The Sun Also Rises (by Ernest Hemingway)
I'd been resisting going back to Hemingway, since I didn't care for A Farewell to Arms and obviously, I hated The Old Man and the Sea. I had halfway written Hemingway off as another misogynistic dead white guy who was undeniably influential but not actually enjoyable to read (see Lawrence, D.H.)
Imagine my surprise: I absolutely adored The Sun Also Rises. It is a fabulous novel. I love the sparse prose, the characters, the story, the understated theme, the Lost Generation, the whole Hemingway "thing." I even appreciated the bullfighting, which I find totally brutal and barbaric, and was another thing that put me off of reading the book. Somehow, Hemingway makes it beautiful.
I'm once again grateful for this reading project; I might have gone on forever with the wrong impression of Hemingway! I strongly advise you: before you make a final judgment on Hemingway, read The Sun Also Rises. If you decide you hate it, well, then, there you have it.
"You're an expatriate. You've lost touch with the soil. You get precious. Fake European standards have ruined you. You drink yourself to death. You become obsessed by sex. You spend all your time talking, not working. You are an expatriate, see. You hang around cafés." (Page 115)
Imagine my surprise: I absolutely adored The Sun Also Rises. It is a fabulous novel. I love the sparse prose, the characters, the story, the understated theme, the Lost Generation, the whole Hemingway "thing." I even appreciated the bullfighting, which I find totally brutal and barbaric, and was another thing that put me off of reading the book. Somehow, Hemingway makes it beautiful.
I'm once again grateful for this reading project; I might have gone on forever with the wrong impression of Hemingway! I strongly advise you: before you make a final judgment on Hemingway, read The Sun Also Rises. If you decide you hate it, well, then, there you have it.
"You're an expatriate. You've lost touch with the soil. You get precious. Fake European standards have ruined you. You drink yourself to death. You become obsessed by sex. You spend all your time talking, not working. You are an expatriate, see. You hang around cafés." (Page 115)
posted by mo pie at 9:58 AM
4 Comments:
Well, damn. I was perfectly happy never reading another Hemingway book, because I didn't like A Farewell to Arms either. OK, so I'll go read The Sun Also Rises. You're too persuasive, Mo.
Well I hope you like it as much as I did! I like it even better now that some time has passed...
I didn't like Farewell to Arms either, but loved Sun Also Rises. And For Whom the Bell Tolls. Does anyone like Farewell who is not a rabid Hemingwayphile?
I'm glad to hear that For Whom the Bell Tolls is closer to The Sun Also Rises than A Farewell to Arms. That makes me actually look forward to reading it!
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