Across the River and into the Trees

Rating:
Summary: A shadow of a novel
Review: I didn't like this. I found much of it pointless and unnecessary. It was essentially the hero's encounter with the girl he loves but can't have (vintage Hemingway fare), where they rattle on about the Italian war (or is it WWII?) and bemoan their fate several times.

Nothing much happens; there was no climax, no plot movement. The dialogue is plodding and unrealistic to the point of disbelief. In this I was especially disappointed, given Hemingway's usual skill with dialogue. It seems like a shadow of a novel. The kind of novel a tired, old man would sit down and write, a story not *about* the war but a story about a man looking back and talking about the war, in a very long-winded and obscure fashion to boot. It had no life or vitality to it ... and this lack seemed to reflect as much from the author as from the book itself.

Rating:
Summary: Pure Drivel
Review: I happen to like Hemingway, having read most of his novels, short stories, as well as Green Hills of Africa. While his lean style and powerful undercurrent of emotions make novels such as The Sun Also Rises unforgettable, this book epitomizes everything that was flawed in Hemingway's later writings.

The book is pure drivel. The dialogue is stilted, the setting (Venice) is not effectively portrayed, and there is a noticeable lack of action. The protagonist, The Colonel, is an older, sick hero of two wars who has reunited with a much younger, wealthy lover in Venice. He is a proud and noble man, and I think Hemingway is trying here to portray the character's anguish at his lost youth and his inability to live in the virile fashion of a typical Hemingway male. However, if you want understatement and concise dialogue with real human emotions, read the novels of Howard Norman like the Bird Artist or The Museum Guard. If you like Hemingway and want better examples of his later period, stick to A Moveable Feast or even Green Hills of Africa, at least they are entertaining and have actual stories to tell. I still think that Hemingway's short stories and his first novel, The Sun Also Rises, represent the author at the peak of his creative powers. Across the River and Into the Trees is painful to read, and is only given a bit of literary attention due to the reputation of the author. An Amazon reviewer encouraged readers to read the book slowly with music playing - why not just close the lights and listen to the music?

Rating:
Summary: I Haven't Read It Yet...
Review: I just began reading this one. It doesn't capture your interest as much as other Hemingway novels, but i do look forward to the story because I enjoy Hemingway quite a bit.

Rating:
Summary: Pleasantly Surprised
Review: I just finished this book last night--I read it at one sitting, something I haven't done in a while with any book. I found the story quite moving and interesting. I guess if you like Ludlum and Cussler you might not find it exciting, but there are other kinds of excitement besides car crashes and airplanes exploding.

Rating:
Summary: A beautifully constructed novel
Review: I thought this book was well-worth the read, but not as moving and insightful as other books by Hemingway. Despite the lack of "action" in the book, Hemingway writes beautifully constructed sentences with profound meaning. His literary style is unsurpassable. Some say there is no plot to this story, but i disagree. The plot focuses around death, love, and loss. This book is definately worth the read, although read it very slowly.

Rating:
Summary: A Strange Sort of Love
Review: I've just finished reading this book, and though I am a great fan of Hemingway, I found this book lacking in something. The love that the two characters of this novel share is probably hard for most people to relate to in the first place, simply because of the more than thirty years difference between their ages. But beyond that, I find that the love that these two find for each other hard to believe given how well they know each other, and that they have only spent an extremely limited time together (we see them together for only about a day and a half in the story).

The language between the two is also quite exhausting. While Hemingway writes very simple prose, and it works well in many of his works, here it becomes very repetitive.

If you can really believe that two characters such as this can find love that strong in each other then this book is otherwise a fine read. The story, of course, focuses on the love the two share and the failing health of the man. The two concern themselves with their love for each other (in every other sentence) and what they will do to remember the other when they are apart. Both know, but speak of it infrequently, that any moment together may be the last.

If you are looking to read some Hemingway for the first time, I would suggest The Old Man and the Sea. However, if you are simply looking to read some more obscure Hemingway, this book certainly isn't a bad read.

Rating:
Summary: moving story an American colonel and an Italian Countess
Review: Imagine yourself sitting in a white chair under a tree during autumn. The wind gently blowing on your face and the leaves touching you as they fall down from the tree. This is the moment you would want to read a soft yet powerful story. What better than Across the River and into the Trees by Ernest Hemngway. Set in Venice, Italy, this is love story of an Italian countess and an arrogant American colonel. Though unsure about their future, all that matters to them is their undying love for each other. As time passes by they encounter doubts about their getting married.Promises of marriage, a home and family is just one part of the story. Will empty promises be kept by the Colonel? Read on and you would know.

Rating:
Summary: Across the River and into the Trees
Review: Interesting fact: The Hotel that the Colonel occupies in this noval is a real hotel called the Gritti Palace Hotel in Venice Italy, where rooms go for as much as 3,000 euros per night. The hotel was also built in 1525.


Althought this was not the best work that I have read by Ernest Hemingway it is certainly a great noval. The story is of an "old" American Colonel who is revisiting the places in Europe that he believes has shaped his character and personality. The noval is set towards the end of World War Two. The Colonel fought in World War One and did much of his growing up on the battle field. When he goes to Venice, he meets up with his "last and true and only love", a young Venician Contessa named Renata. He is old enough to be her father, but they are madly in love. Her youthful exhuberence tends to revive him in his failing health as he is suffering from a sevier heart condition. She loves him with all of her heart and Hemingway's simple writing style takes the reader away from the somber tone of the actual situation to a more romantic genre. Even if Hemingway is supposed to be the "man's man" in literature, this noval is the closest thing that I have read to a love story without it being written from the perspective of women. It shows a man who is in the twilight of his life and who has learned to really appreciate the finer things that this world has to offer. Things such as a fine city or wine, or an expensive cut of meat and delicious cheese; even more important though is the beautiful young girl that adores him so much and that he loves in return. Personaly I enjoyed the book very much and I would recomend it to anyone who likes Hemingway's works.

Rating:
Summary: Lieutenant Major Crap
Review: It's just bad. The cover makes it look cool, and venice should be exotic, but it stinks. Long, dull, monotonous passages and unreal characters make for a book that should have been a casualty of war.

Rating:
Summary: So so
Review: Not much happens in this book. Critics said it at the time, and Hemingway said, "What do they mean, not much happens, why there are two wars, etc." Well he was referring to stuff that was obliquely referred to in dialogue. But I have to say, I enjoyed this book in retrospect after I took my first trip to Venice, and rode in a gondola, and had a drink in Harry's bar. I was glad I'd read the book, then. So if you go to Venice, read this first.