The book is set during World War 1 in Italy.
Henry the main character is a Lieutenant in the Italian army. He is a heavy drinker and has a different view on god than most common Italians who her rather fears god than loves him. Another main character in the Book Is Catherine a nurse that Henry has fallen in love with deeply but doesn't reveal it right away.Catherine and Henry have complicated moments in their life together as he goes to war and gets an injury in his knee and is sent to Milan to be taken care of there. He is worried not to see his love again but she is transferred there. Him being injures is a very complicated situation and he rather wants his leg amputated than sleep in the hospital for several days.
He goes through the operation and continues his life Catherine announces she is 3 months pregnant right when he is going to be sent back in to the army he goes back and ends up being on a run and escapes from Germans who are now at war with Americans since president Wilson declared war on them. Henry is captures but spontaneously sees a chance and jumps in to the river and floats away. He eventually makes his way back to Milan bloody and freezing. In the hospital realizing that Catherine is no longer there, he finds out where she is and takes a train to Stresa and finds her there with Helen Ferguson a fellow nurse and best friend of Catherine. He loves Catherine and so they move in but don't get married even though they have had many conversations on this subject. Catherine has problems with giving birth and it seems that Henry has no feeling for this child and Catherine has a weird way of looking at the child. She gives birth and though the baby comes out safely she is not okay and she knows she is going to die and she does with Henry by her side.
What i thought of this book was even though it was a complicated journey for these characters there was humor in it in many places and that Hemingway came with this book what true love in real life is about and that during that period of time it was hard to keep it but not impossible. it makes me consider if love is worth it if its so hard to keep.
I would definitely recommend this book, but not for someone who is my age maybe eighteen would be the right age because i don't believe in teenage love its just that simple. Why? because it doesn't come with the facts that scientists say that our brain isn't developed until we are 18. It is some what funny but the content in this book is very hard to understand for someone who has never been in love.
This book definitely helped me understand this time period, mostly relationships that went on between people in war and kind of the post war effects on those people that were in the war and what i calculated in my head is that these people became very selfish in a way that the whole world didn't matter but them and maybe that's great but i didn't see them going through blood and freezing to run to find their families. Also i understood what were the circumstances during the war and that when Henry got injured and then put back together he was back on the line in a very short time. it seemed like they had no time or people to waste.
Connecting it to 2013 is very hard because right now there is a war but it's not the same people are given more time to reflect on what they did in the battle field i feel like World war 1 countless people died and many wounded as i said if they got better were sent back or there wasn't even time to fix them up at some point so they stayed and fought. Now Its easier and faster to communicate and it's not as messy and we are able to settle things with exchange.
