Books that I got lately

Last Monday (April 23rd) was Sant Jordi, and as I explained last year people buys books and roses and there are plenty of stalls on the street selling both of them. Sant Jordi is my favorite holiday, except it is not because you have to go to work anyway. Usually guys buy roses for their girlfriends and girls buy books for their boyfriends, but usually everybody gets a book. Since my family has long given up on trying to buy books for me I got them myself.

The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway/A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway/El mejor amigo del oso - Arto Paasilinna

I bought Hemingway's (I wanted to read more of him since I finished "A Moveable Feast") on Amazon before Sant Jordi, but I got them afterwards, and I bought Passilinna's the weekend before because I went to a bookshop with a friend and I found it so I decided to buy it. I'll be reviewing in the order I've read them.

El mejor amigo del oso - Arto Passilinna

For those of you who don't know Passilinna what you need to know is that he's a Finnish author with a really particular sense of humor, I won't try to define it because you really need to read it, the bad thing about him is that it's really difficult to find his books, this is the fourth one I've got and I think there are only two more left that are translated in Spanish (I don't know Finnish language) and I think it's even worse for English. Well about this book, its title translates as "The bear's best friend" and it is a delicious book, I cannot define it in another way. There are so many crazy things happening that it's exhilarating. One of the things that I like the most about Passilinna is that all his characters have some flaw and they all do crazy things but they believe they're right about it, it's just so like real life but way crazier, or maybe this is how Finns are like. It's a must read, I think that maybe it's the Passilinna's book I liked the most. So if you like surreal situations that somehow make sense read it. 

The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway

I once said that I wasn't good enough to do a Hemingway's review and I maintain it so I'll keep it short. We all know how great this book is, but it's only when you read it that you get attached to the main character that you realize it. I know nothing about fishing and its terminology but I felt as if I was on the journey with the main character. It felt real. I don't need to say it's a must read, because I guess that most of you will have already read it. 

A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway

I ended this book this very afternoon and I'm still in the aftershock. It has left me shattered, broken inside. Because it is longer than The Old Man and the Sea you have more time to get to know the main character (Frederic Henry), to grow familiar to him and to the people that surronds him. You live the war, the love, the death with him. It reminded me a lot of A Moveable Feast, I guess that because some of the things in the book actually happened to Hemingway himself. If you could only pick one book of the three I've read, pick this one and read it slowly and carefully allowing all the details to sink in, understanding how was it during the war.