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Summary: The Sun Also Rises
Review: "The Sun Also Rises" is a classic example of watching something bad, and enjoying it. The character's in Ernest Hemingway's novel encompass every emotion from embarrassment, to greed, to downright meanness. Lady Brett Ashley has to be one of the most selfish character's I have read in a long time, and yet you still like her in certain moments, even though you should drop her right there. This group of American expatriates drinking, partying, and carelessly making their way from Paris to Pamplona make you dizzy with their recklessness while at the same time you keep turning the page, waiting for the consequences. The consequences do come, but they tend not to last too long and then they are off again for another drink. The detail written in this book is wonderful. You feel you know every corner of every street between Paris and Spain, and the smells and sounds along the way. All in all, I came away from this book thinking, "What terrible people, I must read that again!"
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Summary: realistic
Review: This book is a snippet of a person's ordinary life. Much like our own day to day lives, it is completely boring except for the people who are living it. Though...Hemingway's writing is so concise, REALISTIC and to-the-point that it seems more like we are LIVING this book than reading it, and then it ceases to be boring. And another thing: There's too much drinking? It's about the lost generation! Of course they drink a lot. Their lives are going straight to hell, and they're depressed out of their minds. THEY'RE PATHETIC! What do you expect?
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Summary: "The Lost Generation"
Review: Ernest Hemingway's first novel, "The Sun Also Rises", is about "the lost generation" in Paris and Pamplona after WWI. The 1920's is a time of a crisis of beliefs, lack of faith in the world or personal values, and all the characters do in the book is drink most of the time. Well, what else can they do? The world they once knew before the war has been shattered, and Ernest Hemingway uses his own experiences to write a spare and hard prose about their lives. The "main" characters are Jake Barnes, Lady Brett Ashley, Robert Cohn, Bill Gorton, Michael, and other assorted characters. They all live it up in Paris, and then Jake decides to go to Pamplona to witness the bullfights during a fiesta, and Jake will be with his aficionado friends of Spain. However, the whole gang come over and Jake's last "best place" where he feels some kind of security is ruined as the fiesta "of drunks" gets worse. Since I've read this book for Engl 111 (intro course to literature), I have finally "met" Ernest Hemingway and his mind. I recommend this book for more serious readers, as you must delve into the theme that Hemingway "paints".
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Summary: DO NOT READ THIS BOOK
Review: Unfortunately, this is one of the worst books I have read in my lifetime. In our English III Honors - American Literature class, this has been by far, the most boring book. Although there were other books that we teenage readers could not identify with, some of them have been quite enjoyable. This book is the exception. It is dull, nothing happens, the dialogue is confusing and always pointless. The spend a good part of the book talking about nothing. It's like watching Seinfield without anything funny. This book is so boring that the cliff notes are boring. DO NOT READ THIS BOOK UNLESS YOU HAVE TO FOR AN ASSIGNMENT. THIS IS ONE OF HEMINGWAY'S WORST WORKS. READ "FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS" INSTEAD!
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Summary: My favorite Hemingway, I think
Review: I enjoyed this book very much while I was reading it, and looking back I still believe it is perhaps Hemingway's best (although my choice shifts frequently between TSAR and A Farewell to Arms). Looking at the reviews before me, I must say that TSAR contains some of Hemingway's most interesting characters-- Jake is the typical code hero for Hemingway, but his situation is one of the best (in terms of literary device value) for a novel of this type; Brett fits the role of the Hemingway power-woman; and Cohn, well, he's just a jerk. I had to read this book for my AP Literature class in high school a few years ago, and came up with some really satisfying essays for it. There's lots to work with here-- it's a good book for school. But on a different note, I also lent it to my roommate, who was looking for a book to give her boyfriend as a gift, since he didn't read much. She determined TSAR to be "manly enough" and her boyfriend, so I hear, enjoyed it very much. I did too.
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Summary: boring and mundane
Review: After reading "The Sun Also Rises," I think of how unnatural and ineffective Hemingway had sometimes been as a writer. When he is uninspired or just writing filler, his prose becomes monotonous and nearly unreadable. Brett and Cohn were the best-drawn characters while most of the others, including Jake, were nothing more than cardboards. However, the one fishing scene was absolutely vivid; there is no one better at writing about fishing than Hemingway. Oh well, he was a lot more versatile in "A Farewell to Arms," which for me was his best book.
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Summary: kind of strange
Review: somehow, hemmingway managed to create a novel that I loved despite the lack of characters that could be described as remotely likeable. and despite a strong aversion to bullfights (due to a rather startling childhood experience) I was caught up in the bullfighting scences, even to the point where I thought of it as beautiful. it was an intriguing read, and I highly reccommend it. but as has been mentioned, with hemmingway it seems like you either love him or hate him, and if you hate him you'll probably find this one more disagreable than most.
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Summary: One of the best of Quintessential Hemingway
Review: I read this book over the summer and was taken with Hemingway's portrayal of wayward, lost people who only sought to drown their sorrows in meaningless love affairs, alcohol and scandalous adventure. I absolutely loved his dry, fast, "masculine" prose and careful character description. I could feel for these characters, their niavete and sorrow and grief and urge to be happy and ultimate failure almost palpable. One of the more lighthearted portions of the book, however, finds the main character and his best friend going fly-fishing in a French stream. This seemed (and I cannot quite place why) remiscient of For Whom the Bell Tolls in its general construction. In all, an excellent book, on par with Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Check it out and enjoy!
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Summary: BORING "CLASSIC". WITHOUT PACE AND EMOTION !
Review: This book only deals about a bunch of characters' perigrination through all the pubs of Paris then Pamplona, while the main female character, BRett, dates all the men in the plot. It's an endless description of people going into a pub, ordering a vodca or wine or champagne, then going out to bed to sleep, then falling in love with each other, then taking a shower, then taking a cab, blá, blá, blá ! Horrible!
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Summary: The Hemmingway Question
Review: It seems that Hemmingway readers are divided into two distinct camps. There are those who adore Hemmingway for literary and life-style reasons and those who abhor his writing altogether. Whenever I present my mild appreciation of Hemmingway to members of either extreme, they become irate. The former, tell me he's a genius, while the latter argue that a child could write like Hemmingway. Frankly, they are both wrong. "The Sun Also Rises" contains much of the fuel that Hemmingway haters consume. The writing is quite simple and much of the dialog is strained and even a bit macho. The novel, in their opinion, could be construed as a hundred plus page promotion of the Hemmingway life style. It's got travel, brawling, love, conflict, fishing, bullfighting, and a lots of fun sportsman line stuff. It contains a Hemmingway motif that I've never really liked, namely discourse of the glamorous yet victimized war hero. Hemmingway lovers will counter these arguments by pointing out that simplicity in writing and dialog is not a bad thing, especially when the author uses it as self-consciously as Hemmingway does. True, the language is a bit strained and macho, but the story is, after all, narrated by an adventurous and heartbroken World War I veteran. I can't imagine this person and his expatriate colleagues engaging in the subtle, serpentine conversations found in a Henry James novel. As for the travel, the bullfighting, and the other activities that we have come to associate with the Hemmingway lifestyle-so what? It's a great travelogue among other things. I guess my own opinion is largely in favor of Hemmingway although I agree with a lot of his critics. Hemmingway is a great story teller and "Sun Also Rises" is an exceptionally good story. Hemmingway's language is imperfect but certainly adequate. Ultimately, I read literature to be transformed to another place or state of mind and Hemmingway certainly accomplishes that for me. To Hemmingway's critics, I would argue that one does not have to be subtle, nor write a novel of ideas to be a great author. To his proponents I would also argue that the man is a good writer, a great story teller, and a fascinating character in his own right, but certainly not a genius. I recommend "The Sun Also Rises" to anyone interested in a good story, a unique writing style, and an interesting portrayal of the so called "lost generation".
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