Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant and unforgettable
Review: The greatest book of the Twentieth Century? "The Sun Also Rises" is certainly one of them. Its themes of alienation, isolation, loss and self-absorbtion are still highly relevant today. It centers around a group of Americans in Europe whose penchant for drinking and merriment only just conceals their overwhelming personal fears. Beneath their revelry lies a deep disatisfaction, and it is this constrast that makes the characters so fascinating. This is a book that is not to be missed. While it is not heavily plotted, the story and its characters are unforgettable and Hemingway's trademark writing style is at its best.
Rating: 
Summary: The generation was "lost," but the literature lives on
Review: When I first read "The Sun Also Rises," its aimlessness gave me a bad case of existential butterflies. I couldn't understand why Jake and Brett couldn't get together. My English prof clued in the class in on the fact that Jake had been--how should it put it?--"Bobbitized" during WWI (not every reader realizes the extent of his injury). These were people who helped fight the "War to End All Wars" which resulted in 8.5 million dead and no stable peace. In essence, Jake and Brett and the others were still trying to figure out how to live in the 20th century, one of the most genocidal and brutal ever. So "The Sun Also Rises" is about the attempts of people to make sense in a world that is largely senseless to them. This accounts for the atmosphere of depression that pervades the book, and I think the quotation from Ecclesiastes, which supports the "been there, done that" atmosphere, is key. I have a much higher opinion of this book now than when I first read it. By the way, if you feel Hemingway was incapable of idealism, read "For Whom the Bell Tolls."
Rating:
Summary: A good read- but not if you're looking for action.
Review: I'll admit it. I HATED Hemingway after the mandatory "Old Man and the Sea" in high school, but when I saw this book, I had to give it a try, even if Hemingway was the author and I wasn't dissapointed. It isn't a plot filled with action or intrigue, but it is complex and fascinating in how it describes the personal relaitonships of the impotent protagonist Jake, his less than innocent love Brett, and the annoying tag-along Robert Cohn along with a slew of others that reminds me so much of the high school "in crowd" I started casting the characters with people I knew. It isn't a book for everybody, in fact, unless you like working to understand meaning in a book this isn't the one for you. However if you're looking for more than a casual read you won't be dissapointed. This is one of his very best.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the best book ever written
Review: The book, The Sun Also Rises is not the best book ever written nor is worth reading unless you can handle boring drunks talking about one mans inabillity to "get it up"
Rating: 
Summary: A good book about awful people
Review: This was the most recent selection of my book club. I don't think I had read it before. It's a hard read. Nothing much happens, and the characters, except for Robert Cohn, are so repellant that it's hard to care about them. If you don't care about characters, you don't care what happens to them. The only character with any dimension is Robert Cohn, the idealistic outsider trying to get into the crowd and rebuffed at every turn. Hemingway's famous short choppy adjective-free style doesn't work well on dialogue because that's not how most people talk, so it's rather stilted, which contributes to the sense that you don't really know what the characters are about. However, in his defense, I must say that his narrative descriptions are superb. One would think that descriptions require adjectives, and here he does use them sparingly. So his style works beautifully as he describes the bus trip into Spain, the wonderful fishing expedition, and the bullfights. It's in those passages that the characters involved in them come to life - they are interested in something outside themselves, something other than when they can have their next drink, and it humanizes them. They aren't quite so one-dimensional in those passages. I know this was Hemingway's first big success, and probably gave an accurate portrayal of the ex-pat life of that time, but if this were all I knew of him, I would not be tempted to read others of his works. Fortunately, I have done so and enjoyed them much more.
Rating:
Summary: Sex, lust, and a bottle of Fundador
Review: Sure, this book is about nothing. Yes, it simply describes the aimless, purposeless existence of Jake and his amigos. Perfect example, "I had a lovely dream," Bill said. "I don't remember what it was about, but it was a lovely dream." Yet I have never read a book that so beautifully handles suppressed love, sexual unattainability, and raw infatuation. Although Brett may be a minor character, the way she weaves through every man makes this book brilliant.
Rating:
Summary: American Lit: must-read
Review: I'm never sure where all the poo-pah comes from respecting this novel! Just get this: Lady Brett Ashley is worth dropping a ten spot herself. Read for, what's that fancy term, the spirit of the age. Get a look at our expatriates; they're fascinating! It's not a "gift" book--but for the person who knows the person within, you won't slide off the trail.
Rating:
Summary: Bull Fights and a Bottle of Wine
Review: This book works less along the lines of the inner self, but more along the lines of mob psychology. The main character, Jake Barnes, and a group of his friends spend their holiday in Spain. Their time there is filled with bull fights, nights of drunken revelry, suppressed love, despair, and the overwhelming tone of reality: That life is really no laughing matter. This book is a sort of lesson on what happens if a person lives life in gluttony, taking the easy way out. There is more to life than the party, and Hemingway beautifully reders this in the novel. On the other hand, one can look at this story as being a "book about nothing". As one reads this book, the reader never really knows what the main idea is about. The story is essentially about a group of tourists having a good time in Spain. There is no real conflict except for the odd momentary drunken brawl. The message Hemingway wishes to present is at the end of the story, hanging precariously. The reader never really knows what the book was supposed to be about in the first place. Nevertheless, this book is a good read, and well worth buying. It's development is written in a style different than most other books, but that is why Ernest Hemingway is such a unique author. And, that is really what saves this book for the 3-star review.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite bood
Review: I've read the book at least fifteen or so times in English, and at least five - in Russian, my native language. Of course, some of the incredible moments are lost in translation. Every time I read the book, I find more and more moments that interconnect the story, the bull-fight symbolism still intrigues and interests me. I'm 20, and I really believe the book has to be read more than once to be understood, digested, appreciated. My early impressions of Hemingway were not as high, but this book conquers me every time I open it. Read it; if you don't find it interesting, I don't know what would interest you at all.
Rating:
Summary: I can't believe this novel was written in the 1920's
Review: It is indeed Hemingway at his best! the novel was written in the late 1920's but the entertainment and the passion for the fun loving european lifestyle depicted in this book is interesting and timeless.
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