Rating: 
Summary: A mature and tender work
Review: This is the book critics love to slag off, because it is written by Mr.Redskin himself, but had it been written by somebody other than Hemingway it would probably have been highly praised. Hemingway has captured the relationship between the dying colonel and the young baroness beautifully. It is a book to read slowly, as one can play music slowly, but forget "A farewell to arms" and "For whom the bell tolls" before you start. Jump in the car with the colonel and his private chauffeur and let Hemingway bring you to Venice.
Rating:
Summary: Great allegory...
Review: This story is a trenchant allegory of the dream that every older man has of how to die. The protagonist, Richard Cantwell, knows--contrary to appearances--that he is ineffably near death in spite of taking medicine to mask the symptoms and delay the inevitable. The quixotic desiderata that make his last days ideal are: long-time friends (army buddies) with whom he can reminisce about shared travails; participation in a favored hobby (hunting ducks); great food, drink, and conversation; the sensual unquestioning love of a beautiful young woman (Renata, AKA "Daughter"); and the ignorance of all of his physical ailment. He even manages, in one last act of improbable masculine bravado, to physically best two young toughs who had taunted him and Renata. He, in banter with his cohort, revisits his past war life of greater glory, danger, and horror--a time when his life had significance. He finds that he is unable to impart his understanding of life to the innocence of Renata. He accepts his imminent demise, curses life's ironies, and lives as if tomorrow is assured but takes prudent precautions such as properly providing for the return of precious gems given to him by Renata. What more could an old man want in his last days?
Rating: 
Summary: Feel Free to Skip This One
Review: This was easily the most tedious and uneventful Hemingway I've ever read. Set in Venice, it's two hundred or so pages of quick-witted conversations between a young Italian beauty and a dying United States war veteran. The protagonist is a sad old man, retelling war stories and bumbling over his anxieties concerning the impending loss of both his true love and his own life.There's no significant action and it's very difficult to find someone to root for. I can only recommend this for those of you who feel, like I do, that you must read absolutely every single Hemingway work before you can rest.
Rating: 
Summary: Perspective Required
Review: This was surprisingly my favorite Hemingway story in recent years. Readers in search of the typical bravado, bullfights and war scenes will be in for a shock. The dialogue between the main characters is really what drives this. The novel is about the story of an army colonel finding the love of his life too late to enjoy her. It contains the bittersweet pain of a premature ending that all will know comes too soon. Both the colonel and his young countess realize they are on borrowed time, and Hemingway shares the pain with his readers. The foreshadowing is reminiscent of "For Whom the Bell Tolls" although it is not an action oriented novel per say. Also touching is the undertone of a loving friendship built between the colonel and the staff at his favorite hotel. There too, the dialogue is at it's finest. You can read the care between old comrades, and feel the spirit of their kinship. Read it expecting romantic dialogue intertwined with the pains of love, and you will enjoy it. Read it looking for the big game hunting or submarine search and you'll be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: A departure...
Review: This was surprisingly my favorite Hemingway story in recent years. Readers in search of the typical bravado, bullfights and war scenes will be in for a shock. The dialogue between the main characters is really what drives this. The novel is about the story of an army colonel finding the love of his life too late to enjoy her. It contains the bittersweet pain of a premature ending that all will know comes too soon. Both the colonel and his young countess realize they are on borrowed time, and Hemingway shares the pain with his readers. The foreshadowing is reminiscent of "For Whom the Bell Tolls" although it is not an action oriented novel per say. Also touching is the undertone of a loving friendship built between the colonel and the staff at his favorite hotel. There too, the dialogue is at it's finest. You can read the care between old comrades, and feel the spirit of their kinship. Read it expecting romantic dialogue intertwined with the pains of love, and you will enjoy it. Read it looking for the big game hunting or submarine search and you'll be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Perspective Required
Review: Those that have not experienced the military cannot connect with this novel. The Sun Also Rises, glorified in later years by Hunter S. Thompsons nearly identical work, popularized even recently by Johnny Depp and Hollywood, absolutely pales in comparison to the insights relevant to geo-political irony captured by H. while a correspondent in WWII. The colonels' recollection of the recalcitrant command's decisions ring as true today as they did in the 40's. This book, despite the requisite theme of unrequited love, is by far the most poignant of his works. The love story is almost an excuse to write this novel; those that think H. was past his prime simply haven't been there to experience the intrinsic theme of the horrible irony and idiocy of military command. The good colonel's attempts to minimize loss of life while performing his ordered mission present the problems of command in some of the most eloquent terms. Do twenty years in the infantry and read this novel again if you find it inferior to the fluff of "The Sun Also Rises"
Rating:
Summary: An underrated work -- not Hemingway's best, but still great
Review: Those who disparage this book most often do so on two grounds: It is not Hemingway's best, and it is a thinly disguised semi-autobiographical account of the author's own experiences returning to Italy in middle age.Both criticisms are accurate. To the first, I say: Judge the book on its own merits. It is a charming romantic tale, extremely well-crafted, with well-developed characters and great dialogue. To the second, I say: So what? "For Whom the Bell Tolls" also drew extensively on Hemingway's own experiences and is rightly regarded as a masterpiece. Writers are supposed to write what they know. I think the real disappointment for many Hemingway fans is that the book doesn't have much action. An old soldier's recollections of war don't match Hemingway's brilliant battle scenes of his earlier works. But the book is about an old soldier, not a young one. If you approach this book with an open mind and an eye for the kind of nuance and subtlety of which only a master writer is capable, you will be rewarded. If you expect El Sordo's last stand, you'll be disappointed. At the very least, it's an engaging portrait of Venice, one of the most beautiful cities on the planet, painted with words by a man who loved it and bled for it.
Rating:
Summary: An unexpected gem
Review: THough not one of Hemingway's greatest works, this seldolm talked about book of Hemingway is almost a classic, and was 20 times better than i expected it to be. A symbolic tale representing both the ideals of carpe diem and of Hemingway's cries for peace not war. THe story tells the tale of a dying officer, a graduate of VMI, who has lost all of his laurels after a failed attack in which he only followed orders and watched his own men be butchered. THe story, spanning only 24 hours, follows this dying, flawed man as he finds his last and truest love at the moment that it is almost too late. The colonel represents the dying of a kind, but old Ernest instructs us to cease life while we can. THough not Hemingway's absolute best, this is a must read for all serious literary fans.
Rating:
Summary: Poignant, powerful minimalism
Review: When Hemingway wrote this novel, he may have known that his materpieces were behind him. Although this novel is a lesser work, there are moments of tenderness, poignancy and power crafted in his trademark miminalist style that linger. The novel concerns a retired Army Colonel, who has fought in brutal combat, near the end of his life and is desperately in love with a much younger woman. To me the woman signified the Colonel's lost youth and the relationship may take on new meaning if one views it as such. The Colonel looks backward in the novel to the horror and futility of war, which serves as a contrast to the extreme tenderness of his last love affair in Venice. Hemingway's experiences during the Spanish Civil War and in Paris during World War II give him much to draw upon in this literary "moveable feast," which soubriquet first appears here. Against the harshness of his existence the Colonel has retreated to Italian duck blinds, Venice in winter and the adoring young beauty of his life. One senses that at this time in his life, so near the end, that Hemingway sees his own life's lapse into finality in lines from Stonewall Jackson's dying moments to cross peacefully over the river and into the trees. Hemingway is a master of dialogue and there is much between the Colonel and his young mistress to savor. I recommend that you read Old Man and the Sea, A Farewell to Arms and/or For Whom the Bell Tolls before taking on this novel. If you admire and have widely read Hemingway already, then this is a very fine but not great novel relative to his masterpieces. This is a compelling, accessible novel which subtleties will linger and perhaps the greatest aspect of the genius of his craft is that he never fails to have this same powerful impact.
Rating:
Summary: Simply a good book
Review: Without going into details (since everyone else has done it so well), it's just a plain and simple good read. I think it's one of his best. And like all his works, it makes me feel like I have just walked out into the bright Latin sun.
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