What strange dialogue

I started listening to For Whom the Bell Tolls recently, and am wondering why everyone is so enamored with Hemingway. The story so far is engaging and well told, but it seems so… prosaic… which is not what I expected from one so universally praised. I’ll give it time though, it is drawing me in.

The dialogue, though, I find very strange. The way people talk does not seem to reflect my experiences in reality. Leaving aside that for some reason Hemingway felt he should put ‘unprintable’ and ‘obscenity’ in place of cursewords… just the actual form of the sentences people speak seems odd. Very repetitive and oddly formed. They don’t really seem to talk like human beings.

I’ve been told in so many words that I’m an idiot for not immediately seeing the majesty of Hemingway, and maybe I am? But this one is not striking me as a masterpiece by any means just yet…