‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’ by Ernest Hemingway

When I tell people I read a lot, they often ask me “What’s your favourite book?”. Rather than tackle that question, I’d always answer, “Well, the LAST good book I read was…”

And the last good book I read was Hemingway’s ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’ (why, yes, there IS also a Metallica song with the same name).

The book is about the events in a 3-day period during the Spanish Civil War in 1937. Robert Jordan is an American volunteer who joins the republican guerilla army as an explosives expert tasked to blow up a bridge. Jordan journeys behind enemy lines with a small band of guerilla fighters. Over the few days, he gets to know his comrades and why they fight, and ultimately realize that they will not survive this mission.

While the plot is simple, Hemingways skillfully tackles the issues of death, suicide, courage and inevitably, the brutality of war.

I have to admit, this wasn’t an easy book to read (I tried and gave up some years back before reading it recently) but it is fulfilling to finish it. Everytime i watch scenes of war on the TV news, I am always reminded of the characters in this book and why they fought and were willing to die for their cause.

As with all my favourite books, it has a good ending (not necessarily happy, though). I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t read it.

7 Comments

Ann

July 7, 2010 at 2:36 pm Reply

Agreed. A book that is hard to finish does count for alot of satisfaction. For me it was War and Peace! Have not read Hemmingway – tried but failed the last time. Maybe I should give it another try.

simon

July 7, 2010 at 3:14 pm Reply

i bought old man and the sea by hemingway, a very short book. maybe u shd start with that one.

anjali*

July 7, 2010 at 3:45 pm Reply

My first Hemingway was that “Old Man And The Sea”, which I had wanted to pass to you but we did not get the chance to meet. 🙁 It was hard for me to finish it, coz I just wanted it the old man to be done with the swordfish instead of dwelling of endless pages about the sea.

I am now waiting for the day when I have the courage to tackle “The Sun Also Rises” which is collecting dust on the shelve.

simon

July 7, 2010 at 4:17 pm Reply

cool! i bought ‘old man’ from waterstones in london. actually i just bought to say i got something from the store, it was almost the same price as it is here.