What did you think of Catch-22? Also, congrats on completing the college applications. I've got a friend at U Washington for Graduate School. It's a great university. I wouldn't say that I have a resolution every single month, and some of my resolutions are grouped into a period of time as opposed to a single month. For example, I have a resolution to finish writing, recording, and to release an LP worth of music by mid-August. As a record label we do have monthly resolutions of who we'd like to put out in a given month or what show that we would like to do, and those are rolling and never-ending. Outside of that, I have been trying to read at least one book a month. It's looking like A Farewell to Arms will be finished today. I'm also starting to set resolutions with regards to web development since I've started to teach myself that stuff.
I'd love to know what you thought of a Farewell to Arms? Is it your first time reading it? It is one of my favorite reads and the only book I've ever read three times. Enjoy the completing of the book it is intense to say the least.
There's going to be spoilers in this post. ===
This was my first exposure to Hemingway and it was a fantastic read. I thought it was a brilliant way to show the many brutalities of war: the degradation of Rinaldi, the shooting of the Sergeant, the rounding up of officers and really all of the retreat scene in the book was incredible poignant. I think the latter did a good job at a brief exploration of moral relativism and the idea of self vs. duty, which is constantly explored by Frederic. I think the most brilliant part of this book might have been the way that Hemingway handled removing Frederic and Catherine from the brutality of war, and then introducing them to a more personal and possibly worse form of brutality. The ending astounded me, even the very last page left me thinking "is there any escape?", which is probably exactly what he wanted. Great book. Not as good as the last book I read but still great nonetheless.
I really liked it. I read Something Happened a number of years ago and loved it. It's much slower than Catch-22, but it drew me in. The way Heller deals with death in his books is something that I really appreciate. Many authors force meaning into a character's death, but for Heller it's "sometimes people just die." A somewhat futilistic (if that's even a word) view, but it makes his books stand out for me. My book for this month is Venus in Furs by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. There's also a production of Venus in Fur by David Ives being performed in Seattle that I hope to see this weekend or next.
I have very mixed feelings about Something Happened. I read it. It might as well be titled Nothing Happened. Heller's style is amazing and some of his bits of insight are off the charts, but for a relatively long novel to lack a plot was a bit dull for my taste. After a while I just got bored.
I definitely understand. The reason I like Something Happened so much is because of how in-depth it is into Bob Slocum's life. It's an everyday tragedy of a common man; unhappy, unfulfilled, with all of his best years behind him. Like I said before, Heller is incredible when writing about futility. Having the climax two pages before the end of the novel made the novel for me. The novel ends where Bob's life ends (in a figurative sense).