Review of "Across the River and Into the Trees," by Ernest Hemingway

 Review of

Across the River and Into the Trees, by Ernest Hemingway

Four out of five stars

Hemingway and characters post-war

 Published in 1950, five years after World War II in Europe ended, this novel is set in that timeframe. The main character is a former soldier that fought on the Allied side in Italy. He currently resides in an area where his unit engaged in combat against the Germans and their Italian Fascist allies. He sometimes reminisces over the action, wondering about men dying while fighting over such geographic features. The main character is universally referred to as “my Colonel,” as some of the other characters are also former soldiers that served under him. All of them have physical and mental scars from their war experiences, it is a story of dealing with life after such a transformative experience.

 The story opens with an early morning duck hunt in very cold weather. The Colonel is in a boat that is traversing through recently frozen ice in their trip to the duck blind. It is an odd opening to a novel of this type, but it works. Having ex-soldiers engage in a duck hunt with shotguns is a way to introduce some of their unusual difficulties in going back to civilian life.

 This book is almost all dialog, most of it is very straightforward, but there are many subtle references that will allow the modern reader to recognize symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). It is crisp and also involves a young woman that is referred to as Daughter, which is an honorific. They sometimes talk about getting married, something they desire but know is simply not possible.

 One of the key passages starts on page 233 and opens with his being assigned a regiment. After this statement, the Daughter asks, “How do you lost a regiment?” The Colonel then explains what happened and how he was ordered to assault a town and had to follow orders even though it was a disaster. When talking about the enemy, he says, “The professionals are very intelligent and these Krauts were all professionals, not the fanatics.”

 Based almost totally on dialog between ex-soldiers and others that care for them, this is a book about life after fighting a war. There are many messages in the words, an excellent summary of how men went to war and then had to live through the subsequent peace.

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