This book was not worth the money I paid for it. This is the other book that I bought at the Hemingway House in Key West because it was a book and it grabbed my interest and I was on vacation so budget be damned! If I had only bothered to look at the price and realized that I was paying more than $15 for a paperback I might have put it back on the shelf.
The book is very amateurishly written. The narrator feels the need to tell us about every single thought that the characters are having (OK, not really every single thought, but it felt that way at times). While, as a writer, I can understand the temptation to do that, as a reader, it was extremely irritating, especially when the characters' inner thoughts just repeated what the dialogue or action had just told me. I find it ironic that Robuck is such a Hemingway fan because he was a minimalist writer. He never did any of that, usually not even bothering to show his characters' facial expressions. He just lets the dialogue and the action speak for itself. While Hemingway's writing style is a bit extreme for my taste, I'll take that over Robuck's rambling any day.
The setting also needed work. This wouldn't have bothered me so much if I hadn't just been to the Keys. Robuck lost me at the very beginning when she described her character on Whitehead Street and hearing Duval street from "a couple blocks away". Whitehead is one block away from Duval street. She also mentions Hemingway and some other characters discussing the Spanish Civil War. The book takes place in 1935. The Spanish Civil War didn't start until July of 1936. Way to go. Then there was the scene where Hemingway tells Mariella that smoking will kill her. No one knew that smoking would kill anyone in 1935. Heck, as late as the 50s and 60s doctors were recommending it.
OK, now it's time to talk about the parts of the book that I did like. First of all, it was short. No, I'm kidding. That's not the first thing I liked about it. My favorite part was the characters. The main character, Mariella, is tough and smart and strong and she has guts. I love her. I also loved the portrayal of Hemingway. It struck me as very true to life, from what I know of him. Robuck did an excellent job of displaying his charisma but also showing that he was kind of a dick. It left the main character feeling torn and I found all of that entirely believable. My favorite part was a scene where Mariella calls Hemingway out for writing weak female characters. It was perfect because it is so true. That was my biggest complaint about "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and Mariella was a perfect example of a real woman: strong, smart, capable, and flawed.
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