Sunday 9 August 2009

too many darlings

Ugh, I've just read the last chapter of "A Farewell to Arms" by Hemingway and now I feel like throwing up. Too much blood!
It was a curious book though, everything that was supposed to be romantic felt very flat and artificial. I don't mind Hemingway's style in general even though one of my friends, quite possibly Cat, was right when she said that he only ever talks about food and alcohol with real passion. That sort of detachment is alright as long as he writes about manly bonding and the war. But as soon as he writes about women, it's just plain boring and pointless. Almost as if he had to put a love story in there to make sure the novel would sell. Dude! Nobody cares about love stories! Well, nobody cares about supposedly romantic love stories, anyway. (Except Twilight fans. Scorn scorn!)
You know, I wish the whole book had been written in the same style as this brilliant little gem right at the beginning:

"Oh, darling," she said. "You will be good to me, won't you?"
What the hell, I thought.

Exactly what I was thinking.
I think I'll read a non-classic next. Exciting! I'm still not used to it, but I think a David Gutterson novel might be perfect summer reading. Nice and dark.

1 comment:

  1. I'm so jealous that you got to go to Indietracks! I want to go as well. :) London was nice, but I used to live in England so I really just tagged along on my parents' business trip and went shopping in Brick Lane.

    Re: Scandinavia - I would go to Stockholm, but that's just because I haven't been there yet, haha. I'm not too fond of Copenhagen, though. In Oslo you should definitely see Grünerløkka and St. Hanshaugen because they are the nicest little places, go to a student pub at campus (cheap and lots of students, I could take you!), and vegetable shopping at Grønland. The botanical garden at Tøyen is marvellous, and I also love Astrup Fearnley museum of modern art and the opera. You should have lunch at United Bakeries and coffee at Stockfleth's. But you've been here before so I guess you've seen a lot of it.

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