Rating: 
Summary: Good as the movie
Review: My introduction to this book was first through the movie. So, my perspective will be from that point of view:I looked for this book after seeing the movie, I believe with Mel Ferrar--one of those actors you no longer see on late nite TV. Pleasantly, the book was just as good--meaning the movie was an excellent rendition of this Hemingway novel. Hemingway might have been the first person to write a story "much about nothing" (referring to the formula for Seinfeld's success). I sought out this book to read because I realize now in my 30s that I have finally lived enough of "Life" to appreciate what Hemingway has to say. I saw the movie about 10 years ago on late nite, and it stayed with me all these years. Why? The story of the protangonist and his American expatriate friends in Paris and in Spain (pre-WWII) is not as much about bull fighting and these spoiled rich kids who apparently live the good life without any need to work as it is about a snapshot of couple of months in the life of the protagonist--whom I take it to be one aspect of the real Hemingway. Isn't our real lives like that, nothing spectacular, no clear beginning, a continuing end, lots of time spent with friends whom you despise at times, but always come together, a woman we love, but can't have. Yes, after being old enough, I really like this book. Looking forward to more Hemingways.
Rating: 
Summary: only interesting to his therapist
Review: Hemingway's fame seems to rest largely on being the anti-Joyce & on his boisterous lifestyle. At a time when authors like James Joyce were using denser & denser thickets of language & increasingly nonlinear plots to obfuscate the novel, Hemingway brought a direct reportorial style to his writing. But, to what end? This is the story of a loose group of American & British expatriates in Paris & Spain in the 1920's. They lounge about cafes, drinking wine, bickering, brawling & lusting after Lady Bret Ashley. None of the characters are at all likable and nothing really happens. Without delving too deeply into psychobabble, the most interesting facet of the book is that the first person narrator, Jake Barnes, was emasculated during WWI. Considering the absurdly self-destructive ends to which Hemingway went to prove that he was macho & the widespread perception that his suicide was fueled by self-loathing over his repressed homosexuality, the book is perhaps most interesting as an artifact of his tortured psyche. GRADE: C-
Rating: 
Summary: The Lost Generation
Review: As with all wars, World War I ended with more than just a calamitous death toll of circa 40 million. Since most breadwinners were either killed or maimed in the war, many families were forced to face the devastation of loss on their own. Compounding this tragedy was the loss of irreplaceable manpower. Economic costs, caused by the destructive forces of the war, ran into trillions of dollars, bringing countries like France and England to their knees. A spirit of doom, despair and disillusionment pervaded the world. Old ideologies seemed to mock the reality of the times and the youth who had lived through the war had abandoned them in exchange for a more licentious lifestyle. This was a time when writers like Hemingway and Fitzgerald began to express a sense of lost direction in their writing, producing such timeless masterpieces as: "This Side of Paradise", by F. Scott Fitzgerald and , by Ernest Hemingway. Published in 1926, "The Sun Also Rises" established Hemingway as the "big man in American letters" as Allan Tate wrote. It is the story of American and British expatriates living in post World War I Paris, which gives a vivid description of hopeless love and unconstrained behavior. Battling against creative dry-spells and depression, Robert Cohn and his friend, Jake Barnes, mingle with large crowds of fellow expatriates. These single "thirtysomethings" represented the "lost generation", the youth that had emerged from the war disillusioned and directionless, living by the bottle and the temporary euphoria it provided. Drifting from the left bank of Paris and the colorful, lively clubs that dotted its landscape, to the savage excitement of the bullfighting in Spain, these young men and women desperately sought to find a connection. Whether through their friendships, or through their failed attempts at love, theirs was a struggle to beat back loneliness; to fill the void the war had gouged in their souls. But they did so with laughter, idle talk and a bottle of good wine. Days were spent walking up the Rue du Cardinal in Paris looking for a good place to eat, or fishing for trout up in Burguete, Spain, dreaming all the while of unrealized love. Hemingway's seven-year stay in Paris had no doubt contributed to the realistic, picturesque account of France in the 1920's. There, he hooked up with a group of writers and other artists in a circle known as "the lost generation", which he creatively and credibly reproduced in his novel. He also spent much of his time in Pamplona, Spain watching, and sometimes participating in, bullfighting competitions. However, it was Hemingway's own semi-tragic involvement in World War I, which nearly cost him his leg, that gave the novel its soul. Through his own experiences, Hemingway successfully fused the gap between reality and art, and offered his readers a timeless masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: suicide is painless...it brings on many changes
Review: those people who say that the book is useless because of its apparant lack of any plot or story or what-have-you are missing the point (if there ever is a point. hmmm...); a novel. let us think. a novel is a snapshot of a time a place an incident the lives of some people whom to them the actions are meaningful. to say these events set forth are pointless and therefore this damns the entire novel is akin to saying that y'know i don't know lets pick something at random, say marvin gaye 'lets get it on'. now the power and beauty of this song cannot merely be expressed through saying it is just about sex as this book cannot be summed up simply by saying it is about people drinking, nor can 'taxi driver' be summed up by saying it is all about one man who has guns and shoots them. i dont know; i just think that some people are expecting too much synthesis too much summing up of everything from one novel which yu just cant get ever ever ever. 'sar' is as beautiful as otis redding singing "you left the water running" and that cannot be summed up by saying its about one man whose girlf left the water on! the emotional power comes out through something more, perhaps something personal to you. and in some sense the lack of any great overacrhing commentray in 'sar' is its point; hemingway cant express whatever there is to express because of the horror! the horror! & stoicism, its all underneath, iceberg etc, 9/10 underneath surface....look for the gaps. alll i know is that th' book meant as much to me as hearing bob dylan or elvis or al green or seeing the godfather for the first time or whatever. dont be misled by my email address either, yes i like hemingway but not that much that i cant criticse him ("across the river and into the trees" is total crap)...
Rating:
Summary: Hemingway, reconsidered
Review: Short of calling it the best piece of American fiction of the 20th century, there is almost no superlative that can do justice to Hemingway's unrivaled accomplishment! What can be said of this book that has not already been said, by someone, somewhere? Still, having revisited this classic twenty or so years after my first read, I am, if anything, even more convinced of its merit. Hemingway's original voice, like nothing that has been heard before or since, simply sweeps one off one's feet! His description of a man who will never be "all" man, as he winds his way through the maze of relationships, both male and female, and through the maze of his own always impossible to meet standards for himself, is, at times, harrowing, at other times, uplifting. And who can resist the utterly human, utterly complete, portrait of a woman who is not herself "all" woman, the incomparable "Lady Bret" Ashley? I will forever admire the ingenious, subtle way in which Hemingway sneaks in this character, probably the first sympathetically drawn transsexual in all of literature, seeing "her," as "she" would have wanted - but never could have hoped - to be seen, as, quite simply, a lady. Bless you, Papa Hemingway!
Rating:
Summary: Very good read
Review: I didn't know what to expect from this book, having never read an Hemingway novel before but I was pleasantly surprised. It's the dialogue that brought me in and kept me wanting to read. Its pretty short, my copy was only 247 pages, and I finished it in no time. I definitely want to read more Hemingway after this and to all of you out there, read this book. The descriptions of the places in the book, France and Spain, are spectactular. The characters are intriguing, especially the narrator Jake Barnes and the lead female Lady Brett Ashley.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Vacation Through The Eyes Of Hemingway
Review: This was my first read of Hemingway. It was not quite what I expected. It was a damned good read, though. Reading this book makes you almost feel like you are with Jake (the character who is the first person narrator of this book) boozing it up, and doing manly things. If you were given to harsh judgments, you might say that the characters of this book are rather shallow and without much in the way of moral character. The Robert Cohn character might be the exception in this book. Even though he is a bit pathetic, I found myself sympathizing with him. Without giving much more away, buy this book. It really is fun.
Rating:
Summary: Who needs adjectives?
Review: This is a wonderful book. The laconic prose can be refreshing. It captures (I assume) the emptiness and indifference of the "lost generation." This is evidenced on a textual level by Hemingway's fondness for short, sober sentences devoid of exuberance. There are moments of emotion, but they are confused, realizing the characters' impotence to express themselves or even know what they are feeling. The last lines of this book are chilling.
Rating:
Summary: It all started with Hemmingway
Review: Writing a reader review of a classic might be considered a fool's errand (what is there to say that hasn't been said) but my re-reading of Fiesta made a sufficiently strong impression on me that I'm motivated to say a few words. I'd originally read this book ten years ago as a college undergraduate; a chore forced upon me as part of a course requirement. In the years that followed I've become a fan of contemporary writers like Richard Ford, J. M. Coetzee, and Howard Norman for their brutally economical style. But upon my re-reading of Fiesta I'm reminded of what I perhaps knew all along - it all started with Hemmingway. In Fiesta, as in all of Hemmingway's works, you find yourself concentrating on what is said, rather than how it is said. This makes the characters compelling and real. One thing that makes this novel a classic is the fact that the characters are as immediate and relevant now as they were when the novel appeared in 1926. The book has a variety of lively and beautiful settings throughout the Spanish countryside, focusing famously on the bullfights in Pamplona. Hemmingway brings these sights and sounds to life. In terms of human nature, however, there isn't much pretty to be seen. Envy, alcoholism, racism, and despair are the main currents of emotion, consuming a group of rich well-bred expatriates who on the surface shouldn't have a care in the world.. A powerful, subtle, novel. If you, like me, were beaten over the head with this novel as part of your college literature requirements then give it another try.
Rating: 
Summary: THERE'S N USE IN DEFFENDING THIS GARBAGE
Review: The only thing that will rise while you're reading this book is boredom. Terrible, infalible boredom. GOsh, what a book !! Absolutely nothing happens, nothing !! They say this is a "Portrait of the lost post-war generation". POrtrait my a...!! SO, if it is a portrait, I don't care about it, because it is so badly written. THe main female character, BRett, keeps the whole book dancing and flerting and dating the guys. THe guys ( and girls), go into pubs, get out of pubs; then go into hotels, get out of hotels; then take some drinks; then go to sleep with headaches. All this "enchanting" plot is narrated with truculent writing, as if the writer didn't know what he wanted to achieve. I'm a big Hemingway fan and I respect his memory, but this book is nothing.
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