For Whom the Bell Tolls

Rating:
Summary: Good Good book
Review: "For Whom the Bell Tolls" was the first Hemingway I ever read. I was a high school kid in the early 2000's, working on my campus newspaper, newly graduated from Jack London but not yet ready for Jack Kerouac.

To my young eyes, it was a good action story: Robert Jordan, the passionate American teacher joins a band of armed gypsies in the Spanish Civil War. He believes one man can make a difference. The whole novel covers just 68 hours, during which Jordan must find a way to blow up a key bridge behind enemy lines. In that short time, Jordan also falls in love with Maria, a beautiful Spanish woman who has been raped by enemy soldiers. The whole spectrum of literature was refracted through the prism of my youth: Good guys and bad guys, sex and blood, life and death. For me, just a boy, the journey from abstraction to clarity was only just beginning.

Re-reading "For Whom the Bell Tolls" at 18 (roughly the age Hemingway was when he published it), I have lost my ability to see things clearly in black and white. My vision is blurred by irony, as I note that two enemies, the moral killer Anselmo and the sympathetic fascist Lieutenant Berrendo, utter the very same prayer. For the first time, I see that the book opens with Robert Jordan lying on the "pine-needled floor of the forest" and closes as he feels his heart pounding against the "pine needle floor of the forest"; Jordan ends as he begins, perhaps having never really moved. I certainly could never have seen at 16 how dying well might be more consequential than living well. And somehow the light has changed in the past 1 years, so that I now truly understand how the earth can move.

Rating:
Summary: DRESS REHEARSHAL FOR WWII
Review: EXCERPTED FROM "GOD'S COUNTRY" BY STEVEN TRAVERS

"For Whom the Bell Tolls" is based upon Hemingway's support for the anti-Communists fighting in the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s. He and many other Americans went over to fight in the war, which some say was a "dress rehearsal" for World War II. It did not materialize into the kind of idealized Spanish government that many had sacrificed for. The fascistic Francisco Franco ended up ruling an isolationist Spain until the 1970s. While the nation is now Democratic, the Franco regime was the final event that took Spain from greatness to mediocrity. Hemingway also wrote a stageplay about the Spanish Civil War called "The Fifth Column".

STEVEN TRAVERS
AUTHOR OF "BARRY BONDS: BASEBALL'S SUPERMAN"...

Rating:
Summary: A true masterpiece of human redemption
Review: It is not by mere circumstance that a novel is considered a classic. It takes years and years of the work standing up to critique, criticism, public response, and the test of time. The latter is perhaps the greatest of example of why Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls is labeled among the great works of the twentieth century. This novel's moving and intense story has not lost meaning over the years of its existence. The romance and adventure appeals to fans of many different genres, but to call this book a war narrative is missing the scope and depth of the work by a long shot. Hemingway, as he does in many of his books, brings into view some of the most basic questions and sought-after answers that have always been at the heart of the nature of man. Hemingway explores the very simple yet profound principles of death and honor in this work, and his conclusions are by no means simple reflections.
While only occurring over the course of several days, the events that take place in For Whom the Bell Tolls, along with the superb style of writing, draw the reader into the world of Robert Jordan, the book's protagonist, while he attempts to destroy a fascist-controlled bridge, and along the way discovers humanity, love, and himself. This is possibly Hemingway's greatest feat in the novel: the creation of a connection between oneself and humanity; that we all share a responsibility with each other and that our honor lies in the hands of our neighbors.
As a fairly long book, For Whom the Bell Tolls is by no means a story for inexperienced or pedestrian readers, and even an older audience might find the plot tedious at some points. However, there is ample swashbuckling to satiate the thirst for adventure of any war genre fan, and plenty of romance to keep a reader of softer disposition happy. The journey is well worth the effort, and I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of great literature.

Rating:
Summary: A Gripping, Sad, Interesting, and Worthwhile Story!
Review: This novel certainly deserves its billing as a "classic." The action takes place during the Spanish Civil War (of the 1930's), and the story follows a group of guerilla loyalists, who are fighting against Franco's fascist forces in the name of the Republic.

The entire novel only covers a span of three days, so the reader truly gets a sense of the time passing. Because of this, it feels as if the events are actually occurring as one is reading. Each moment is important, and there are few discontinuities in the story. Also, the novel is written in an interesting format where the climax doesn't occur until the final pages-this adds quite a bit of suspense. What really makes this book so excellent is the delicate combination of action and lull, and love and hate, which Hemingway builds into the story. There is a very beautiful (if only slightly unrealistic) love story carefully interwoven with murder, conspiracy, and disaster.

It is impossible not to deeply care for each individual in the story because there are few characters, and they are all extremely well developed. The reader can find a piece of somebody that he/she knows in every character. Hemingway also deals effectively with emotion. It is always easy to understand exactly what each person is feeling. With Robert Jordan, specifically, Hemingway uses a unique series of monologue-type passages so that the reader really can "get inside" Jordan's head. Somehow, Hemingway manages to do this while keeping out that uneasiness one gets when reading a play monologue. The novel has an anti-war feel to it, but it still contains several enthralling battle scenes. If only the love story were a bit more believable, this book could be truly fantastic. "For Whom The Bell Tolls" is definitely a worthwhile read right from the opening quote by John Donne all the way to the very last page.

Rating:
Summary: A True Classic
Review: This novel is considered by most to be one of the great novels of the 20th Century, and its author to be one of the greatest authors of all time; there are undoubtedly reasons for this. Yet, Hemmingway is also considered to be a "love him" or "hate him" type. I tend toward the former, though he isn't one of my personal favorites.

The plot of this novel is relatively straightforward. American Robert Jordan, a member of the International Brigades fighting with the Republicans against the Fascists during the Spanish Civil War, is given the task of blowing up a bridge to prevent the Fascists from bringing up reinforcements to repel a Republican offensive. But while the plot is uncomplicated, the depth and breadth of Hemmingway's story telling are not. There are layers and layers of emotion, passion, and personal pain. You are transported to the mountains of Spain with Jordan and a band of Spanish guerilla fighters. The characters are so incredibly real, that you feel as though you could find their names in a history book. For those who have never read Hemmingway, I'd say give it a try.