She had almost liked, in these weeks, what had created her suspense and her stress: the loss of her mother, the submersion of her father, the discomfort of her sister, the confirmation of their shrunken prospects, the certainty, in especial, of her having to recognise that should she behave, as she called it, decently--that is still do something for others--she would be herself wholly without supplies.
You can make a sandwich and practically eat it while you are reading just one of his sentences. It goes on like this page after page (I assume) for some 500 pages and we just couldn't get through it this week.
So anyway, we're going to give ourselves another week and really give it the old college try. So this week Ernie continues on his individual list with For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway:
“Show me a hero and I’ll write you a tragedy.” -- F. Scott Fitzgerald.
For Whom the Bell Tolls is Ernest Hemingway’s epic tale of war and love set in the mountains during the Spanish Civil War. It is widely considered one of Hemingway’s best novels and I looked forward to reading it.
Our hero, Robert Jordan, is an American teacher who has come to Spain to fight for the Republic against the fascists. That’s really about all the history you need to know to follow the politics and the battle lines. In this tale, there really are no good guys or bad guys. Both sides show horrific brutality and brief moments of humanity are allowed to shine through. The rest of the time is spent looking for redemption or reason.
Robert Jordan and his partner, Anselmo, have been sent to the mountains with the mission to destroy a key bridge prior to a major offensive move. Anselmo is a trusted fighter for the Republicans but although loyal and dedicated to the cause, his heart is not truly committed to his work…
“We have to win.”
“Yes. And after we have won you must come to hunt.”
“To hunt what?”
“The boar, the bear, the wolf, the ibex-“
“You like to hunt?”
“Yes, man. More than anything. We all hunt in our village. You do not like to hunt?”
“No,” said Robert Jordan. “I do not like to kill animals.”
“With me it is the opposite,” the old man said. “I do not like to kill men.”
To destroy the bridge, Robert Jordan needs the help of a small band of partisans who hide in the mountains near the bridge. The partisans feel safe in their enclave until Robert Jordan brings the war back to them. Having to fight in their own back yard and then knowing they will leave the mountains brings more conflict than they are willing to bear. The band is lead by Pablo and his woman Pilar who fight each other as much as they fight the fascists. While they are proven fighters, they are tired of the war and only want to fight it on their terms. “Every one has to do what he can according to how it can be truly done,” (Pablo) said. “I live here and I operate beyond Segovia. If you make a disturbance here, we will be hunted out of these mountains. It is only by doing nothing here that we are able to live in these mountains. It is the principle of the fox.”
Hemingway explores the ideas of bravery and cowardice on so many levels by showing us the thoughts and motivations of the partisans. Much of the bravado we see turns out to be merely a fear of showing weakness. Many fight simply because they feel they have no choice. There is a fatalistic mood that cannot be lifted by prospect of a successful mission.
To complicate matters, Robert Jordan falls in love with Maria, a young woman singled out by the war for more misery than most. Maria finds her redemption in Jordan’s love and Jordan fights to find his humanity. But Jordan recognizes these feelings as dangerous distractions to his mission and fights to keep everything within a realistic or at least a survivable perspective.
Throughout the book, we see firsthand the mindless bureaucracy of war as we meet the leaders, living in hotels with their mistresses and the press both reporting and manipulating the strategy.
I have always enjoyed reading Hemingway’s short stories but this was the first novel of his I ever tackled. It is great. (One note – Hemingway uses a very formal way of writing the partisan’s and Jordan’s dialogue due, in part, to his paraphrasing of the very formal use of the Castilian form of the Spanish language. It can be awkward to read. I listened to much of For Whom the Bell Tolls on CD and found it really helped with the flow of the story.)
Hemingway’s delving into the subject of suicide to be both fascinating and painful. Obviously a subject of major interest to him, he discusses it (as he does in many of his stories) from a wide range of viewpoints without ever really passing judgment. Just two decades after the publication of For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway would be dead by his own hand.
Hemingway wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls after his experiences reporting the Spanish Civil War. For those who know very little about this period, the Spanish Civil War served in many aspects as the dress rehearsal for World War II. The Germans and Italians supplied the fascists with arms, training and “advisors” while the Russians, French and (neutral) Americans tended to side with the Republic. I highly recommend you read For Whom the Bell Tolls to start your exploration of this little-known part of world history.
Next week: There's a chance we might make it through The Wings of the Dove otherwise Sandra reads on her list Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin
No comments:
Post a Comment