Rating: 
Summary: The Space that Separates: The Two Sides of Conflict
Review: Why would anyone want to read a novel about unending drunken revels by emotional cripples who treat each other badly, never-ending love conflicts, getting excited by mayhem at the running of the bulls and during bull fights in Pamplona, and wasted lives? That's the question posed by this book. The book will not draw too many readers for the subject matter. Why then does the book attract? Part of the appeal has to be the same reason that many people like horror films -- the relief you feel when you realize that your own life does not encounter such dangers can be profound. Another reason to read this book is to understand the disillusionment of the American expatriates in Europe after World War I. The book is a period piece in this sense. Clearly, Hemingway is Jake and the book is undoubtedly very autobiographical. All first novels have that quality to some degree. Imagining how the author of The Old Man and the Sea started out as Jake was very interesting to me. To me, however, the primary reason for reading this book is to encounter the remarkable structure that Hemingway built in his plot. He has created several different lenses through which we can explore the role of conflict and separation in our lives. Each lens turns out to be looking at the same object, and it is only by slowly focusing each of the lenses that we are able to see that object more clearly. The central figure in the book is Brett, Lady Ashley, who enchants almost every man she meets, and who disengages from intimate relations with each one after permanently entangling him emotionally. That leaves a string of wounded suitors in her wake, including Jake. Things get tough when several of them join her and her fiance in Pamplona for the running of the bulls. The symmetry in the book becomes more obvious during a fishing trip that Jake takes without Brett. The fish are lured by artificial flies more successfully than with real worms. Brett's exotic appeal draws men in like flies, much more than the attractions of women who want to make an emotional commitment. The symmetry becomes masterful when we reach the bull fights. Brett and the matador are inevitably attracted, for they are the same. They both play with their opponents (men and bulls) by flirting and using their capes, weaken the opponents in the engagement, and bring the opponents down (through sexual entrancement and slaughter). Hemingway makes this abundantly clear by repeatedly describing the bull's death as when the matador and the bull become one. One pet name for Brett is Circe, to help complete the picture. The closer the matador comes to the bull's horns (or Brett to making a commitment), the better the sport for the spectators and the greater the self-esteem for the matador (and Brett). I do not recall a novel that does such an excellent job of using multiple story lines to reinforce the book's main point, in this case that alienation transcends even closeness. Much as you will dislike some of the characters, the unnecessary racial and ethnic slurs, the savageness, and the emotional scenes, you will probably find the characters to ring true. You will also admire the misguided optimism and honest commitment of Jake as he fulfills his love for Brett by procuring men for her and then rescuing her when the next engagement is all over. Jake's love is that noble sacrifice that we all admire in lovers. And that's the beautiful part of the book -- you will find nobility amid the ugliness. The contrast makes the nobility more beautiful. When you are done reading the book, examine your own life and see where you draw back from closeness. Then, ask yourself why you do, and what it costs you and others. Next, consider what closeness can bring from continuing relationships. Find beauty wherever you look!
Rating: 
Summary: Anomalous
Review: I have a great deal of respect for writers who can produce great literature composed of simple language. Hemingway has always been one of those authors who I've held up to others as an exemplar of such writing, and I was surprised to find such an ordinary piece of work in Fiesta. His charcterisation, which is usually so deeply and thoughtfully evoked by memoir and circumstance,is flat and unmotivated in Fiesta. The plot is weak, the drama shallow and the interpersonal relationships are at best puzzling.
If this is your first encounter with Hemingway, don't give up - "A Farewell to Arms", "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and "The Old Man and the Sea" are all magnificent, and EMH deserves his reputation as one of this century's greatest authors.
Rating:
Summary: Some things are not meant to be "enjoyed"....
Review: and that, I think, might explain the polarized reactions people often have to Hemingway in general, and this book in particular. This book, I think, is difficult to appreciate after all that has happened since 1926. The persistent complaints about the (perceived) lack of plot and the odd dialog will almost certainly never end, and are probably not wholly without merit. But a point needs to be made; The Sun Also Rises is not the sort of book you take with you on vacation to Myrtle Beach. It is dark, depressing, and not at all "enjoyable". Yes, the characters are crummy people, they are bigoted, their activities are repetitive and pointless, and you don't exactly find yourself gripped with anticipation to see who Brett will do next. But that is the whole point. The interesting thing about the characters is not what they do, but how they came to be the way the are. As for the dialog, I'll be damned if people don't really talk the way Hemingway suggests. If it seems weird, it is perhaps because the author isn't walking you through it. The thing is, everyone is post-modern now. But Hemingway was playing that game long before the English majors of the world had a word to identify the style. If you are being forced to read this book for a class, I guess I can sympathize. But just because you don't like it, doesn't mean it isn't worth your time. Even Hemingway's detractors (and there are a lot of them) will acknowledge his role as a literary groundbreaker. After three-quarters of a century of non-stop imitation (both conscious and otherwise) it is hard to appreciate the impact that this book had on the literary world. On the other hand, if you only want to read books that you find enjoyable, suspenseful, or inspiring (and nothing wrong with that), I would suggest that you look elsewhere. Those of you who already know what Hemingway was about, don't like the idea but order this book anyway... I cannot imagine what you are thinking.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, for Hemingway that is
Review: Not an avid Hemingway fan, this is the only novel of his which I enjoyed. Dark humor galore. Do the follow up research even if you think you got the jist of it.
Rating:
Summary: Not just for English majors anymore¿
Review: Okay, in terms of literature, I'm not very appreciative of the great works of English literature. I was one of those guys that hated English class, and believed Cliff Notes were a great substitute for the real deal. That's why it's out of character for me to recommend this book. If anyone has read my other reviews, I love plot, action, fluidity, and dialogue. This book is the exact opposite, but yet I loved it. It takes about 50 pages to get used to Hemingway's style (this is the first I've ever read any of his books), but once accustomed to it, the amount of detail is fantastic. This book makes reader feel like they're in Pamplona, in the bullfights, at the parties, and drinking the wines. It's amazing. Hemingway paints a picture of Spain that can not be matched. The Spanish tourism board should hand this book out instead of a standard brochure. Though the language style is a bit terse, and the plot is almost non-existent, I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
Rating:
Summary: Stylish! Well-written
Review: This is one of Hemingway's earliest novels. He follows the relationships of several American expatriates travelling through France and Spain. Hemingway's sharp, athletic prose is almost brutal. The characters are clearly defined and well-rounded. While the plot is not overwhelmingly engrossing its worth reading. Hemingway's original style and refreshing take on life made him one of the great writers of the 20th century. Especially good are his descriptions of the bullfights of Pamplona and the young matador who runs off with Lady Ashley!
Rating: 
Summary: The Emperor is Wearing no Clothes
Review: Let's start with the characters of the book. They drink beer, they eat, they smoke, they sip coffee, they chat, they sleep, and then they wake up and start the whole process over. They really don't do a whole lot more than that and you've got to wonder why anyone would willfully chronicle this. They sound like early twenty-somethings on the party circuit (and we all know how profoundly interesting that time of our lives was right?). I'm sure there's a lot of symbolism and all of that other neat stuff lurking beneath the surface of this story, but it's so dull, you find yourself asking "who cares"?
Rating:
Summary: An Important Part of the Twentieth Century Mindscape.
Review: Hemingway captures the disillusionment of a generation jilted by the Great War. He captures the nuances, feel, and attitude of this "Lost Generation." This is a piece which captures the mind set of a people after the most signifigant event in modern history. But this is not just a chronicle. Hemingway's sentences are so simple yet when deciphered (even blurbs of dialouge that don't play with the scene or theme) we come to realize earthly truths from every color of the spectrum of life.
Rating: 
Summary: Lost Generation and Anti-Semitism
Review: This book with its austere prose style is good read, and it's clear to me that Hemmingway, then 27 years old, shows tremendous talent. The scenes involving the fishing and the bullfighting are very evocative, and the dialogue interesting. The understatement or non-statement (Hemmingway's iceberg approach to writing) works very well in this, his first book that brought him to national attention. In that regard, the horrors of World War I constitute those parts of the iceberg that lie beneath the water, and influence the emptiness of the social life that is above. The "what might have been" conversation between Jake and Brett (who both love each other, but who both know the hopelessness of that love) at the end of the book is particularly touching. Notwithstanding the above, none of the characters have much for the reader to be attracted to. A constant never-ending stream of alcohol seems to flow through the book. It's incredible that people can drink as much as the principal characters in the book do. Then there's Brett, the 34 year old woman, who has Jake loving her (and she loves him), is engaged to Mike, has an affair with Robert Cohn (who also loves her), and in the end, seemingly out of the blue, takes off and seduces the 19 year old bullfighter, Pedro Romero. Try to figure that out. Also, I want to comment on what I consider to be an uncomfortable excess of anti-semitic sentiment in this book. Consider this exchange between Jake and Bill about Brett on p. 230 of the paperback Scribner edition (1954). --"She hasn't any money with her?" I asked --"I shouldn't think so. She never has any money. She gets five hundred quid a year and pays three hundred and fifty of it in interest to Jews." --"I supppose they get it at the source," said Bill. --"Quite. They're not really Jews. We just call them Jews. They're Scotsmen, I believe." Of course, the heart of the anti-semitism in this book is the way the characters relate to Robert Cohn. Some of it can be chalked up to jealousy, particularly as Cohn had had an affair with Brett, and Jake, who loves Brett, is sexually crippled because of his war injuries. But almost all of the principal characters, not just Jake, take pleasure in continually deriding Cohn's Jewishness to his face, to each other, or just in their mental, often alcohol-induced lucubrations. The references occur all too often throughout the book, e.g., there's Jake, saying that Cohn had a "hard, Jewish, stubborn streak," p. 10, Bill [on Cohn] at p. 162, "[h]e's got this Jewish superiority so strong that he thinks the only emotion he'll get out of the fight will be being bored" and Mike, "Take that sad Jewish face away, p. 177 . . . etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. I realize that times change. I don't believe we should judge books from an earlier generation by today's standards of political correctness. Nonetheless, the characters in this book are often mean-spirited, and excessively anti-semetic without, in my view, an adequately compensating literary justification (which in the context of the holocaust to come a mere decade latter, should give pause). For whatever it's worth, in A Moveable Feast (a description of his life in Paris in the 1920s), the most generous portrait in that book is to the renowned poet (though fascist sympathizer) Ezra Pound. Perhaps, World War I had gutted the soul, and that explains the Gertrude Stein quote, that Hemmingway uses to preface the book, "You are all a lost generation." But maybe the excuse is too easy.
Rating:
Summary: The 20th century "condition."
Review: One of the most striking features of this novel is the bland superficiality of the characters. I found that I did not particularly like any of them, and that dampened my appreciation of the story. The book is about a sort of competition for the lady Brett Ashley. She enjoys using men as her playtoys and delights in their chase after her. The persona from whose point of view the story is told is Jake Barnes. The rest of the characters are unremarkable and are mostly only memorable for their blandness. We go from France to the bullfighting performances in Spain & there are fascinating allusions to the matador / bull relationship being akin to courtship and sexual intercourse between a man and woman. Images of impotence and castration abound and are made all the more significant as Jake can no longer sexually "perform" due to a wartime injury. This book is certainly not for everyone. I am glad I read it & would recommend it as an important 20th century literary work (even though I did not especially enjoy it myself). It is not so different from the apathetic landscape of T.S. Eliot's poem "The Wasteland"; a world in which it is thought that feeling nothing at all is preferable to feeling pain. But nothing could be more horrifying than a notion such as that....
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