Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant
Review: The depiction of the expatriate lifestyle during the early part of this century is at once beautiful and haunting. Absolutely brilliant.
Rating:
Summary: one of the best books I have ever read
Review: I will only say one thing. I went out and bought a fishing license because of this book.
Rating: 
Summary: A disappointing "classic" unworthy of its fame
Review: This is one of those books that I always wanted to read, but somehow never did. That is, until just recently. I suppose I was caught up in the romance and adventure of a Hemingway yarn, but "The Sun Also Rises" just didn't cut it for me. What well-read reader with an interest in history could not be attracted to the group of post World War I expatriates living in Paris? If this book was any real indication of the life that Hemingway lived, I am afraid that the whole scene of getting drunk and watching bull fights just isn't for me. I found Hemingway's prose to be too simple, and the story line did not hold my interest.
Rating: 
Summary: What the heck was the point of that book?
Review: The book was a pointless, drab collection of a over-romanticized life which, in reality, was little more than drinking, social nit-picking, and irresponsibility. I gained no deeper appreciation of the characters, their problems or the supposed message( which I couldn't find) of this horrible work by an otherwise brilliant author.
Rating:
Summary: Comfortable read, with fascinating characterizations
Review: A story of individuals desperate for a profound human relationship but never able to achieve it. The focus of all the male characters is Brett Ashley, who has a passion for sexual liasions. Our hero is ostensibly the man she loves but he is rendered impotent by a war wound, and so their love affair must remain platonic. He is cast then in the role of supporting her through her foibles with other men, and we are able to suffer the tragedy with him as he fails to be able to attain the relationship he desires with the woman he loves. The additional male characters are excellently portrayed for their variety and activities, and each has depth while also remaining as trivial and shallow as the "lost generation" permitted. A fine novel and a great introduction to Hemingway's more intense works.
Rating:
Summary: Honk, honk, flap, flap
Review: This book comes highly recommended for people who like simple stories and don't like books that require an unabridged dictionary or a plot. The vaunted "terseness of style" looks fake and stilted up against the likes of Kafka, for example. This book, like most American art, projected an image rather than producing one.If you like plot and art together in one volume, and it absolutely has to be Hemingway, "The Old Man and the Sea" is pretty good, especially if you read it with Moby Dick in mind. Otherwise, move on to greener pastures.
Rating:
Summary: Thoughtful, Subtle, Interesting Book
Review: I was forced to read this book in high school, and it did nothing for me, but as an adult I think it is incredible. The Sun Also Rises is probably my favorite Hemingway book. It has almost no plot to speak of, but the characters and the interactions between them are great. I don't recommend using this for high school students, though, because I don't think most will appreciate the subtlety (even smart ones).
Rating:
Summary: A Haunting Masterpiece
Review: THE SUN ALSO RISES is hauntingly effective. In true Hemingway style, it is both painful to read and impossible to put down. Jake's struggles to reconcile himself with his new role of confidant for everyone in his group of friends even though this requires him to give up his sexual and emotional identity are passionately described in Hemingway's marvelously terse prose; the writing is all the more effective because he states emotions baldly and lets us feel the reactions as though they were our own. The use of language is wonderful: it reads as though the language is controlling the characters, as though they have no choice but to speak and think as they do. And Hemingway is in top form; characters who spend the entire novel talking never seem to have a real conversation. Hemingway skilfully weaves an intricate web of disillusionment, fear, and anxiety and manages to catch us without having to reach out. This is a masterpiece of war literature--another Hemingwaqy ! ! sleight of hand, since the entire novel takes place after the war and WWI is never mentioned.
Rating:
Summary: Read The Book, Run With The Bulls
Review: Thank God for Paris and Spain and Hemingway. Read this story. You'll forget you're reading. You see Jake. You see Cohn with his broken nose. You see Brett in that sweater and your heart breaks. You see Pedro and the bull fight. The problem is the number of people that now make their living giving their opinions about this book. Don't get caught up with what your high school teacher said, or deconstructionist professor said, or literary know-it-all, could-have-wrote-it-better said. Don't get caught up with all the journals and theses and textbooks that say it is not as well planned as "Across The River And Through the Trees," or a good beginning point for a literary mind, or that real people or real events are incorporated into the plot. Don't wander around in the "lost generation" crap or expatriated American garbage, or the impotence and what Freud would say and the myriad of other things that make people spout off Epicurean/Stoic history or analogies to the nth degree. Don't get sidetracked by the yappers who want to tell you what to think. If the yappers force themselves on you, merely respond "Isn't it nice to think so." The ones who know better will understand and be embarrassed, the ones who just can't get it will keep on yapping. Just read the story and run with the bulls.
Rating:
Summary: It's like a vacation
Review: I've read "The Sun Also Rises" several times and every time I finish it, I feel like I've just returned from Spain and France where I spent weeks with old friends drinking and partying. Sure there's not much plot, and sure some of the characters are shallow... but they're great company and it's a lot cheeper to read this book than actually travel to Pamplona.
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