ Bestseller lists and prominent book awards (Man Booker Prize, National Book Awards, Penn Faulkner Awards, Pulitzer Prize Awards, etc.), more of my favorite book quotes, and maybe even a link where you can reach my via e-mail (someone wanted to comment but didn’t have a Google account to do so.) It will probably be some time before I can do any of this, because I like to plot, mull, ponder, scheme, and brood before I make a decision. But I’m a big believer in getting second, third, and fourth opinions, so I am interested in what you guys think. Would these features interest you or not? Any other suggestions to aid me in my plotting, mulling, pondering, scheming, and brooding? I really do appreciate all of you for reading and commenting and I want y’all to be happy with zellakate, so let me know if you have any ideas for things I could add to my blog!