The Sun Also Rises

Rating:
Summary: Unusual
Review: I tend to not like being told what to read, leaning more toward the off-beaten path for books like Vonnegut's SLAUGHTER HOUSE FIVE, McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD, or GRAVITY'S RAINBOW. But when we were assigned this book for class, I couldn't believe it. Here was something worthwhile, enjoyable, and above all, interesting. Now it's one of my favorite books. If you get a chance, try other things as well--books like Bark of the Dogwood or Gravity's Rainbow.

Also recommended: Gavity's Rainbow, Bark of the Dogwood

Rating:
Summary: The Sun Also Rises
Review: By utilizing his characters and their actions, Earnest Hemingway does an exceptional job at portraying the carefree, aimless life of the Lost Generation in The Sun Also Rises. Lady Brett Ashley represents women who are liberated, who have numerous admirers and sexual partners yet do not feel any compulsion to commit to them. Women like Brett are very independent and often utilize men to fulfill their necessities and empty, meaningless lives. Jake, Cohn, Mike, and Bill represent men of the 1920's who are psychologically and morally confused, and who drink, travel, and engage themselves in miscellaneous entertaining activities in order to escape from reality and their inner selves. None of the characters are happy with their dispositions, yet find means of suppressing and ignoring their feelings of un-fulfillment and misery exemplified very well by Jake's statement, "It was like certain dinners I remember from the war. There was much wine, an ignored tension, and a feeling of things coming that you could not prevent from happening. Under the wine I lost the disgusted feeling and was happy"(150).
One prevalent theme, which intrigued me, is the power and destructiveness of sex. Due to an injury as a result of the war, Jake is left impotent and is therefore sorrowful, depressed, frustrated, and insecure. Knowing this, Brett shies away from a relationship with him, despite the fact that they mutually share strong feelings for one another. Additionally, her reckless sexuality invokes jealousy, bitter disputes, violence, and ultimately, the ruination of friendships. Ironically, I believe she is a victim herself of insatiable desire for pleasure, and by her charm and beauty. Although I cannot relate, I never failed to be captivated by her strength and the fierce drama of their senseless lives.
I highly recommend this novel to those seeking to be entertained by a vividly painted and beautifully told story of a group of friends living their lives to the utmost extent in a time when it seems there are no consequences to one's actions, and where affection, purpose, and sincere happiness is almost non-existent.

Rating:
Summary: The Sun Also Rises
Review: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway is an intriguing and well-written story. I enjoyed reading this book mostly because of the captivating plot. I felt that Jake Barnes was an unusual character and the fact that he never got what he wanted added more interest to the plot. However, Lady Brett Ashley angered me due to her selfishness and destructive behavior towards all of the men in this book. Although it fit in with the plot, her character aggravated me. I felt bad for Jake and how Brett treated him, but I also think that the tension between the two of them added a lot of interest to the story. "Oh, Jake," Brett said, "we could have had such a damned good time together." (251) Aside from the intense drama occurring during the story with Brett and her lovers, I really enjoyed reading about the crazy nights that this group of friends would have. They were always out at bars and cafes, and when they went to Spain for the bullfighting there was a non-stop festival.
I feel that the most significant theme in this novel was the characters' feelings of having meaningless lives. Jake feels as though his life has no more meaning after his injury during the war. But he's not the only one who feels this sense of worthlessness. This group of friends drowned their troubled minds with drinking and dancing, and that was how they coped with their aimless lives every day. This theme does not relate to my life at all, but I'm sure it relates to the lives of many other people. Some people turn to drinking or drugs or anything they can to escape their feelings of misery or emptiness.
While reading this book, I couldn't put it down. I think it's an extraordinary story and I would defiantly recommend this book to anyone. The plot is intense and dramatic, with unexpected twists and bizarre characters. I recommend this book for those interested in reading about the fictional lives of a group of aimless souls looking for trivial ways to escape their feelings.

Rating:
Summary: American Stranger
Review: It has been said that Camus was deeply influenced by Hemingway's terse prose, which Camus employed in writing "The Stranger". Having loved that novel, I was that much more impressed and satisfied when reading "The Sun Also Rises."

Hemingway's narrator, Jake, is less complex than the existential rebel in The Stranger. Jake simply enjoys his life, going from bar to bar, train to train, hotel to hotel. He is unattached to the moral implications of the way his friends treat Cohn, a pathetic and desperate man, who happens to be Jewish. He experiences an almost zen-like passivity in his affections for Brett, a bold and attractive woman, which only makes him more attractive and manly in the latter's eyes.

Jake is somewhat of a less obvious and more appropriate existential man- because he is unattached to the idea of being detached, where as in The Stranger, Camus seems to continously make a point of his narrator's over abundance of detachment, to the point of seeming pro-active, which is a paradox.

Of course, this novel is not an existential one, it is mostly a fine, beautifully written account of expatriates in France and Spain, saying things to each other without meaning that have so much meaning, classic Hemingway.

Perhaps the best parts of the novel are the bullfighting scenes. For the first time, Jake narrates on moral terms, his tone changes, and all of a sudden, every little movement of the matador means so much to him. With Hemingway, less is always more, and we end up always wanting more, not because it is disappointing, but because it is so fine.

Rating:
Summary: Truly Classic
Review: Books come and go, but some stay. The 'Sun Also Rises' is really a magnificent piece of literature. The main characters, Jake and Brett spin you through their world of expatriate excess in post-WWI France and Spain. Reading this book makes me want to travel Europe without a care in the world. This seems to have some similarities to the themes touched on in a later work by Kerouac, 'On the Road.' Although much more polite, this book is a great look into the 'lost generation' and how the cool crowd functioned in early 20th century Europe. The descriptions of trout fishing and the bullfights in Spain are as vivid as any you will find. This is a true masterpiece.

A

Joseph Dworak

Rating:
Summary: You'll pack your bags and head to Pamplona...
Review: This book never fails to inspire me about the wonders of the expatriate lifestyle.

The way Hemingway details the pandemonium of the Fiesta de San Fermin makes me wish every day was July 7.

One of the best!

Rating:
Summary: Much Ado about Brett
Review: This early Ernest Hemingway novel, set in France and Spain, exemplifies the lifestyle of the not-really rich and the not-yet famous Anglos who chose to live abroad. Struggling with various literary and amorous challenges in 1920's Paris, several American and British young men decide to play tourist in exotic Pamplona--the annual scene of a week-long fiesta which is highlighted by many bullfights. This carefree, dissolute crowd takes life as a lark--superficially at least; inevitably, their extravagant nightlife and lush social habits backfire and relationships disintegrate.

This story of moral decadence is narrated by Jake, a laidback reporter for an American newspaper; he hangs out with colleagues who are trying to write novels. Mostly however, they are fatally attracted to the
enigmatic but irresistible Lady Brett Ashley, despite her masculine affectations. Slightly married to an English Lord yet slightly engaged to Mike, she is accustomed to the homage of men, but she finds herself choked by the ardent, unwanted attentions of Robert Cohn--a Jew who does not really belong in their set, despite his Gentile education. We soon realize that poor Jake is deeply in love with Brett himself, yet he generously sacrifices his own ardor in order to facilitate Brett's temporary happiness. He accepts Mike, is amused by the Count, annoyed by Cohn, but sets her up with his newest acquaintance--a handsome young matador. Ah, but whom will the desirable lady ultimately choose?

This short novel reads fairly quickly; many pages consist of dialogue of short quips, making it difficult to keep clear which characters are speaking. This would make a wonderful play, since it can easily be envisioned in scenes. The final section is brief, but anti- climactic, since the leading lady has left the stage. The subesequent plot is reduced to just Jake picking up the remnants of his dreams. No doubt this literary let-down is necessary to relax the frantic pace, but readers may resent the lack of action. Dear Jake asks no reward for his unselfish catering to Brtett's every whim. Is there life for mortal men after the
whirlwind of booze and passion in Spain? One wonders how much of Hemingway's own experiences are included in this novel...
Moths to the flame? Whether one approves of Brett's antics or not, she proves one Lady you will not soon forget!

Rating:
Summary: a good book for the disenfranchised
Review: I would put this book with Catcher in the Rye for books for the disenfranchised. The characters in this book talks about a "lost generation" that felt a sinking in their souls after the First World War at that time referred to as the Great War. I would argue that there is a lost generation in every generation which comprises a subset a people that feel no need to mature and live life as a vagabond. This book brings those types of characters in the foreground with good characters. It includes a character with low self esteem with a weakness to be loved by a woman who gives just a little attention to him, a character that acts like a jerk whenever he has the excuse to be one, a character that can't make up her mind on who to be with at that moment and a thoughtful character that puts all of this into perspective as the first person narrator. The book is a nice one for singles to read as it give similar types of interactions.

It was hard trying to identify how Paris might have been like or Pamplona because there was some but not much description of the scenery of the two cities. I mainly wanted to know the sights and sounds of the running of the bulls but the running of the bulls was mainly a background to the main plot of the story. But I wasn't really disappointed with that as much as the ending.

What I got from Hemingway's style was that his stories are best when appreciated in the moment. You shouldn't try to find a logical progression from chapter to chapter about plot and where you should see the characters going. The beauty of his writings dives into the psyche of his characters and gets involved in how personal flaws can lead to bad situations and bad outcomes. It doesn't try to answer how to live or how to fix them but merely seeks sympathy for them.

Rating:
Summary: Slow...but good!
Review: I have to admit that it started off extremely slow for my taste. But as I read on I learned to love the characters and by the end of the book I wished I belonged in Jakes social group. Not Hemingways best, in my opinion, but it was an amazing first novel for an amazing writer.

Rating:
Summary: How a Book That Says Nothing Says Everything
Review: Reporter Jake Barnes, a foreign correspondent, is rather deeply in love with the high living Lady Ashley Brett. Building a relationship from this, however, is impossible for them, due to an injury he sustained in the war.

The love between Jake and Brett is established in the first chapter and recalled in the last - the rest of the novel tells of an unhappy vacation in Spain wherein several men come to self-destruct when their romantic interests in Brett fail. This is the first true appearence of Hemingway's famous "Iceberg Technique;" we infer Jake's pain and scars by watching the suffering of other men. If their superficial connections to Brett are enough to cause such hurt, we can only imagine what Jake must feel.

Hemingway's language is terse, his descriptions are simple, and his characters are only outlines, but none of this matters - the book is cheap, short, and easy to read (I finished my copy in a few hours). Most importantly, though Hemingway will not do everything for you, he has no need to. Where one lets the eyes and mind collude to turn single photographs into motion pictures, the heart will turn books like 'The Sun Also Rises' into something vibrant, intelligent, and alive.

Jake Barnes and Ernest Hemingway, you and I, all know what it means to love and hurt. Good books teach us lessons, but great ones seek to remind us of all the things we'd rather forget.