And It Rises Again

This novel, to be frank, annoyed the crap out of me. This is probably to Hemingway's credit rather than otherwise; I simply couldn't get a handle on what was going on in the novel, either on or beneath the surface. By the conclusion of the book I felt I still had not answered any of the questions I had started to ask at the beginning of the novel: what is wrong with Jake? does Brett really love him? will they make a go of it despite everything? what makes Brett tick? Hemingway doesn't give the reader any easy answers. I mean, it seems pretty clear that Jake is impotent, and I suppose most readers don't want more details than that - but for everything else, you know.

Dana, you mentioned the blunt language as a balance or counter to the studied glamour of the dialogue. I read them both as distractions, as distancing mechanisms that keep the reader from getting to close to the emotional and intellectual center of the novel. Bill's flippant wisecracks about Irony and Pity seem to hint at some deeper point about contemporary literature, but the sheer glossy ridiculousness of their conversation distracts from a deeper investigation of his meaning. Likewise, Jake's terse, plain narrative rarely goes into real detail but merely covers as much action as possible. "I unpacked my bags and stacked my books on the table beside the head of the bed, put out my shaving things, hung up some clothes in the big armoire, and made up a bundle for the laundry." This kind of thing goes on and on, and rarely do the particulars of the actions become important. The descriptions are not colorful enough for us to be entranced by the language or to envision the scene sharply; I can't imagine even being interested in such a letter from a dear friend. Meanwhile, under the surface, there is a little bubble of tension in his occasional glancing references to Brett, in his volatile feelings toward Cohn, and in his oddly passive narration. I continually wanted to get closer, to really know what was brewing beneath the surface, but I felt elbowed away by the too neat prose and the too pat dialogues.


I'd follow with an update, but I like to keep this blog free of real world clutter. *cough* DANA.


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