FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS

Rating:
Summary: Que Va!
Review: I obscenity in the leche of war. But a man's gotta do what man's gotta. . .

The character of Jordan was supposedly based on Hem's friend, General Duran, a classical musician turned soldier who epitomized Hem's romantic ideal. The plot as, previously noted by other readers is simple, in fact it's barely enough for a short story. And yes, in all honesty you are probably better off with 'A FAREWELL TO ARMS ' though FWTBT was an international best seller when it came out and continuses to be so to this day.

The power comes from the style of the author: Eliminate adjectives from the sentence; make it sound real by means of pretending to 'report' in the manner of a journalist while hiding with supreme craft romantic gems snuck in as commentary; e.g; 'He had the worst luck posible, he was a coward'.

The reader is thus jolted and intrigued (Er.. is cowardice bad luck? Hmm...Say, will Jordan really be betrayed the moment Pablo makes a friendly gesture?)

The 'comnentaries' are sometimes made in the third person omniscient, or in stilted (those inscrutable Spaniards!) dialogue but principally in the mind of the protagonist

(And what insights or childhood reminiscences would YOU have if you had to blow up a bridge, against great odds due to stupid orders and you're behind enemy lines while your helpers consist of a band of murderers, heroes, religious communists who pray to the Virgin Mary, quarreling gypsies and a 19 year old babe who worships you?)

This is the engaging, hypnotic Hem at his best; Had he failed to pull the reader in to the minds of his characters 'For Whom The Bell Tolls' would merely be a slow paced short story about war blown up to novel size.

Even so, it must be admitted that it's uphill climbing at times. Hem is sparse with his sentences, but by contrast, when it comes to the overall story he sure takes his time, and takes his time, and . . .

I suggest you give this a try for thirty pages, if you're lucky, it'll hit home. If not, forget it's a classic; life is too short.

As to theme; idealists are screwed, period. The good guys end up killing the good guys on the other side, while the bastards on both tend to survive. I'm amazed people describre Hem's work as 'adventure'. If anyone is inspired to join a guerilla band after reading this one . . .

And yes, the most lyrical passages occur not when he's making it with Maria, the lovely, but when he's waiting for death, all alone, propped up against a pine tree, trying not to pass out from the pain of shattered leg bones before he gets a crack at shooting an enemy officer coming up the hill.

He manages to hang on and get one of the 'good guys', the last plot twist.

Rating:
Summary: A Hemingway-fan should love it
Review: This book is about an American, Robert Jordan, who joins the Republican Army (communists) to fight the nationalists during the civil war in Spain in the 1930's. He joins a guerilla-group which is given the mission to blow up a bridge to obstruct the fascists' offensive. Although he has a bad feeling about the whole situation he persists.
I found the character ¨pilar¨ the most interesting, fulfilling a key role of telling the background story (her experience in the war sofar) as well as being the one who keeps the whole group together (her insights give the American, Robert Jordan, some information about Pablo, the member of the group who can't be trusted).
Although it has bothered a lot of people (read the other reviews), for me the translated Spanish words and little sentences really added something to the atmosphere of the book as well as to a better depiction of the characters.

Rating:
Summary: the evil of war
Review: For Whom the Bell Tolls is Hemingway's depiction of the Spanish Civil War during the 1930s that was fought between the Fascists and the Communists.

The novel concerns a communist guerrilla group which was organized to destroy a bridge controlled by the fascists. This group consists of murderers and saints, of those that enjoy killing and those that are forced by war to kill. Throughout the three days and three nights that span this novel, readers are given an overview of the war, of religion in Spain during that period, and of the lives of the members of the guerrilla group.

Despite the villainy of Pablo, it is hard to dislke any of the characters. They are ordinary people who are good and bad but are forced by the war to kill. Atrocities are committed by communists and fascists. Despite being in a war, the guerrillas are not treacherous. There is Robert Jordan, the main character, who is sent to blow up a bridge. He falls in love with Maria, a Spanish girl who was abused by the Fascists. Pilar possesses much experience in love and in war. Pablo is the group's best strategist. Anselmo, like Robert Jordan, thinks it is a terrible sin to kill a person.

The title of the book is an excerpt from one of John Donne's poem. In that poem, Donne argues that every person has a role in the community and that the death of one person affects everyone. The guerrilla group exists as a unit. Everyone has a role and must fulfill his role if the mission is to be accomplished.

I rate this book three stars because it is too long and contains excessive Spanish, which obstructed the progression of the novel.

Rating:
Summary: Great at war, so-so at love
Review: "For Whom the Bell Tolls" is no disappointment to a fan of Hemingway's terse, truthful prose. Here he employs it to explain the events of a few days during the Spanish Civil War. The plot is simple: an American fighting for the republic joins a small guerrilla unit in the hills, under orders to blow up a bridge at the beginning of a great assault on the fascists. The American also falls in love with a young Spanish girl, thus allowing Hemingway to explore his favorite combination of themes, love and war.

Hemingway is, in my view, one of the most moving and profound writers of all time. In this novel, he aptly captures the emotions and motives of those who risk their lives at war, and along the way, offers some extraordinarily memorable stories of both bravery and brutality.

To me, the novel's main weakness is the love story. The protagonist's love interest, as in all of Hemingway's novels, is young (19 years old, in this case), beautiful, naive, and ignorant. She worships Robert Jordan, and obeys his every command much as a puppy. Having no mind of her own, she is wholly contented by serving Jordan in ways such as washing his socks and and drying out his sleeping bag.

The only other oddity in the novel is Hemingway's habit of translating Spanish literally. For example, he uses thou and you to differentiate between the Spanish speaker's use of "tu" and "Usted." He also uses such nonsensical phrases as "I have much hunger" as a translation for the Spanish "tengo mucho hambre," and "What passes with thee?" for "Qué te pasa?". I found that a bit distracting.

On the whole, however, I found the novel remarkable. Hemingway's ability to pare down complex ideas and events into such simple, powerful prose is unsurpassed.

Rating:
Summary: Hemingway Knows what He's Talking About
Review: As a 15-year-old high school student, being reccomended to read one of the longest books for summer reading wasn't all too appealing to me. Now that I have read the book, I'm glad that I chose to read For Whom the Bell Tolls. It is a great book if you want to get the perspective of a foreigner in another country fighting a war. Being very interested in history myself, learning about the Spanish Civil War was quite intriguing. Hemingway was very good in expressing his feelings about the war in the country which he once lived. Although the middle of the book can, at times, be quite a drag, the rest of the book was very enjoyable. The war/action scenes in the story were very well written by Hemingway. After reading this book, I look forward to reading more Hemingway novels in the future. If you want to read a war story, I fully reccomend reading For Whom the Bell Tolls.

Rating:
Summary: Good story, but falls short of "Classic"
Review: For Whom the Bells Tolls portrays a love story of an American volunteer (Int'l Brigade) and an abused Spanish girl set in the midst of the Spanish Civil War. In my opinion, Hemingway provides a decent story, but this tale falls far from being called a classic. FWBT is an interesting read, but the roughness of the prose and the predictable storyline leave the book at most, average. Hemingway does provide us with a few interesting philosophical ancedotes about life and death. My recommendation would be to read other Hemingway novels and if you exteremly enjoy them, make your way to this piece. Oh, by the way, I have lived in Spain for quite a time studying abroad, and a funny thing about this novel, is that Hemingway is always refering to his lover as "My rabbit," well, in Spanish, which he would of been translating from that is "Mi conejo," which is Spanish is a slang name for vagina. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: smell of pine needles
Review: This is a unique novel in the Hemingway collection, it has a plot. This is the longest of his novels though the easiest to describe. The Hemingway style is not as lean as in earlier works, one might even say it is pleasantly plump in comparison (as Papa himself was at the time of writing). I'll never forget my first reading of this book. One of those books you put down and just hold your breath with the memory of it all. This might best be described as Hemingway fare for non Hemingway fans. Though Hemingway fans like it too, but it will always be number three to them. The Sun Also Rises is perhaps one of the more difficult books to summarize and Hemingway's style is so new in it that the book created a buzz that has still not died down. What was not said in that first book left some feeling a bit famished. Others were intrigued by this new kind of writing that held its cards so close to its chest. In this book you get a more conventional novel of a novel though the events described in it are very powerfully told. (It is fun to see pictures of Hemingway as a reporter at this time. A world famous novelist in the field.) This book along with A Farewell to Arms prove no American knew better how to convey by written words that nasty busines of war better than Hemingway. Robert Jordan is one of the least talked about Hemingway characters ever. Perhaps because he is a character invented to serve a plot. You will love this book of fighting and love in the Spanish mountains. John Donne himself I think would have proudly read and enjoyed this.

Rating:
Summary: The Writing Rings True For Everyone
Review: To me Hemingway epitomizes the hard drinking, hard living, hard loving, worldy writer. In this book, the main character Robert Jordan is a soldier send on a mission to the hills of Spain to blow up a bridge. There, Jordan meets up with a rogue band of warriors who believe in war but not in military. Once united with the militia, Jordan becomes involved with a woman named Maria. The fight scenes are incredible. The ending is even more incredible. I'm not going give away the book, but the ending brought tears to my eyes- I guess it's true, underneath every man of steel is a heart of gold.

Rating:
Summary: Truly a classic
Review: Hemingway is a stickler for details, and it really shows in this book. The story takes place over only 4 days time.

It starts with Robert Jordan an American dynamiter who has joined with guerllos to fight the fascists. He is led to a cave by Anselmo an old man, early sixties, where there is a camp. Pablo is the drunken leader and Pilar is his wife. Robert Jordan is very inner sociable, he talks to himself a lot, only when he is alone usually, it clears his mind.

This book was truly amazing from the first word to the very last word. Truly amazing, Hemingway is one of the best authors there ever was. It would seem that he was actually there to get the details he put into this book, and you can actually see where he is and what he is talking about, and that is what the best authors do.

Reading reviews on Amazon could not make this book any better or worse, so just buy this book and read it, I gurantee is will be hard to put down.

Mark_Sigel

Rating:
Summary: Pretentious!
Review: I found this story very pretentious. The descriptions of war and people involved in war just did not ring true. And, this book is very long, and drawn out with over-lingering descriptions of characters in war-time settings.

I love most of Hemingway's work, especially his short stories. I love some of his novels.

But, this particular novel is one that brought out the worst in Hemingway, as a writer.

Still, the language is moving in places, and there is some good character development. It's just a shame that the reader has to wade through so much pretentiousness to get to these things!