I love most of his writing, and For Whom the Bell Tolls is one of my favorite novels. It’s a crucible in which we see all these different versions of humanity emerge. We see what friendship and loyalty look like, we watch love unfold and expire, we see how identities are formed in relation to a cause, to a tiny and insular community, to the land.

As a woman, I read all kinds of things. I think some of the women characters he writes are underdeveloped or less than 3-dimensional (and often exist as an extension of a male character). But I also think he writes about things that are universally human, and I enjoy the way his sometimes-spare writing style serves as a flat backdrop against which big themes and feelings can really take center stage.

Carson McCullers: Sorrow parallels desire in the immense complexity of love.