Another Tuesday edition. Sunday Morning is relative… I give myself +/- 3 days.
//
I picked up a bag of coffee from a local coffee shop here: The “Surfer’s Blend” from Morning Brew coffeeshop in Kailua. A very balanced and flavorful light-medium roast that would appeal to almost all coffee drinkers. A little pricey at $18 a bag, but I suppose that’s par for the course in Hawaii. I’m glad I found this one, for now it’s a good staple, everyday bean.
//
This morning I finished For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Hemingway. I’ll be honest; it took a bit of persistence to get through the first 2/3 of the book or so. I read it slowly, in 10-15 page increments over a few months. I had bought a copy a while ago, and decided to crack into it after learning a bit about the Spanish Civil War in one of my classes in grad school.
Now that I’m done with it, I can see how and why that long slow build is integral to the ending, but it was a bit tedious at times to get there. My version (Scribner, 2003) is 471 pages, and the first ~350 pages or so are character and situation development, before the plot actually kicks into gear. The entire plot takes place over about 4 days, and builds towards a single event.
Hemingway’s genius shines through distinctly in several parts of the book. The internal dialogues that the protagonist (Robert Jordan) has with himself are well crafted and capture the essence of internal debates that most people probably have. He argues with himself about how he does vs how he should feel about things such as killing, love, combat stress, and the cause of the Republic in the Spanish Civil War. The final 3-4 pages are especially good, but I won’t give away the subject.
Also, the description (told through a character) of the take-over of a local town, the purging of government loyalists, and the ensuing mob hysteria is quite profound. Although a work of fiction, this description is likely an accurate portrayal of local uprisings in revolutions throughout history.
Would I recommend it? Yes, but take it on with the understanding that it is not a page-turner. The slow build and sometimes laborious first part of the book is well worth it when you get to the final portion. It is perhaps Hemingway’s longest novel (at least that I have read) and those who appreciate his style and depth of character development would enjoy this book.
//
We have a coconut tree (aka palm tree) in our yard, and I cut down six ripe (I think they’re ripe) cocunuts yesterday. There’s still a lot still up there. I need to get a good machete knife, and I’m teach myself how to get into them. If I don’t cut off my hand in the process, we’ll have access to free coconuts.
bradswebblog.com 
I really liked For Whom the Bell Tolls. As a follow up to the book, watch the movie with Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman. Also Hemingway and Gelhorn, which is a bio pick on Hemingway, but begins in Spain during the civil war. Regarding Hemingway, I really enjoyed reading The Paris Wife, and then The Sun Also Rises – a great combo – read. Paris Wife is a novel about Hemingway while he was in Paris with his first wife; Sun also Rises is the novel he wrote during that time which reflects a lot of what we read about in Paris Wife. Farewell to Arms is a novel based on his experience in Italy during WW1 and is also a good read. Dad
LikeLike