I pulled out on the lake. If we were that close to the border I did not want to be hailed by a sentry along the road. I stayed out where I could just see the shore and rowed on for three quarters of an hour in the rain. We heard a motor boat once more but I kept quiet until the noise of the engine went away across the lake,
I think we’re in Switzerland, Cat, I said.
The previous quote is an excerpt from Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms.
I labored through this novel during June and July of this year. The key word here is labored! Why? As you know, I love reading masters of literature and Hemingway is mentioned in the same breath as Twain, Fitzgerald, Stowe, Dickens, and other greats. I believe A Farewell to Arms was the first published novel of Hemingway’s illustrious career. I understand that the story line and the main characters were created by Hemingway to be a mirror of his time in Italy as an ambulance driver during World War One. His story starts with the action of war, the obligatory retreat, errant shrapnel that wounds our main character, the resultant rehab behind enemy lines and a bevy of nurses. One nurse has already connected with the American, Frederic Henry. The English nurse, Catherine Barkley is Lieutenant Henry’s love interest. Hemingway wrote this story from Henry’s point of view. Commonly known as a first person account.
This post’s introduction depicts Henry and Barkley slipping out of Italy to the neutral Switzerland. Their mutual love predicates this move to start a new life. They bid farewell to the armed conflict and under the cover of darkness and the aid of a small boat, they row along the lake’s shoreline. The rest of the novel unfolds in Switzerland. I will not share further details of this story in case you want to read it yourself. I will allow myself a rant about the ending of this story. Before I indulge in that rant let me share some factoids from Wikipedia and Google. This novel was Hemingway’s first best seller. A Farewell to Arms was banned in Italy until 1948. The text was censured in Boston due to accusations of a pornographic nature despite Hemingway’s deliberate exclusion of graphic descriptions of sex, using omission as a literary device. ( My copy actually has words omitted in the published text.) In my opinion the most interesting fact is the following: apparently Ernest Hemingway had a difficult time settling on an ending for his novel. I believe he actually wrote thirty nine different different endings. I can not say how true that number is. All I can say is the ending he chose is callous and abrupt. My sentiments are better illustrated in the movie, Silver Linings Playbook. During an early scene of the movie, Pat Jr, who has recently been discharged from a psychiatric facility and is living with his parents in Philadelphia, evidently just finished reading a book that upsets him. We, the audience, become aware of Pat’s displeasure as the camera pans up to his 3rd floor window. An object, (the book) is seen breaking the glass as it hurdles through the air to land on the front lawn. If I remember correctly, we hear and see Pat’s angry rant escalate while entering his parents bedroom. With a look of “what the f***”on their faces they have to endure their son’s frustrated anger about the most terrible ending of a novel he has ever read. At the foot of their bed he goes on and on about this novel with a terrible ending. The camera pans down to the front lawn and ends the scene with a close up of the offending novel and it’s cover title, A Farewell to Arms. Bradley Cooper’s character Pat Jr. captured my sentiments about the ending perfectly.
If you have visited this blog before you may have noticed I have not published for almost three months. The reason for that is two fold; I dragged my heels, my knuckle typing heels, because I was not enthusiastic about Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms and most importantly a beloved family member was courageously involved in a clinical trial that predicated my positive attention for almost two months. ( If you are reading this you already know how well written literature inspires me but to witness the strength and courage of someone you love unconditionally is inspirational beyond belief! ) So, yes, I was reading but I did not make the time to consolidate and publish the blog until now. During that time I did read out loud to my a fore-mentioned family member. The novel we were reading together was titled The Last Thing He Told Me authored by Laura Dave. I am mentioning it here as I was intrigued by this well written mystery. I am always excited to try to guess the ending, the answer, if you will, to the story. Well like Hemingway’s novel, the ending to Laura Dave’s story, gave me no answer to my main question. Two novels in eight weeks with endings that left me with reading glasses of water half empty!
Finally, my first visit to my metaphorical lighthouse this hot, humid, rainy summer. As I lean against it watching the incoming tide in my minds eye, I can not help but feel that I learned a valuable literary lesson. A story worth reading is not just about the ending of the story but more importantly about the journey. The page turning fabric of the quilted or woven sentences and dialogues that build upon each other birthing the next chapter of an author’s novel. As I live and love for better or worse and in sickness and in health, the moment to moment journey we each share together is so worth it if you are not lost in all the tomorrows looking for an ending. A literary lesson within a life’s lesson!
My new read is Demon Copperhead, written by Barbara Kingsolver. Stay tuned.
Thank you for reading,
Be in peace and joy,
Mark