Started: 20th May 2022
Hemingway's fictional account of an American soldier serving the Italian Army as an ambulance driver in the Great War. The story follows the main character, based upon Hemingway's own WWI experience, through friendship, combat, injury, convalescence and love in a dangerous time.
This is my first experience of Hemingway's distinctive writing style. It took some getting used to, but I was able to get through it in eleven days. I'm not sure I would call it an enjoyable read, but, despite the strange, repetitive dialogue, I found that I cared about the central characters fate and stayed up late to finish the book.
The first book of my new endeavour. I selected Dune on a whim. It was engrossing and largely enjoyable, though a little surreal at times. It is not hard science fiction at all, being much more concerned with the politics, culture and, dare I say it, "lore" of the Herbert's fictional universe.
I am not in a hurry to return to Arrakis, so I won't be reading the sequels in the near future.