|
He lived. Really - it reminds me of the old Peanuts cartoon where Linus begs Lucy to read a book to him. We walked over there. He died. We argued. On my third attempt, I finally made it all the way through The Sun Also Rises.
To quickly paraphrase the story: We ate. She finally concedes, opens the book, and "reads" to Linus, "A man was born. I forced myself to finish it, even though there is no intriguing plot line and the dialog is terribly dated and worn. We drank some more. The end." (Linus remarks, "Fascinating account - it almost makes you wish you had known the man.") It's that boring. Frankly, the book doesn't stand the test of time.
We drank and ate.
If The Sun Also Rises were to be placed into a literary genre, it would most likely be a story of forbidden love. It simply did not suck me in the way other books have. I had trouble discerning what the point of the book was until its conclusion. I also found the way Hemingway writes about Spain in this story to be quite interesting. Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises tells the story of fictional character Jake Barnes and his friends.
His elaborate descriptions of bull fights and his instructions on how to properly drink from a wine skin give the reader an idea of Spanish life. The lack of a driving plot made this book difficult for me to get through, and I never found myself completely consumed with Hemingway's fictional world. I would recommend this book to someone interested specifically in the Lost Generation, but to no one else. This label however does not fully capture the theme of the novel. Many of the other main characters in this book are males, and almost all are equally obsessed with Brett, but all also lack the confidence required to win her over.
The stories in this book tell of their experiences living in Europe, drinking together at different bars, and travelling, specifically to Spain. On a better note though, Hemingway's style of writing is exceptional. While forbidden love is a strong theme, the idea of human insecurity plays a strong role in this story. This book fits very well with Hemingway's Lost Generation due to the fact that I felt completely lost reading it. The protagonist, Jake Barnes, is clearly in love with his friend Lady Brett Ashley, but unable to act on his feelings due to insecurities he has. The dialogue Hemingway creates between his characters is very real, and effectively draws the reader into the story.
At one point I believed this book would be similar to Jack Kerouac's On the Road, and at other times I simply thought it was a look into the incredibly interesting world of Spanish bull fighting. His diction reveals a subtle sense of humor through random puns and joke's within the dialogue of his characters.
But not to give up on Hemingway I will also try For Whom the Bell Tolls and see how that fares. I found this simply boring. I got up to around page 60 and gave up. I simply don't understand what all of the to do is about.
It is, to be frank, a pointless book--which, in fairness, may have actually been Hemingway's way of conveying the aimlessness of the so-called Lost Generation, but that doesn't mean it constitutes literarily meritorious writing or makes for good reading. Ernest Hemingway is a great American writer, certainly worthy of his highly esteemed reputation, but his gifts are not on display in THE SUN ALSO RISES, a slow, boring story about a group of expatriate Americans and Britons who travel to Pamplona, Spain for the San Fermin Festival (popularly known as the "Running of the Bulls"). He matured a great deal as a writer and A Farewell To Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls (Scribner Classics), Old Man And The Sea (Scribner Classics), and The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories (Scribner Classics) are some of the greatest works of fiction of the twentieth century. Hemingway also struggles mightily with dialogue in this, his first novel, crafting conversations that are often awkward and confusing, and his character introductions alternate between "poor" and "non-existent."Though THE SUN ALSO RISES is not a very good book, it should not turn prospective readers off Hemingway entirely. Lots of drinking, debauchery, and brawling ensues. Unfortunately, there's no actual story here: the reader feels compelled to give this great author the benefit of the doubt and waits in anticipation page-after-page for something to happen, but nothing ever does.
I really enjoy the style he used in this book and found his characters intriguing and approachable. She generally felt like a party girl who absolutely loved life and was always happy, but as the layers came back, she had more emotional depth than first expressed.The other characters in the novel were intriguing but again it was hard to unravel their motivations and get at the heart of their character because their words and motives were often veiled by volatile or sullen behavior. His descriptions are straightforward and to the point. I felt like we got a pretty good feel for Cohn by the end of the novel. His dialog is natural. In fact, if a reader wasn't paying close attention, the importance of that wound would quickly fade into the background. But as we drill down into the hearts and heads of these characters, the true story became rather depressive. I have had very little experience with Hemingway prior to picking up this book.
However, there are plenty of clues as to the type of injury and the nature and extent that it has affected Jake's life. His character seemed to be the most straightforward and easy to understand and also seemed to follow along with the narrator's initial description of him in the opening. From a high level, you would think that this would be great fun. As readers, we're following around a group of expatriates as they party and travel around Europe reveling and enjoying life for all its worth. The injury was probably the largest case of something "not written" that was important. For some reason I had it in my head that his writing would be haughty, inaccessible and laborious to read. I was pleasantly surprised that none of my preconceptions were true.The writing style in Sun Also Rises is fluid, simple and easy to follow. Instead, all of the characters lived lives of broken, or disabled, relationships.
The various lovers of Brett and friends of Jake were interesting but seemed to serve as reflections to play off Brett and Jake and let us gain more depth into those personalities. Lady Brett Ashley's character was a bit more troublesome. With the first person narrative, we only really get into Jake's head (although, as mentioned above, there's plenty of detail he leaves out even about himself) and everything is tainted by his view of life. They wandered aimlessly through life spending money like water in order to try and find some sort of emotional high (or perhaps a liquor induced numbness) to detract from their otherwise unfulfilled lives.After reading this book, I have a desire to seek out more Hemingway and read more of his stuff.
Both Brett and Jake had a yearning for some true emotion or passion in life but neither was able to find a clear path to that state of happiness. The story and emotions were thought provoking and effective.Definitely recommended.****4 stars out of 5 Instead of a semi-aristocratic party crowd, in the end it felt like we were following a bunch of slovenly lounge-a-bouts who only lived for the next drink. His sentences are short and easy to follow.
The drunken repartees and the random banter was funny at times, harsh at others.The overall tone of the book was almost paradoxical. At first his view felt fairly realistic and trustworthy but it quickly became apparent that he was jaded and cynical. Even though the simplicity of the style made the reading quick and easy, I quickly saw that there was a lot going on "between the lines." As terse as much of the writing is, it was apparent that what was left out was just as important (perhaps more so) than what was on the page.As a case in point, nowhere in the book does Hemingway explicitly identify the nature of the wound that Jake received in the war. There were a few other instances where I felt like Hemingway was leaving out significant details while alluding to their importance.The character development in the book was very interesting.
|
