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Summary: A ground breaker when first published
Review: Although the novel seems almost tame by today's standards, when this book (Hemingway's first novel) was released in 1926 it was a ground breaker and considered scandalous by many, including Hemingway's parents. The center of the novel is Jake Barnes, a WWI veteran who has lost the use of a certain very personal appendage as a result of a war wound. Jake struggles with what the wound means to his life and with his love for Brett Ashley, a love that in his mind will have to remain forever unrequited because of his wound. Alcohol is a major player in Jake and his friends' lives, and throughout the book he attempts to cover over the pain he is in with alcohol and traveling with his friends. Hemingway, without even informing the reader of the exact nature of the wound (I doubt he would have been able to be published had he described the exact nature of the wound), conveys both the true nature of the wound and the emotional pain that comes with it for Jake. The novel is somewhat auto-biographical in that Hemingway suffered wounds to his legs in WWI and that most of the characters were based on actual people he knew. At the time of the book's release, there was some concern that he might be sued for libel, but nothing ever came of it. In fact, several of the real individuals upon whom the characters were based bragged for many years that they were basis for the characters. A little trivia related to the book: Hemingway's parents were repulsed by the novel and made Ernest aware of it. This caused some turmoil in family relations and Ernest's pride was obviously wounded by their disgust with the book. Years later, when Hemingway was hospitalized after a plane crash, a reporter kept insisting that Hemingway's story was more auto-biographical than originally thought. The reporter kept insisting that he believed Hemingway suffered the same wound as Jake (despite the fact that Hemingway had fathered several children by then). Tired of arguing with the reporter, Hemingway finally pulled back the sheets to show the reporter that he suffered no such wound.
Rating: 
Summary: Worthwhile
Review: I read The Sun Also Rises for one of my summer reading requirements. Initially, I was skeptical as to whether I would enjoy Hemingway, but in the end it turned out to be one of my favorite books. The story begins with the introduction of a group of friends who are living in France after World War I. They go out to notorious cafes, luxurious restaurants, and wild clubs and try to drink away their disillusionment with themselves. When that doesn't seem to allievate the problem, they venture out to Spain, once again attempting to run away from their tribulations. The book is set in a generally mellow atmosphere which can get a bit slow at times, but the whimsical characters allow for more exciting events such as the bullfights, the fights, and the conversations. This book is strikingly familiar to The Great Gatsby. However, this proves no coincidence as Hemingway and Fitzgerald were friends during their time spent in Europe with the rest of the expatriates. This novel reflects the lives of the "Lost Generation," and will most certainly leave you entertained.
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Summary: and it also sets...
Review: As recounted in Hemingway's memoir "A Moveabe Feast", none other than Gertrude Stein was very critical of Hemingway's earlier works and gave him some disparaging criticism. Over 80 years have passed, and Hemingway is still widely read today, and with good reason: the man was a born writer. Hemingway's first novel is a story of the "lost generation"; those who came of age during World War 1 and lived as expatriates in Paris. The hero of the story is Jake Barnes, a man suffering from a bad injury during the war and his relationships. Never boring, the book is at its best when the more everyday aspects of life intrude upon the narrative. The characters are all sharply drawn. I was at first worried about the bull-fighting sequences, not because I am opposed to the sport, but because I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to sustain interest, but the passages are so well-written that it's no problem. Hemingway's first is a good place to start to get used to his narrative technique. He's one of the earliest writers I have encountered who can write about "nothing" and make it Something.
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Summary: Hemingway influence...
Review: Before this, I had never read Hemingway, merely I had heard of his vast and prolific influence over nearly every writer since. Now, having read The Sun Also Rises, I can say that even in my writings before I had read this, I could see so much bearing an intense similarity to Hemingway's prose. Really, you have to have read something by him to really see just how much nearly all of the books written in the past 50 years have really been influenced by him, either directly or indirectly, as is the case with me. Not only that, but the book is highly enjoyable, with constant vivid descriptions and highly complex characters, among other things.
Rating: 
Summary: Re-reading Hemingway
Review: I have to say I was shocked at the gratuitous homophobia, anti-Semitism and racism that Hemingway trots out from the first page on ....OK, so it was written in 1926...still! And the ridiculousness about Jake's war injury making him incapable of making love...puh-lease! Did he lose his fingers and tongue along with his nether parts? I didn't get that impression. I thought the very crux of the book was his relationship w/the proprietor of the hotel where Jake, his pals and the bullfighters stayed. Jake first of all concurs w/Montoya that the pure young bullfighter, Romero, shouldn't be exposed to the decadence of the British officials who invited him to a soiree...Jake and Montoya agreed that the invitation should simply not be communicated to the bullfighter. Shortly thereafter, Jake colludes in Brett's seduction/corruption of that same 19 year old local hero. After the bullfighter ends up beaten to a bloody faced pulp, Montoya shuns Jake, obviously blaming him for his part in the whole fiasco. Jake, retreats to France where he waxes on about how good it is to be in a place where people are your friends if you over-tip them; so much simpler and easier to deal with than being in a place (Spain) where the friendships are more mysterious-- alluding, though in not so many words, to his previously valued relationship with Montoya who shared his love and understanding of all the nuances of bulls and bull fighting. I take it as an indication of Jake's cynicism that he doesn't even apologize to Montoya for "spoiling" the bullfighter...just blows off what had been a special camaraderie.
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Summary: a masculine take on Henry James
Review: The Sun Also Rises is a rather low-key book. Written in a terse, almost hard-boiled style, it tells the story of a wasted group of Americans and Brits living and caring for nothing in Europe after World War I. The events, some of them rather traumatic, never seem to touch the core of these people thus giving that idea that, more all their self-worship and high-faulting ideas regarding man, nature and the way things ought to be, there is really nothing to them. It is a good book, a swift read that carries you along through a series of aimless adventures that have a great deal of depth. The exploration of what is missing in these people makes up the bulk of the story, events getting worse and worse while the characters remain stangely unaffected. Events even seem to repeat themselves, again and again, in different circumstances and locales, something with even differing participants (although there is really no reason to tell them apart). One gets the feeling, in later years, of a fushion of a Henry James morality tale crossed with the heartless indifference of Bret Easton Ellis' monsters--it really does go that far in explaining Hemingway's influence on the generations of writers that followed him in light of those dismissed that came before him. It is a book that, for me, discounts a little of Hemingway's claim as 'a stylist that changed American writing forever' as I see much of Dashiell Hammett modified into something attempting to paint a picture in black and white instead of with a blood-splashed gray. It truly is a fine book but one (if this critique can be regarded as anything) that leaves one a little uncertain of comment and that gives the impression that, perhaps, it may very well be forgotten three pages into the next book undertaken.
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Summary: Classic.
Review: Hemingway defined a style for American literature that has been often imitated but never duplicated. This novel illustrates the hilights and lowness of a generation's emergence into itself.
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Summary: Very well written, good read, ostentatious characters
Review: It is very hard to argue that Hemingway's writing style is not simple perfection, and his books are always enjoyable, but (and maybe it's me) I always have a bit of a hard time relating to his characters. They always seem to be wealthy gamesmen traveling the world safari hunting, or fishing, or (in the case of this book) a little of both. Should every reader be able to relate to every character in every book? I doubt it, so I would still urge anyone to pick this one up, but you may find that the characters seem a little distant and hard to sympathize with, in many cases. It's about an American newspaper man living in Europe and his wealthy, or once-wealthy, friends as they travel to Spain to fish, drink, watch the running of the bulls, drink, enjoy the bullfights, drink, screw, drink, and fight. It's a short book -- give this one a try.
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Summary: Sad look at expats
Review: This is the first time that I read this book, and I really enjoyed it (though I think that A FAREWELL TO ARMS is my favorite of the two). I loved reading it aloud for the humor in the dialog that becomes apparent more when spoken, and I've known people who were so inspired by this novel that they've gone all the way to Pamplona to see the Running of the Bulls for themselves. There are some themes that emerged throughout and became part of the hum of the book, loneliness of the lifestyle, even though it sounds quite nice at first blush -- living without obligations turns to living aimlessly; stopping into a pub for a drink all the time, turns to a soggy, fogged existence affected by too much alcohol and drunkeness; traveling as you please turns to physical aimlessness and a desire to have someone to go to; and being so free turns to being lonely (even the traveler that Jake and Bill meet in the fishing town in Spain seems almost unbearably lonely). Hemingway's prose is engrossing and seems to kind of motor you forward, forward, forward. Again, as I was with FAREWELL, I was blown away by the contradiction of the kind of journalistic, unemotional writing and the high level of emotions reading Hemingway produces due to the intimacy that the style makes one feel with the protagonist. I really enjoyed it again here. However, I wonder if there isn't something about this novel that appeals more to men, generally speaking. I liked it, but I wasn't as moved by it as the other novel of his that I've read. I don't know that I'd go all the way to Spain based on this work alone. Perhaps its the theme of the insecurity of the men, their vulnerability to Brett that resonates with men. I just didn't like Brett too much (and thought Hemingway didn't either).
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Summary: Beautiful Masculine Romance of What Seems to Be & Is Not
Review: I loved reading this book. I love the simple imagery of Hemingway and the experiences he writes about: bullfighting, fishing, drinking, dancing, fighting, drinking, going to local taverns to eat and drink, romance, travel, and drinking. I have never studied Hemingway and know not why he is a part of a generation lost, but I am 21 and love to read his short stories (which I highly recommend all to buy the complete one book version of) and found this book to be a great read.
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