If there is such a thing as chick lit then this novel is the polar opposite, man lit. I should have been reading this novel in a high back chair in some hunting chalet near the roaring fire with a single malt whiskey on ice. The testosterone almost jumped off the page. While I read, I kept thinking to myself 'this is how men think, isn't it? Is this how men think?' Who needs all those self-help relationship books when you can just read Hemingway.

The story is about World War I, and love in the time of war, and then there was a lot of war. But Thank God! I'm not really a big fan of war stories but I hated Catherine. She was such an idiot. But the book still kept my interest. The ending left me with a feeling of WTF!

Hemingway's writing style is blunt and in your face with short sentences. I have yet to read anything of his that was not a tragedy. A Farewell to Arms was no different. I understand how this may not be the most appealing to many people. I enjoy his writing style. There is no skirting around anything. It is just straight, to the point and sometimes over the head.

Halloween always puts Quirk HQ in a more ghoulish mood that usual. Perhaps that's why we've taken it upon ourselves to reimagine some classic novels in a horror-ific fashion. Hit us up with any of your own contributions on Twitter, and you might just see it illustrated! 

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

Frederick Henry is going out on a limb.

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

Everything's about to get chopped

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

What's Mr. Rochester hiding in the attic?

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Maybe there is a beast...

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Boo.

Alas, The Old Man and the Sea goes unchallenged as my favourite Hemingway.

While Farewell has some exceptional excerpts, most of them about war and how soldiers feel towards it, Hemingway can't write romance. I feel it's because he can't write a creditable woman (except maybe Pilar from For Whom the Bell Tolls, though he compensates with the wet dream that is María. Maybe it should be that he can't write a strong love interest?). Most of Catherine's lines sounded so trite they made me cringe.

Paring all the tragic saccharine, we are left with quite a piece of it's time, so I reckon it's worth the time if you have it.

Book 5 Chapter 40 ... Mar 1918 ... Switzerland

I reckon I'll dock 3 of these at most, but I'll shoot for the moon.