Aloow me to backtrack so everyone is on the page as me on this one. I am currently reading his most major (in my opinion) novel "For Whom the Bell Tolls" as a way to go through the gamut of major Hemingway works. So far, I have claimed each book as one of my top favorites and this one is meeting into the actual top five of all time for me. However, I recently read chapter 10 about two days ago and was completely horrified.
The book is about and during the Spanish Civil War. Robert Jordan, an American for some odd reason, goes to the front lines and is ordered to blow a bridge strategically with the aid of the local guerrilla forces. When he meets this band of misfits (for a lack of a better term) he ends up getting background stories on most of the characters. Pilar, the wife of one of the unit's chiefs, talks about how they originally run out the Facists from the local town.
This is where it gets disturbing, only because Hemingway can make something so vivid without many words. The Republicans (not the political party, but more a supporter of a Repulic form of government) form two lines with one end being the house they are locked in, and the other end being a high cliff. One by one, the men are forced out of the house and made to run through the villagers at the end of a shotgun. The villagers beat them with sickles, flails, and bludgeons; really anything they can get their hands on. IT was devastation.
I was so torn by the way it was written. I have grown to love these characters for over 150 pages, and have learned their struggles. However, I read about the executions and wonder about how I would've reacted if I were there. As much as I have a bleeding heart for Democracy, nobody and I mean NOBODY should have to go through the horrors that these people faced, regardless of their belief structure.
I think this is how Hemingway wanted to present it too, and I'm glad. I've noticed that the way he presents information allows the reader to sit on the fence with him: almost an ability to see both sides and move on easily. Of course, his writing style made him famous (all action sentences), but this makes his writing more enjoyable on my part. I'll let you know how I feel the further I get along.
Here's Hemingway on the left...he's so Grandpa-ish! I love it!
2 Thoughts on my thoughts:
I read once that Hemingway composed the whole of each novel in his head, then sat down and typed it in one or two sittings. He's part of my holy trinity of writers: Hemingway, Bowles, and Kerouac.
I don't think it's true. But it reminds of an English-major version of the Chuck Norris jokes.
I once heard Hemingway out drank God in tequila shots...or something like that.
Have you read FWTBT?
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