The Sun Also Rises (1926)

I want to hate it for its chauvinism, but find I can't. I can't argue with the man's phrasing, or his grasp of language, or the realness of his characters. Even Brett -- a woman who is both beastly and heartbreaking to read about, and who is loved for an obscure quality that goes mostly unexplained -- is real, at least in so far as she is explained (only in relation to the men around her). Chauvinism? Sure. But whatever. This isn't a novel about men and women but about the sadness that comes from giving up and giving in. I prefer to think it is the moments of stark sanity (the waiter in the Pamplona cafe, the fishing trip, Montoya's scenes), rather than the lugubrious, drunken backdrop of faithlessness and false cheer, that define the novel. It is without a doubt finely crafted and exquisitely written. I'm just not sure it passes the modern relevancy test, and that is why it gets 4 stars instead of 5. ( )

Another Hemingway disappointment. Written like a journal, a US Newspaperman stationed in Paris documents a short period in his life amongst his quasi-dysfunctional friends. His imagery is bland, the conversations are banal, the plot is non-existent, and the drunkenness is continual.

To make matters worse I read this immediately following a re-read of Jane Eyre. Hemingway couldn‘t touch the bottom of Bronte‘s shoe if he were on a step ladder. ( )

The debut novel by Ernest Hemingway is arguably the best book he ever wrote. It was an instant bestseller and is today considered probably “the” book of his generation. Published in 1926, between the end of World War I and the beginning of the Great Depression, it captured the mood of the “Lost Generation”. These were war wounded souls for whom life’s peacetime events seemed insignificant. Many like those in this book stayed behind in Europe and indulged themselves in lives that would have provoked scandal back home.

In fact, The Sun Also Rises was considered scandalous by many when published, including Hemingway’s own mother, who reportedly wrote to the author that his was “one of the filthiest books of the year”, and that “every page fills me with sick loathing.”

Back then the scandal about the book had to do with its use of swear words and its depiction of “loose morals” in the relationships between the male and female characters. More recently the book has been criticized for the antisemitism and bigotry of its characters - the derogatory language used about the Jewish character Robert Cohn, and the use of both the N word (repeatedly) and the F word - as well as its realistic depiction of bull fighting.

The story is told through the eyes of Jake Barnes, an American news reporter in Paris whose war wounds have left him impotent. He is surrounded by a group of friends, American and British. The English Lady Brett Ashley proclaims her love for Jake but given his inability to have sex they both realize they’ll never be more than confidants and close friends.

The main action in the book is the result of a love triangle around Brett that plays out on a trip to Pamplona, Spain where the group goes to take part in the Fiesta de San Fermin. They take part in the annual running of the bulls and are daily spectators at the bull fights. There is much drinking and partying.

It's clear that Hemingway sees bullfighting as a metaphor for manliness. Jake’s love of bull fighting is in some sense a compensation for his own perceived lack of manliness given his war wounds. He is a true aficionado of bullfighting, and he takes the time to let us know that he's recognized as such by the Spaniards he has befriended in Pamplona. Bullfighting means even more than that to Hemingway, who wrote later that attending a bull fight is like watching a great tragedy - like “having a ringside seat at the war with nothing going to happen to you.” The tragedy that surrounds the bullfighting in the book mirrors the misadventure that the happy trip of Barnes and his friends becomes.

Given that Brett is the epitome of the 1920s New Woman - liberated and promiscuous - it’s not unexpected that she falls for the handsome young bullfighter. This, despite being accompanied by her supposed fiance Michael on the trip to Pamplona and having just completed a dalliance with Robert Cohn. Cohn keeps hanging around though others in the group (especially the would be fiance) repeatedly urge him to just go away.

Through it all, even through the fist fight at the climax of the book, Jake remains detached while still a part of events, a reflection of the detachment of his whole lost generation.

It's Hemingway’s writing style that makes the book transcend its story of lost souls spending their prime in partying and dissipation. The spareness and understatedness he’s known for is at a peak in this book. It’s a real pleasure to read.

When it comes to classics like this it doesn't feel right to assign them a rating (I've thrown a 3 on this LibraryThing review as a "neutral" response hoping not to throw off the average too much). What I will say is that I thoroughly enjoyed re-reading this book and would recommend it highly to anyone who has not yet read it. ( )

This is one of those classics of the terse Hemingway style. I believe I imitated it for weeks after reading it. There's lots of interesting big themes at work in the novel, but I enjoy it simply for its finely observed portrait of the Lost Generation drinking class--and for its great description of the bull fighting milieu when the setting shifts from Paris to Spain. ( )

It makes me want to travel. =) ( )