Rating: 
Summary: Read It Twice
Review: I read this book twice, and I'm glad I did. I saw many things I didn't see the first time: the constant reminders and symbols of manhood and how Jake was not a "complete man"; how Jake and Brett are happier together than with anyone else; the streamline style of Hemingway--who is a master of "show don't tell". I could go on. If you read this book, read it twice. I was disappointed the first time, but delighted the second time.
Rating: 
Summary: The Sun Also Rises
Review: I chose to read this book for an english project. I figured it would just be the same old stupid book that you jss get to get the assignment out of the way. I soon discovered when I started reading it that I liked it and it got my attention. I'm not a person to sit down and read a book, I'd normally sleep over read but with this book that was not the case. I foind myself reading it instead of sleeping. I felt the book had a good story and showed how it was for the so called "lost generation." The book was very discriptive and I often pictured where the senceswere taking place. If you have time on your hands to read I would recomend reading it.
P.s. the book contains many sexual references.
Rating: 
Summary: A book about life
Review: The Sun also Rises, a book that you either are going to love or hate, there is simply no middle ground. Like all other classic examples of a Hemingway novel, you have the unreliable narrator who is simply trying to go about his life living in the now, but realizing better than anyone what is the future. Hemingway, as in many of his stories, is exploiting the lives of the "lost generation". The story has no definite beginning or ending, and is almost just an excerpt from Jake's life (main character and narrator). Hemingway expresses just how "lost" this generation is by their lack of any true genuine feelings. In true actuallity the only time they ever truly express real feelings is usually at the end of a bottle, and most likely not the first one ither. I thoroughly enjoyed this story because of the relationships that are discribed throughout it. It shows that a group of people who share interests and act civil towards eachother, may not be friends. And just how thin their friendship can be when one falls from social grace. By far though the greatest aspect of this story is the relationship shared between Jake and Lady Bret. One of the only stories where I enjoyed finding symbolism, this relationship goes on more ups and downs than Mr. Toads wild ride. Although both express their love for eachother, they also state how a relationship could never work out between them. Mainly due to the lack of "manhood" left in Jakes life. Overall this is no story of a happy bunch of friends, there will be no Ya-Ya sisterhood found here. This novel is about real relationships formed by men, their boundries, and what it means to be a "lost generation".
Rating:
Summary: The Best Hemingway I've Read Yet
Review: Let me start by saying I can't believe I am giving this book 5 stars... and only gave 4 to For Whom the Bell Tolls. I read The Sun Also Rises before I read For Whom the Bell Tolls, I thought the latter had struck me deeply and made more sense to me... but there's just something about the former. Hemingway had a real knack for telling about the struggles for finding the meaning of life. He hit the nail on the head time and again.
The Sun Also Rises is all about pain and longing. I'm a couple of months removed from reading it, but that is the truest take I get from it. Each character has a distinct pain and longing they are dealing with... Let me highlight some of these:* Brett-- the beautiful and highly desired object in many man's eyes. She seems to have it all. She seems to be right where she wants to be. But she is truly searching and lost. It seems the one thing that would make her complete is the one thing she can never truly have... Jake. The late night conversations between Jake and Brett, really tug at the heart. You just wish they could somehow get together. But it could never be...
--The longing and pain of unattainable and unfulfilled desires. * Robert Cohn-- the man on the outside looking in. Robert Cohn so deperately wants to be part of the group. He so deperately wants to be accepted. He so deperately wants Brett. But he can never realize any of this because the social group he wishes so much to join has already passed judgement on him and will never let him in. And poor Robert doesn't realize that it is only "WHO" he is that is keeping him out forever. Not just the fact of his ethnic background but his very personality drives him out of the group.
--The longing and pain of being on the outside looking in. * Mike Campbell-- He seems to be at ease in the social group. He seems to have established himself. But when you look at his constant barbs at Robert Cohn you can see he is really insecure about his position in life. Mike isn't a main character but you can see yet another longing when you look at him. He is actually in... "The In Crowd" but doesn't seem to be very sure he is really in at all. To me that is the human condition in a nutshell. Always pushing... always grasping... always looking for more... when all we need is probably right in front of us. What a shame!
--The longing and pain of insecurity within security. * Jake Barnes-- Last but certainly not least.... Jake. Jake epitomizes pain and longing in this book. Jake is the glue that holds this whole group together. That is a lot of pressure on an individual. The pressure he is under can be seen clearly by his relationship to Robert Cohn. He is forced to go through such changes in that singular relationship. At the beginning of the book he seems to at least have a tolerance for Robert Cohn and then through circumstance he has to sway completely. He keeps the clashing personalities at bay all through the story. He seems to keep Brett from crashing and burning over and over again. I'm sure there might have been a murder between the social combatants somewhere in the story if not for Jake soothing and placating all he came in contact with. He seems to be the only one in the book who has any social graces and tact. What a lot of pressure on one individual.
Jake also has this mysterious wound from the war that keeps him from having a sexual realtionship and connecting to anyone in that way. How much does this hurt Jake? How does it affect him? We don't really get a deep picture of it all... but it seems to impact him at least minimally and I'm sure it goes much deeper.
To me the one thing that would make sense in the whole story would be a realtionship between Jake and Brett. They seem to fit together... but they can't. Jake can't physically, of course, but he is also damaged emotionally and can't find intimacy in a purely emotional connection either. Is that lonliness or what?
--The longing and pain of holding everyone else together and the longing and pain of wanting... yet not being able to. I think the one thing that makes me rate this book a 5 out of 5 is the fact that I have, at one time or another, felt exactly like all of these characters. Like I said, Hemingway hit the nail on the head consistently... he knew what we need, what we miss and what we yearn for. Hemingway like no other novelist understood how we struggle and fight for so much but rarely get what we want.
He painted such a brilliant picture... take the time to gaze upon it. This is a wonderful book.
Rating:
Summary: One of Hemingway's Best
Review: I have always liked Hemingway, although I must admit that sometimes his writing drags on a bit. However, I found this book very fresh and pleasant after having read Hemingway's painfully long "For Whom The Bell Tolls". This one is not about war, but about some friends that live in Europe after WWII. The characters, such as Lady Brett, Jake Barnes, and Robert Cohn are very well-developed and have a certain lightness to them, as they spend their nights drinking away at bars.
In conclusion, I think this is an excellent read if you like Hemingway. Personally, it is my favorite of his works, and I have read a few.
Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly, kind of nice.
Review: Everyone I know who's read Hemmingway hates him. My roommate bristles when his name is mentioned, and the person I'm dating goes berserk whenever his name comes up (which, admittedly, isn't all that often). So, having never read anything by him, I thought it only fair that I give him a chance. Having found The Sun Also Rises at a used book sale, I gave it a shot. And I was pleasantly surprised. "But NOTHING happens!" everyone whined. And they're right. This is one of those not-particularly-plot-driven kinds of books. But against my will, I found myself actually caring about the characters, even if they were fairly predictable, and even if they did drink too much. It all just seemed to fit together quite well, and I ended up really liking the book. And his prose style (simple sentence. simple sentence. simple sentence.) made for a nice break from Nabokov, who I'd been reading at the time. Not right for every book, sure, but it worked for this one, and it made the dialogue feel real, instead of forced or false. So Hemmingway. He's not for everyone, sure. But I enjoyed this book, and I'm looking forward to reading other things by him.
Rating:
Summary: Not Nice People, But Writing is Brilliant
Review: This is a story about an oddball collection of wannabes and used-to-be's and never-quite-were's, gathered first in Paris, and then moving to Pamplona. They drink, they complain, they lust, they observe life, while living very little. This is not a respectable lot, although Jake, the narrator, has a few redeeming qualities. So, why did I give it five stars? It might be, at the technical level, the finest writing I have read. This is Hemingway at his best, using clear, cold, stark, unflowery writing to describe this bunch of n'er-do-wells so well that they become interesting. Don't read this for what it's about. Read it for what it is.
Rating:
Summary: A short vacation into Pamplona
Review: I enjoyed this book quite a lot. I found it to be short and simple with some great scenery and senses descricptions. But in the end it is more of a self analysis book through drinking and eating from France to Spain and back. I would have to say I preferred For Whom the Bell Tolls. It has more of my kind of necessary drama through the fight for survival. But, who could ever say that Hemingway isn't one of the most enjoyable writers if not the most challenging.
Rating:
Summary: Hemingway¿s Desire to Truly Live
Review: Hemingway's style is a style that makes you want to live. Whether his characters are diving from café to café in search of a quick buzz or out in the woods fishing, Hemingway takes the reader there with amazing descriptive power. _The Sun Also Rises_ is the story of a group of expatriates centered around the characters Jake Barnes, Lady Brett Ashley, and Robert Cohn. Their desire to live and to experience takes them from the cafés of Paris to the bullfights of Pamplona, Spain. Along the way they love, hate, and betray each other, often as just a way to feel anything at all. Jake is in many ways the typical Hemingway main character. Jake was a soldier in the Great War who became wounded and fell in love with his nurse, Brett. We see echoes of this story in A Farewell To Arms and Hemingway's life. Jake however is physically impotent from his war wounds. He craves Brett, but she will not have him because of her sexual needs. While Jake is physically impotent, all of Brett's lovers end up being emotionally impotent, so Jake functions as Brett's one love, with no power to satisfy her: Hemingway's own "catch 22." A masterful stroke of Hemingway is his ability to have the environment play out the emotional state of the characters. This extends well beyond the natural forces mimicking the characters feelings as in the storms of some gothic novel, or The Great Gatsby's conflict on the hottest day of the year; Hemingway uses the whole environment, natural and man-made to play out his dramas. Jake's only serenity is found in the mountains away from mankind, just fishing. But as the conflict rises the story moves back to civilization to where bull-fights become more and more intense with each day. The bulls and bullfighters themselves begin to represent various figures of the drama. The emasculated steer trying to keep the other bulls calm, as Jake seeks peace between his friends. The bullfighter's elegant grace at dancing with the bulls mirrors Brett's sexual games. The power of Hemingway ultimately lies in his short descriptive prose. His pithy statements set the scene, set the mood, and then send the reader on into the action. While the train of thought style that Faulkner and Joyce use would probably better reflect how one thinks in a given situation, Hemingway's use of terse statements gives us the scene in readable understandable chunks that draw us in easier. It may not be the way we think, but it is the way we understand. The language completely sucks you into the setting. Many point to Hemingway's and the characters' use of alcohol as their drug of choice, but the true drug of _The Sun Also Rises_ is experience. Disillusioned by the Great War the expatriate characters shift from moment to moment just wanting to live in that moment, as if it were their last. So as Jake soaks up the dancing and the drinking, so do we. As Brett feverishly tries to pray in the church, so do we. We can feel the dust of Spain settle on our necks, and we can feel the cool stream run past our legs. The jazz music makes us want to dance, and the bullfights make us want to dance with death. Hemingway's style is not just persuasive, it is compelling. So even as we find ourselves in situations we would normally find appalling-drinking in the morning, faced with a dead man lying in the road-we still find we want to be there. We want to experience what Jake experiences. We find that we want to live.
Rating:
Summary: Papa¿s Sundry Ode to the Lost Generation
Review: Surprisingly enough, I began this novel after reading Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City. McInerney opens his urban odyssey with a brilliant (paraphrased) quote from The Sun Also Rises: "How did you go broke?" Bill asks.
"Two ways," Mike said. "Gradually and then suddenly." A great read following say, a Farewell to Arms or In Our Time. The War may be over, but many personal battles are still being fought. The two main characters, I argue, are Jake Barnes, who narrates the novel and whose cynicism renders A Farewell to Arms Lt. Henry seem like Mister Rogers and Robert Cohn, whose description which screams him as a thinly veiled portrait of F. Scott Fitzgerald ushers in the opening of the novel. Why is the aforementioned Cohn such a central figure to this novel? I mean, here's a character who's generally disliked, he may be intelligent, ambitious, but his personality can best be described as cold, distant, and capricious. I believe that Hemingway is trying to come to terms with his relationship with F. Scott Fitzgerald, the other literary great, just as much as Hemingway's Jake Barnes is trying to come to terms with himself and his somewhat awkward disability. In retrospect, and after considerable reflection, I found The Sun Also Rises to be an "expose" of the duality of personality, with each character two characters in one, the outward personality we all utilize to some extent to hide the hidden psyche containing our insecurities and fears. We really cannot escape our worst enemy, ourselves, by perpetually running away, as the novel's centerpiece, The Expedition to Pamplona, is an excursion within an excursion, and even then the characters still have to face themselves and each other. Who could argue that Papa's prose is not as perfect as it could possibly be?
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