Across The River And Into The Trees
Ratings4
Average rating2.3
15
Ratings4
Average rating2.3
On the last day of his life Colonel Richard Cantwell sits in a duck blind in Trieste, reflecting on his life as a soldier and reminiscing about his tryst with a young Venetian woman named Renata. Across the River and into the Trees is the moving account of one man’s thoughts as he nears the end of his life, pondering a love that is stronger than reason and the beauty of Venice. Originally serialized in Cosmopolitan magazine from February to June 1950, Across the River and into the Trees takes its title from the last words uttered by Confederate General Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson. Panned by critics on its publication, it is now recognized as an important part of the Hemingway canon for its depiction of how man deals with death. HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.
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It's like a December-May version of the movie Before Sunrise. Except instead of Ethan Hawke, you have a bitter ex-General (now Colonel) in the US Army with some sort of terminal cardiac condition. And instead of Julie Delpy, you have a young, selfish, stupid/naive girl (or at least one who acts stupid and naive). The relationship between the two is so skeevy that you can imagine that some reviewer came up with the word just to describe this. Okay, so it's actually nothing like Before Sunrise in that it's very talky and the couple spends the time bouncing around a European city.
There's practically nothing redeeming about this novel – there are flashes of Hemingway's brilliance. Occasionally – very occasionally – the couple's dialogue is dynamite. The conversations the Colonel has with a portrait of the girl are almost completely superior and more interesting. You have sentences like
The Colonel breakfasted with the leisure of a fighter who has been clipped badly, hears four, and knows how to relax truly for five seconds more.
Seinfeld
2.5 stars. Line to line this has some typical strong Hemingway writing, but as a whole it has none of what makes Hemingway's best works special. A disappointment.
Hmm, a bit spoilerish, sorry, so I hid some of this...
Set in Italy, near the end of World War II, it is the story of retiring Colonel Richard Cantwell. He visits a small town near Venice, where he meets his (very much) younger girlfriend, Renata. He is fifty one, she is nineteen. The Colonel is a somewhat brash and rude man, who falls into a ‘military' response too easily, but Hemingway examines his wanting to be less rude, and less confrontational.
His military career is over, and while he has his anecdotes and the past glories, he has little else, and his young girlfriend, who will not marry him is his only love. He works his way through his long weekend, putting things in order for his departure.
Hemingway builds and interesting character in The Colonel, not necessarily likeable, but perhaps when he is understood a bit more towards the end. There are a few interesting interactions, but for me the dialogue in some parts was pretty hard work, and some could have been omitted without effecting the closure of the story.
3 stars.
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