415. For Whom the Bell Tolls

For Whom the Bells Tolls
Ernest Hemingway
1940
Around 475 pages

I love a good Hemingway novel, even though it's the literary equivalent of downing a scotch and smoking a cigar, both of which cause me intense vomiting. It's a tight race between this novel and A Farewell to Arms for my favorite Hemingway.

Robert Jordan is an American living in Spain, and fights as a mercenary against Francisco Franco's fascist forces. He is ordered by a Soviet Union general to travel behind enemy lines and destroy a bridge with dynamite. Jordan meets other guerilla fighters, including Maria, a Spanish woman who has been deeply traumatized and brutalized by the war.

Hemingway thinks we are all well-versed in the ins and outs of the Spanish Civil War, which I don't actually know much about. I feel like the only time it was mentioned in my education was in the context of ex pats going abroad to fight voluntarily. Oh, the privilege. 

Despite this, Hemingway is such a good storyteller that is was very easy to follow. We are officially in World War II, ladies and gentlemen. Hold onto your butts.

RATING: *****

Interesting Facts:

In 1940, For Whom the Bell Tolls was declared non-mailable by the U.S. Post Office.

In 1941, the Pulitzer Prize Board and committee unanimously recommended the novel be given the Pulitzer Prize. But Nicholas Murray Butler, the president of Columbia University and unofficial head of the Pulitzer board at that time, found the novel offensive and persuaded the board to reverse its determination so no Pulitzer was given for the category of novel that year. Dick.

The ban of this book in Spain was only lifted in 1968.

UP NEXT: Farewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler. I think once was enough for this guy.