Ernest Hemingway - For Whom the Bell Tolls

I've been trying to decide how exactly to write this opinion, because my view of this book is definitely not that of the majority. I did not like it. It got to the point of being a chore to get through, but I had told myself I was going to read this entire thing, and I made myself finish it. "For Whom the Bell Tolls" is the first Hemmingway that I have read, and I am hoping that the rest is not as uninteresting to me as this one was.

One of my best friends loves this book dearly; it is one of his favorites. I had barely started reading it when I discovered this, and I wanted to find what he loved about. That was one of the things that carried me through-- I highly trust this guys opinion, as he has recommended to me several other great books, and I wanted to try to see what he does. But, try as I might, I still don't know exactly what he likes about this book. Every person is different, and not everyone can love the same work of art. Since literature is one of the most subjective things you can write about, here goes my review:

The basic plot line: Robert Jordan is an American who joins up with a rogue band in the Spanish Civil War. His mission is to blow up a bridge, and the book follows him and the people he meets towards this goal. In the short span of a few days that this novel covers, Robert faces the challenges of his mission and the people that he is working with, and falls in love with a girl in the group named Maria.

I am still trying to understand how this novel is so long, though it only covers about 70 hours of time, and is written in Hemmingway's sparse style, which happens to be one of the things that I don't like about it. When there is description, it seemed to be of things that really had no relevance to the story as a whole, such as descriptions of a hotel in Madrid. Tell me the story already! When I got about halfway through this incredibly long novel, and realized it had barely been two days, I was in shock. I think that they were the two longest days ever, and our motto around here is that a week is forever in our building-- this beat out even us. And at one point, Robert Jordan spends almost two entire chapters just talking to himself! This annoyed me more than anything, as much of it seemed really unimportant and unnecessary.

A few gripes coming from the short, sparse writing that is Hemmingway: Many of the characters and scenery I never really felt like I could picture, they were just blank to me. Much of the dialogue felt fake. Very little of it actually felt like it would be real, even in a war situation.

The thing that really kept me going through this book was the basic plot. Hemmingway has a good story here, although I wished at several points that I could be his editor. It was intriguing to me particularly because I am not one to frequently read war stories and because since I thought the premise was so good, I was hoping that the writing would improve at some point. And at least it's not a truly difficult read, unless you happen to be like me, and you attention starts to wander in the middle of it all.

I never really cared about what happened to any of the characters, even though I found the action interesting. If a plot-based novel doesn't bother you, then this may be a good book for you, but I want to relate in some way to one of the characters, and really didn't feel like I could connect with any of them. I especially had a problem with the two main women of the book, Maria and Pilar. Granted, I had already been told that Hemmingway has never really been known to write good women, but these two really did nothing for me, and seemed very flat.

I also hated the way it ended. I won't give it away, of course, but it didn't feel like there was any strong conclusion to the story, which was the main thing that kept me going. Of course, this may not be a problem to you, but I want a feeling of closure, like that story is completely over, and FWTBT never gave it to me.

This book has its high points, and is obviously much loved by many people. So please, read a little of it and form your our opinion. However, because of some things that people say are great, this poet does not like this book.