A FAREWELL TO ARMS - Ernest Hemingway

Here is a book I finished reading August 11th 2013 at 3:14am

The idea to read this book was based on my desire to try and read all of Hemingway's classic novels in order to prepare me well enough to have good conversations about them with friends that already read the books.  It was all worth the effort.  As mentioned in my other Hemingway posts I have taken in 5 of his books in so far and am holding there for awhile.

This was not an easy read for me like some of his others works such as Old Man and the Sea and The Sun Also Rises.  Instead I had to work a little harder in the beginning to stay interested. However, as the book progressed and the Characters became clearer I found I was locked in and it was hard to put down.

I was fooled originally, after a friend had told me it was one of the best war novels ever written, when I realized the majority of the book is not spent in combat, but is spent, rather, with the main characters time in the hospital and on the run from the war. Perhaps my friend had this confused with For Whom the Bell Tolls?  Regardless, this book is by far one of my favorite Hemingway to date.

Without giving too much away I will keep this simple.  The book follows an American character named  Frederic Henry, serving as a Lieutenant ("Tenente") in the ambulance corps of the Italian Army.  The main focus of which is his love affair with a nurse who I am unable to decipher is English or Scottish from what I remember.  The love they develop is put to the test after Henry defects from the war effort after almost being put to death for retreating in a very 'on the edge of your seat' scene that left me staying up late to finish.  There love affair blossoms and they begin to start a life together and grow older with a twist at the end that broke my damn heart.

There were the classic and notable scenes for me that I have come to expect from Hemingway which include the way in which the characters drink and the rather extended dialogue between men and woman that has become the Hemingway trademark for me.  Seeing entire pages of conversation between characters is not new for Hemingway fans, but he makes it work perfectly and this is what I love most about Hemingway's books; that I am right in the moment as one of the characters, often forgetting that I am reading.

I recommend this book for all Hemingway fans of course, and those looking for a good (yet manly) love story. One must keep in mind that this was written so long ago and the language used is not at all how you might expect one to talk today and I think Hemingway loses a lot of younger readers today due to this and this is a damn shame to say the very least.  This was a major issue for me as well, as just as the lines of reality were beginning to blur and I was fully immersed in the fiction, a line or two of speech that just didn't make sense to me would throw me off and I would have to start back into it.  I hope public schools take note and add more of these types of classics to the reading curriculum so they can be learned to be enjoyed.  Would be a shame to see an entire set of masterpieces disappear.

This book is 332 pages long and it took me 2 days to finish during a busy work week, which is to say that every second I wasn't sleeping or working my nose was buried in it.  On my sliding scale I give this book 9/10 for its ability to throw me right to the edge, and just when I thought I had it figured out and was in the clear...pushed me right over the edge.  Not too often do I leave a book feeling a very REAL sense of loss and pain.  This book hurt me, plain and simple.  Very effective and powerful read. 

THE SUN ALSO RISES - Ernest Hemingway

Here is a book I finished on August 5th 2013 at 3:29am

The idea to read this book came as I began the pleasure of reading Hemingway's classic collection.  As I have mentioned in other posts on Hemingway here  I have only digested 5 of his works so far, and I am taking a break for now.

This book was everything I was hoping Hemingway would be again.  After reading Old Man and the Sea in 2009 I was a true fan, but A Moveable Feast almost ruined Hemingway for me.  Thanks goodness this book was next on my list and reignited my interest.  As usual Hemingway writes only what he knows about well.  I have not come across a book yet that he has written where he is trying to explain something foreign to him.  He writes of war becasue he has seen war, he writes of hunting, fihsing, bull fighting, love, liquor, and travel.  All of these Hemingway was adept in, and this book is no exception to that. 

Putting it simply and without giving too much away, as this is a 'must read' - The story follows the adventures of Jake. A man living in post World War I Paris (another of Hemingway's themes exposed) It follows him through several places over a short period of time and depicts the relationship he has with his friends during this time.  In particular there is the a worthwhile relationship he has with a character named Lady Brett, a woman I have no doubt would be loyal to Jake if it had not been for an accident he sustained in the war which has left him unable to 'love' a woman of Brett's caliber.  But one of the many delights of the novel is watching how the careless Brett, not being able to have Jake as she wants him, takes down men and renders them into slaves for her affection; notably the poor character Cohn - as you will see when you read it. Again, I don't want to give too much away, but that relationship is one of my favorites in literary history (or my short lived version of it thus far)

There are scenes in this book that are reminiscent of Old Man and the Sea in that they are so overly descriptive that it makes you feel you are right there with the characters, watching their conversations unfold..  There is a fishing scene in this book where Hemingway describes the water, the wine bottles cooling in the stream and the way they wrap the fish in newspaper after they are caught -  is written in the classic Hemingway style; that is to say, simply written enough to digest effortlessly but with an element of old world class that makes you feel like a gentleman for just reading it.  Later in the book when the 'gang' all assembles in Spain for the bull fights I have never before imagined such a party even possible, and what makes it so believable is that Hemingway lives this life first hand, and his description of it you damn well know is based on true accounts of this glorious madness.

I recommend this book for any Hemingway fan of course, for those that have wanted to know what it's like to experience the thrill of a bull fight in heightened detail or to know how the tight grip of jealousy can render men in to fools.  For lovers of wine and travel, this book speaks for a time I wish I had been given the chance to experience first hand.  This book is as close as I will ever be able to come to that time. 

This book is 251 pages and I took it down in a day off.  On my sliding scale I gave this a solid 8/10 for its ability to remind me a time that my grandfather would have lived.  A place where telegrams where your equivalent to emails and Hemingway's uncanny ability to place the reader directly in a characters head, in the same place as they are during the world as it collapses around them.  Such a good book, and on topics only Hemingway could possibly write about.

A MOVEABLE FEAST - Ernest Hemingway

Here is a book I finished on July 17th 2013 at 11:06pm.

The idea to read this book came to me when I was considering finishing what I had started when reading Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea.  I like to get 'hooked' on an author and often times find myself liking a book so much that I will then try and read everything by that author.  To date I have only read 5 books by Hemingway and although that might change one day, it is enough for now to keep me up to speed on who and what he has to offer.  I had started my affair with Hemingway in 2009, quite late considering my age and comparing it with some of my friends who state they had been fans since high school.  Admittedly I am coming to a lot of classics late, having spend a great deal of my high school years with Hesse, and a large selection of the beat writers.  However, better late than never...right? And 4 years after reading Old Man and the Sea I was ready to put some Hemingway under my belt.

Now that I have already read most of Hemingway's true classics I feel safe in saying this book does not do Hemingway justice for the newcomer.  It was published after his death by his forth wife.  From what I have been able to gather it was put together via a collection if his memoirs from his time in Paris during the 1920's when he and his first wife lived there. It is not written in the true Hemingway style as I have come to know and it becomes quite easy to tell it was edited heavily by his wife I am assuming, and others may have had a hand in it.  All that being said; if this is your first stab at Hemingway you may be left disappointed.

The book reads like an autobiography, putting the reader smack-dab in the middle of Paris in one of the greatest literary times of all history.  It describes the cafe's the bars, the night life of Paris so well that I plan to book my next trip there in order to get a better grip on the visual representation I think this book COULD have offered had it been entirely written by Hemingway himself and not put to a slow death by all the hands that put it together after Hemingway committed suicide.

I personally don't recommend this book as an essential Hemingway 'must'.  It is a nice read if you are interested or wanting to do a little exploration into Hemingway as a non-fictional character.  But if you're looking for a gripping story that is loaded with that classic Hemingway descriptive style and edge of your seat, white-knuckling drama - don't hold your breath.  But, again, if you're like me and like to 'get to know the author' a bit as you're reading their books, this might just be the one you're looking for.  

This book is 211 pages long and I was able to finish it in a few days.  On my sliding scale I give it a 5/10 only getting that high becasue it was truly a pleasure to hear about Hemingway as a young author trying to make it within the expat. literary scene of 1920's Paris.  In my mind that was such a romantic time and gives an unseen look at other writers in his literary circle like Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ford Madox Ford, James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, and others - this is just to name a few.  There is one scene in particular that stands out for me where Hemingway is sitting with a colleague and Aleister Crowley walks by.  Not such a great scene if you are uninitiated to Crowley, but knowing as much as I do and being as well versed in Crowley as I am, I found this to be quite a disturbing and exciting moment.  It is the small moments like this that almost go past unnoticed at times that make it such a powerful read.  Take a deeper look if your interested, you might find something here.

THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA - Ernest Hemingway

Here is a book I finished in October of 2009.

The idea to read this book was almost forced in nature.  As most of us were first exposed to this in our high school years for an English class, it wasn't until I was actually teaching a class at a community college when I first picked this up.  Somehow the curriculum of this particular reading comprehension course had this on the menu.  Like any good teacher, I figured knowing my product before standing in front of a class made the most sense. and it became the first of 5 books by Hemingway I have read.

This book is unlike the Hemingway I came to know later, in that it is the most simplistically written of his works that I personally have read.  This isn't to say it lacks detail or a gripping story line, quite the opposite is true.  To date I have yet to come across a book that offers such detail in its depiction of a character vs. his/her struggle.  Even the way Hemingway describes the character in this story eating lunch is a mind-bending experience for the stand alone reason that it makes you feel like you know exactly what he is talking about, even if you've never been in a boat, or on the sea.  I could literally taste what the old man was preparing.

Without destroying the adventure for you, let me just put it simply; this book is about a Cuban fisherman's struggle - his battle - with a huge marlin which is set somewhere in the Gulf Stream.  Some have called it a tale of courage in the face of defeat, and they would be right.  The main character is painted early in the novel as a man with the most unlucky type of luck, a fisherman who hasn't made a catch in over 80+ days.  When he ventures out to the open sea he has a battle worthy of any war-story. This doesn't sounds like high adventure for most I am sure, but I can assure you this will be much more than you expect.

I recommend this book for anyone just starting to take interest in Hemingway's works.  Besides his short stories, this book can give you a powerhouse delivery of the type of descriptive style Hemingway is famous for. I would also recommend it for anyone interested in deep sea fishing as Hemingway was himself, which is probably why he was able to depict so clearly the extraordinary battle between man and fish.

This book is 127 pages long and I was able to finish it in a busy day without wasting any time. On my sliding scale I give this book a solid 10/10 for its ability to completely immerse me in the story.  Few books have been able to place me in the drivers seat so to speak quite like this. When reading most books I always have the sense that I am reading a book and it is not real.  But with this book I lost the lines of reality and was sometimes sitting directly in the boat in fierce competition with that marlin and later those sharks.  This booked moved me like few others ever have, and I truly believe it deserves all the credit it has been given.

CABBAGETOWN DIARY - Juan Butler

Here is a book I finished on August 30th 2013 at 12:06am.

The idea to read this was quite by accident.  I always shop for books when I am killing time in town waiting to meet a friend or arriving too early somewhere, for example.  You can safely loiter in the stacks so to speak without anyone asking too many questions.  I have always enjoyed Bukowski books and poems very much, and any time I am in a used book store I try and locate ones that I do not currently own (many reviews here in this blog on Bukowski) So, this particular time in that particular shop they had no Bukowski, but they had this book called Cabbagetown, written by Butler in the same alphabetical area.  I picked it up out of sheer boredom and because a friend of mine named Robin was speaking to me earlier that month about living in an area of Toronto Ontario called Cabbagetown for over 20 years in the late 70's into the early 90's.  Little did I know this book was exactly about that place.

It is some strange sort of coincidence to say the very least, but the author of this book I would easily and safely say is the Canadian equivalent of Charles Bukowski.  How rare a find it was to get my hands on, and how freakishly unbelievable that I was actually looking for Bukowski originally, only to stumble across his mirror image in terms of style and depiction. I consider myself to be almost expert on anything Bukowski so I feel very confident in this claim, but at the same time I was left shocked after I found this book at the fact that I had never before come across Juan Butler.  How on earth did Bukowski stay on my radar so much as a younger reader and this guy slipped past?  As it turns out the author committed suicide at age 38 after suffering with mental illness...which may have been why he remained someone of  mystery. 

This book is written diary style, based on the rather grim life of a young bartender living in Cabbagetown during the 1960's.  It tells of his summer relationship with a young woman named Terry that he randomly meets in the area.  In short, he exposes her to his friends, to his neighborhood, drugs, drunks, drinking, violence, and sex. The book is to have a rather unexpected result in the end...although, as you get to know the character of Michael you begin to expect nothing less from him. 

Just as Bukowski might have written, this book paints a picture of a very seedy counter-culture that made up some of Cabbagetowns finest inhabitants before it became the affluent Toronto neighborhood as it is today.  No Canadian author that I know of to date has been able to depict the true grimy image of rooming-house life that was made famous by writers like Bukowski quite like Juan Butler.  I only wish he was able to offer us more before his death, but there are only three books that I know of that have been published under his name. 

I recommend this book for any fan of Bukowski who is looking for something just a little new and a little more Canadian.  If you like the recipe that Bukowski offered than there is simply no way to deny the 'pleasant' effect this book will have on you.  Even though at times this book leaves you feeling dirty and 'wrong' for what you have read, I feel it serves it's purpose at giving the reader a first hand glimpse into what was at one time one of the worst places to live in Toronto. To survive it would have been something.

This book is 211 pages long and took me a week to finish.  On my sliding scale I give this book a solid 8/10 for it offering me a fresh taste of a style I am already all too familiar with.  I like the fact that I have someone new to blame.  If Tom Wait's doesn't write a song about Juan Bulter, I most certainly will.  

MONSTER - Sanyika Shakur (aka, Monster Kody Scott)

Here is a book I originally finished summer of 2006. 

The idea to read this book came from a magazine article I read where the author was interviewed.  I have tried to reference that article but sadly it couldn't be found, as it was so long ago.

I have always been obsessed with violence and violent behavior.  I am uncertain if this is becasue I was born and raised watching action movies with my dad or if it is some primal form of the 'kill it or fuck it' male instinct that Ken Wilber talks about in some of his books.  Regardless, I enjoy immensely hearing about violence, it downright fascinates me how evil some people can be.  I can safely say that I myself don't have murderous urges, but I just enjoy reading about it...possibly becasue it is so foreign to me? or maybe becasue I have always been raised in areas where that wasn't a real fear?  I don't know.

It can be easy to miss the underlying message in this book due to it's fairly graphic depiction of gang life in LA. However to me, this book speaks in volumes about the importance of education in areas of socioeconomic disadvantage.   It might not be a familiar story for some, but personally I feel pop-culture has done more than enough for any of us to understand what a 'ghetto' is and who lives there and why...the purpose of this review is not to go that deep.  I will just assume you understand what I am talking about.

I recommend this book for anyone who is an educator in any capacity, to show the sheer power of educations strength as it takes a hardened gang-banger like 'Monster' Kody Scott and turns him into a leader in his community during his metamorphosis into Sanyika Shakur.  The books flat-out paints the picture of Kody Scott being sent to jail over the course of his life - while there he learns from other inmates and from educational programs which he is exposed to only becasue he is in jail.  Over time he begins to see that his life of violence was never his choice, it was almost the only option a black man had in the area he lived in.  He grows and learns to take new forms of action, one I urge anyone interested to read on their own so I don't spoil it. 

Over all this books just says to me that education is the key...independent thought, the ability to freely research and form an unbiased opinion...all elements of creating that well oiled identity necessary to survive in even the most unthinkable areas.  Although the author would probably laugh off this review, given after all by a white man who grew up in 'safe' white-suburbia.  I hope anyone reading this can at least somewhat see what I am trying to depict.  Great read.

This book is 383 pages and took me several days to finish.  On my sliding scale I gave this book a solid 9/10.  Mostly for the allowance the reader gave me, to peer safely into his world of utter madness without repercussions, and for the sheer delight of seeing first hand why I have always loved education in almost ALL forms.  I would love to see more from this author.

DARKNESS VISIBLE - William Styron.

Here was a book I finished on JULY 31 2013 at 3:34pm.

  The idea to read this book came to me when I was driving to work and was listening to a radio program about the nature of depression.  They quoted the author many times throughout the interview and it intrigued me enough to buy it.  This book has been cited as being  "the most vivid and insightful, first-hand account of a major depressive episode to date "

  In my line of work, I deal with a lot of people with mental health 'issues' and this book was useful  for me to use as a template  for understanding more clearly the thought process of someone locked in to the crippling idealizations of suicidal depression.

  I recommend this book for anyone who is suffering from depression, thinks they might be, or knows/deals with people who are.  It can be a very useful and informative book, not to mention an all around good read and look at William Styron's personal struggle.

This book is only 84 pages and can be read in an afternoon for most.  If you're familiar with Styron from previous works you already know he is very 'wordy' for better lack of terms.  On my sliding scale I gave this book a solid 8/10 for its usefulness to my profession and for its ability to stand on its own as a great personal memoir of a very talented writer.