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A review by hadeanstars
Across the River and Into the Trees by Ernest Hemingway
3.0
After the sublime excursion through 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' I was quite prepared for this novel to be at the very least enjoyable, if not quite as brilliant. I have to say I am rather disappointed by it overall. It had some moments that were beautiful and thought provoking, but in my view, these were too few and far between.
The approach of this story is very dialogue-focused. There are long periods of - to my mind - rather snappy, and occasionally flippant exchanges between the main characters. I found myself as often annoyed by the style of the dialogue writing as I was drawn in by it.
On the whole I don't regret reading this, It had moments of majesty and power, but they were a little too rare, and it was a real disappointment as every Hemingway I've read - 5 now - was better than this, by a margin.
I will try a Farewell to Arms next, and hopefully that will rescue my feeling for Hemingway. Having said that, his writing is usually so wonderful that he set a very lofty benchmark, and had this book been written by anyone else, I may well have been more impressed with it.
Not a total loss, but there are better Hemingway novels out there.
The approach of this story is very dialogue-focused. There are long periods of - to my mind - rather snappy, and occasionally flippant exchanges between the main characters. I found myself as often annoyed by the style of the dialogue writing as I was drawn in by it.
On the whole I don't regret reading this, It had moments of majesty and power, but they were a little too rare, and it was a real disappointment as every Hemingway I've read - 5 now - was better than this, by a margin.
I will try a Farewell to Arms next, and hopefully that will rescue my feeling for Hemingway. Having said that, his writing is usually so wonderful that he set a very lofty benchmark, and had this book been written by anyone else, I may well have been more impressed with it.
Not a total loss, but there are better Hemingway novels out there.