A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

Maybe I just have too high expectations. Maybe I just need to only read coverless books and wait till I’ve finished before discovering the author. Whatever is wrong with me, I have yet to experience Hemingway the way most people have, which is to say I haven’t loved his books. But hear me out. The Sun Also Rises—sweet characters centered on the narrator who is pretty plain, but nothing wrong with that. But they weren’t interesting enough to where they could do whatever they want and I would just happily follow them around carelessly. So the problem was I wasn’t sure what the conflict was as they traveled from place to place. Also, I can’t remember the girl’s name but she was really annoying. The Old Man and the Sea—readable for sure, and I’ve grown to like it more and more but I just don’t see where the genius is (ok, that’s probably my fault). I wanted to have more concern for whether he caught the fish or not but it wasn’t there and I couldn’t force it. I was really looking forward to reading A Farewell to Arms, especially after I presumed, and then argued, that it should have easily been ranked higher than Catch-22 on The List. But my third attempt at Hemingway was again not great. Which stinks because I want to like him so much—the man fascinates me, but his books don’t have the same effect.
But first, I want to say what I did like about this book. The dialogue is sick. The conversations in this book flow without flaw and it seems that when Hemingway was writing that he knew exactly what his characters would say next without his having to force words into their mouths. The man knows dialogue and in the short story, Hills like White Elephants, the dialogue does not get any better or meaningful. (I actually did really like that short story of his.)
But, like the complaint with the last book I read, I couldn’t care less about what happens to the characters. They are completely stupid and the two people closest to the main character, his girlfriend/babymama and his roommate, are the worst. They are absolutely obnoxious. The roommate, Rinaldio(?), is overly obsequious towards Tenete and calls him baby almost every other sentence. So not only is reading their interactions exasperating, it makes you feel like you’re peeping in on a Schmitt’s Gay beer commercial. Also, the nature of Tenete and Catherine’s relationship makes me want to throw up. You know those couples that can’t stop looking at each other and kiss every 2 seconds and ask questions like, “If I was thrown into a 4,000 degree fire without any firefighters around and was burned beyond recognition, would you still love me?” to which the answer is always yes? They’re kind of like that except smarter and can use richer and more poetic language but to me at least it was equally annoying. I also understand that this could have been the point to these characters but the ends don’t justify the means.
I’m not giving up on ol’ Ernie yet though. I want to read more of his short stories and perhaps if I enjoy them then eventually his novels will follow.

So this concludes war novel month for me and, regrettably, only one book truly stood out while the other three were only merely enjoyable, or almost that. Final rankings:

1. All Quiet on the Western Front
2. Going After Cacciato
3. (tie) Catch-22 and A Farewell to Arms