Mahtab’s Bookshelf

Amigos! Hope you’re all doing well. As this year draws to an end, there’s no better way to make the transition other than by reading a timeless classic.

Here in the “Pick for the Week” series, I’ll help you pick your’ to becoming’ favourite books, fiction as well as non-fiction, ranging from all genres and all ages, through weekly series of mini completely spoiler-proof reviews.

For Whom The Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

— it tolls for thee

Released a year later the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939, Hemingway’s war fiction captures the chaotic intricacy of the war, and does so splendidly. Narrated by some omniscient God, the novel takes us on voyages inside the complex thoughts of the characters, predominantly that of our protagonist Robert Jordan.

Robert is an American dynamiter, who has to blow a bridge in order to counteract the fascist forces. He is being aided by some local anti-fascist rebellions, of one he happens to fall in love with, Maria. And thus, thou hadst a love story (which I wish it were not).

Mr Hemingway, as a journalist, was posted in Spain during the civil war to report from, and in this fictional work of his, he tries to capture the war objectively, as a reported is supposed to. The novel stresses that there is no angel side, and that both sides are mucked up (obscene words in the novel are censored so).

Certainly, For Whom The Bell Tolls is not the best work of Sir Hemingway, the words, at times feel exaggerated, and the novel is slow-paced. But it’s an appreciated classic for a reason, for that his work is sensitive towards the people involved in the war, of both sides.

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