For Whom the Bell Tolls
Ratings118
Average rating3.8
15
Ratings118
Average rating3.8
High in the pine forests of the Spanish Sierra, a guerrilla band prepares to blow up a vital bridge. Robert Jordan, a young American volunteer, has been sent to handle the dynamiting. There, in the mountains, he finds the dangers and the intense comradeship of war. And there he discovers Maria, a young woman who has escaped from Franco's rebels.
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Classic Hemingway. Years later I was luck enough to go on a hike for several days in the mountains of Northern Spain and be constantly reminded of this book - this is a testament to how well Hemingway paints his imagery.
Hemingway is capable of a near perfect style but he doesn't seem to be aware that if he just let it be, it would be sufficient. So he ruins books by having too much plot. This one in particular had, imo, (it's all imo), a butchered ending, one that turns the whole story into propaganda of sorts, a book with a thesis.
But that's just the last 10 or so pages, so still many many pages of great reading.
It's been a good week since I read the book but I still can't stop thinking about it. This is my first Hemingway book, I'm excited to read more.
This is my first time reading a Hemingway novel and I had some major challenges with it. First, I had a very hard time keeping track of all of the names that Robert Jordan, the hero of the story was called and the background stories of the other characters were a bit on the dull side at times, but the short chapters made it very easy to manage them. The other thing that bugged me about this story is how quickly Maria and Robert fall in love because it sort felt like insta love in a way since they barley knew each other at all throughout the whole entire book.
Despite the things I disliked, I thought that the characters were interesting and the short chapters made this story very engaging to me. Also, I like the fact that the plot didn't always focus on the gritty side of war all of the time by adding other major themes in the story and the fact that Hemingway could manage this without even dealing with the destroying of the bridge for 400 and more pages shows how good of an author he is.
To me, this was a good book that involves the genre of historical fiction, while combining traits that anyone could relate to and I can see why this historical fiction is book is a classic because there is a lot more to this story than war itself.
