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Title: OK, but certainly not worthy of being called a classic
Review: I read this in high school and now again as an adult in my mid-40s. I am baffled that critics call this a classic (and I was a lit major). The characters lack any complexity, the story has little dramatic tension, and the characters' development is not insightful or even interesting. There are extended conversational passages that lead nowhere and just communicate the main emotion of the book: an ennui--perhaps caused by war, perhaps by the main character's own alienated personality.The only part that really had some insight and even tension(hence the two stars) is the first third in which Hemingway describes war itself and the sensation of being badly injured. This is clearly autobiographical and is much more alive than there rest of the book--after that, it's all predictable and uninteresting.
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