Rating:  Summary: Completely Boring! Review: I thought that this book was really boring. All that I kept thinking of was if I was near the end. I chose to read this book for my AP English 11 class during the summer and found that it was one of the worst novels that I have ever read. I saw that the most dominant aspect of this book was the incessant drinking that the characters engaged in throughout the whole story. It irritated me because all they did was drink liquor all day long. This book also should me the unhappy lives of the characters. Ugh! How boring! This is definitely not a book that I would recommend to someone.
Rating:  Summary: lots of alcohol and meaninglessness Review: As other reviews have stated, the descriptions of the characters' travels are interesting, but as we search for Hemingway's point, we are disappointed as no clear point is made. Are we to compare Lady Brett to the bullfighters? Jake Barnes and other men to steer and bulls? If meaninglessness is the point, then I suppose it was made.
Rating:  Summary: Ninety Percent Of An Iceberg Is Beneath The Surface Review: Hemingway was a proponent of the "Iceberg" theory of writing: 90% of his themes are hidden beneath the surface of his books. He won't lay anything out for you in black and white -- you've got to be an active participant in the book. If that's not what you want from a book, stay away.The Sun Also Rises is fantastic. It has Hemingway's trademark prose, a portrait of the lost generation, and most of all the saddest love story ever written. "There's no plot!" the detractors scream, but they're wrong. The plot isn't spelled out the way it is in a John Grisham novel, but it's definitely there if you pay attention. Here's a hint for those who weren't trying very hard: this book is all about Brett Ashley and Jake. Throughout the book Hemingway shows Lady Brett following a very definite pattern. She meets a man, "falls in love" with him, sleeps with him, and dumps him. She isn't some cynical player when she does this -- she truly believes that she loves these men during her infatuations. But she requires physical proof of their love, i.e. sex, and once she has it, the infatuation dies. When the book starts we meet her latest victim, Cohn. As the book continues we see a similar relationship unfold with Romero. But then there's Jake! She met Jake and fell in love with him, but a war injury makes him incapable of giving her the physical love she requires. As a result, poor pathetic Brett never fell out of love with Jake, and imagines him as the one man who could be the great love of her life. For the longest time Jake believes this as well.< He's seen what she did to Cohn, and he's had a ringside seat for her affair with Romero, and now he's finally realized the truth about her. When she fantasizes about the great life they could have had together, he knows it's just wishful thinking. If they could have made love, she would have dumped him just like all the others. At it's heart, The Sun Also Rises is a book about a man falling out of love. Hemingway's prose is a matter of opinion. Some people love his sparse verbage, others don't. If you don't care for it, try Fitzgerald, an excellent writer with a much fuller style. One reviewer mentioned that this was one of Hemingway's earliest works, and for that reason suggested it wasn't worthy of five stars (he only gave it two). I think he said Hemingway wasn't yet a mature writer and was still trying to develop his style. What a crock -- Hemingway, like many authors, did his best work early in his career. Heck, the guy eventually committed suicide because he couldn't write anything good anymore. His more "mature" works are only passable and can't hold a candle to the earlier stuff. His prize for "The Old Man and the Sea" was more of a lifetime achievement award than anything else. So save all that "maturity and development" folderol for the black turtleneck gang at the coffee shop. It's a great book, but it will make you work. If you want an obvious plot and themes that you don't have to think about, maybe you'd be happier with Danielle Steele.
Rating:  Summary: Extremely boring Review: I originally picked the book because my father spoke highly of the novel. When I began reading it I regretted the decision. I do not recommend the book to anyone who likes action. Hemingway is very skilled in the detail area. It seems he describes the actions of each character perhaps too well. Whether they are drinking coffee to the exact words of a conversation Hemingway writes everything. The characters do however drink a lot, living in Paris and partying every night it seems that wine is the only thing they do drink. Jake Barnes the main character is in love with Brett Ashley who is a women player. She gets men to fall in love with her and then discards them only to feel miserable all the time. Well these two characters and some friends travel to Spain. It is kind of interesting to hear about their time in Spain. They are staying in Pamplona during the bull fights so the environment is romantic. Brett falls in love with a bull fighter and discards him later in the novel. But the point is that the characters, after all they have been through did not advance, or get anywhere. Where they began in the novel is where they ended up in the end. So I guess Hemingway did prove his thesis of a "Lost Generation." A generation in which Brett and Jake belong to. Hemingway proves that Brett & Jake do have meaningless, pointless lives all too well. But if you're into reading and some deep symbolism this is the book for you.
Rating:  Summary: hemingway is crackers Review: I, a novelist, find Hemingway to be crucial in the literary world. It is said a man will turn over a whole library in the process of writing one book of his own; let him. I can live on Hemingway, of course with my own real acting and formulating. I often read philosophy; Hemingway was so new and fresh juxtaposed to abstract writing; if philosophy is anchovie paste, as Seneca said, Hemingway is crackers.-- Zack Ford
Rating:  Summary: It left me feeling disturbed and full of unrequitted love Review: I have always enjoyed Ernest Hemmingway, however, this was the first time I had read this marvellous tale. It speaks of a time now lost with time: There is no mention made of big screens and television, e-mails and internet services. There are telegrams and wires being sent and of the stadium and the sport people are there in the flesh, not at home watching on the television. The characters drink and get tight. They travel about the countries on trains and by carriage and the modern beasts of planes, fast trains and motor vehicles on highways are not mentioned because they did not exist. But there is a familiarity with the story Hemmingway tells that it breaks my heart: That of unrequitted love. His love for Brett runs deep, it is certainly of the heart and soul, but she needs that which he cannot give. Read it.
Rating:  Summary: An unfunny Friends episode w/good travelogue of Spain Review: Several self-centered ugly Americans get drunk repeatedly in Parisian and Spanish locales. This novel maybe might have been 2 good short stories, one about fly fishing in Spain, one about the running of the bulls and the bullfight--those parts were lovely, but the characters and plot were boring and pointless, and worse, ugly. Perhaps the novel had more of a shock value in 1927 with the descriptions of promiscuity by an English lady and the drunkenness of the characters, but unfortunately all of our cities,d suburbs, TV sets and movies are filled with adolescents doing the same things. The later works and the Nick Adams stories are so much better than this. I was very disappointed.
Rating:  Summary: It was aweful! Review: Although the book starts out good, it ends awefully. I couldn't even finish the whole thing.
Rating:  Summary: Please remember that this is his first novel! Review: Just a quick comment for all of you that think this novel deserves 5 stars. It does not! This is Hemingway's first novel and as such it shows a young developing artist attempting to find his voice and build his craft. Like many writers at this stage he does not fully make the grade. If you read say "A Farewell to Arms" immediately after this book you will be able to see a great leap forward in Hemingway's prose within just the first 20 pages (to say nothing of "For Whom the Bell Tolls"). Please restrain from making a book that deserves a "3" at most into a 5. (By the way I have lived in Paris and been to the running of the bulls so this book was a treat for me on that level). Cheers!
Rating:  Summary: Ugh. Review: I really don't like this book. There's no plot - all they do is go to parties. All the symbolism and meanings I was suppose to find, I couldn't understand. Either its too shallow or its way over my head, I'm not sure which.
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