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Nov 24, 2010

Tra-Kay rated it:

If I were Hemingway's English teacher (or anyone's any kind of teacher) I'd say, "This reads more like a screenplay than a novel. Where are your descriptions, where is the emotion??"
And he would say something like, "The lack of complex descriptions helps focus on the complexities and emptiness of the characters' lives, and the emotion is there, it's only just beneath the surface, struggling to be free!"
And I'd say, "OK, I'll move ya from a C to C+."
More...

38 comments like (51 people liked it)

Jun 28, 2011

Sandybanks rated it:

What I learned from this book (in no particular order):

1. Jews are stubborn.

2. Being a Jew in Princeton sucks.

3. Being impotent sucks, especially if you are in love with a beautiful woman.

4. A beautiful woman is built with curves like the hull of a racing boat. Women make swell friends.

5. If you suffered from domestic abuse, the best way to work it out is by going through as many men as possible in the shortest time, and then discard t More...

39 comments like (55 people liked it)

May 06, 2010

Matt rated it:

Oh, to have been Ernest Hemingway. Except for the whole shotgun thing.

He was a man, back when that meant something. Whatever that means. He had it all: a haunted past; functional alcoholism; a way with words; a way with women; and one hell of a beard. I mean, this was the guy who could measure F. Scott Fitzgerald's penis without anyone batting an eye. He was just that cool.

I love Hemingway. You might have guessed that, but let's make it clear off the bat. For Whom the B More...

22 comments like (65 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

colbyhewitt rated it:

I think there is something cheesey about reviewing an old book, but I felt I had to write something, as I constructed my senior thesis in college with this book as the cornerstone, I have read it at least six times, and I consider The Sun Also Rises to be the Great American Novel. Why?
1) Hemingway was, if nothing else, a great American. A renaissance man, a soldier, a fisherman, and a sportswriter, a romantic and an argumentatively direct chauvinist, a conflicted religious agnostic who n More...

6 comments like (38 people liked it)

Feb 01, 2011

Sparrow rated it:

Everything is still tonight, like a friend was talking and I didn’t hear her until she stopped. Like absence. Coming back from vacation has that feeling of loss because all of the friendships resolve into something real, whatever that may be. Whenever I am away from home, I crave The Sun Also Rises. I think it got into my blood from reading it again and again at impressionable ages. Since I returned home this time, a couple of weeks ago, I can’t stop thinking about my friends in this book a More...

91 comments like (38 people liked it)

Jan 28, 2011

Brad rated it:

I've read this book every year since 1991, and it is never the same book. Like so many things in this world, The Sun Also Rises improves with age and attention.

Some readings I find myself in love with Lady Brett Ashley. Then I am firmly in Jake Barnes' camp, feeling his pain and wondering how he stays sane with all that happens around him. Another time I can't help but feel that Robert Cohn is getting a shitty deal and find his behavior not only understandable but restrained. Or I am w More...

29 comments like (33 people liked it)

Nov 17, 2011

Amanda rated it:

This may be my favorite book of all time. At any rate, it's definitely on the top ten list and by far my favorite Hemingway (and I do love some Hemingway). The first time I read this, I loved Lady Brett Ashley. Is she a bitch? Sure, but I don't think she ever intentionally sets out to hurt anyone. And it might be argued that she has reason to be one: her first true love dies in the war from dysentery (not exactly the most noble of deaths) and she's physically threatened by Lord Ashley, for More...

4 comments like (11 people liked it)

Feb 04, 2012

Stephen M rated it:

She Aches Just like a Woman

I’ll start off with something that I thought was interesting (hint: it borders on being annoying). For the first 75 pages, characters move in and out of this book with such swiftness and with no mention of physical description or notable characteristics, it mimics the effect of being at a really crowded party where you meet face after face, name after name and you have no time to process who is who, why they are significant and if you should even bother to More...

28 comments like (14 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Lena rated it:

I gave this one star because I wasn't old enough to drink or really enjoy much of anything when I first read it, and I haven't read it again since.

I'm almost certain I'd still hate it though.

7 comments like (14 people liked it)

Apr 21, 2011

Kemper rated it:

There’s a very nice restaurant that my wife and I frequent that has become our go-to spot for special occasions like birthdays or anniversaries. When we first started going here, I saw that they were serving absinthe. I’d been curious about the drink since first reading Hemingway’s descriptions of it in The Sun Also Rises back in high school.

Banned for most of the twentieth century in the U.S. for wildly exaggerated claims of it’s hallucinogenic qualities, it was made available t More...

33 comments like (35 people liked it)

Nov 08, 2011

AC rated it:

OK - I have no business writing reviews or longish reviews about novels - I don't read criticism and know nothing anyway… -- but WTF… of all the books I've re-read from my youth of late -- this one… not only held up best, but I realize I had no frikkin' clue whatsoever what this book was about when I was 16 or 17 and when I read it with my buddy Drew X., the most tragic kid I ever knew… along with a lot of other Hemingway books and all the Scott Fitzgerald we could find -- even the The Crack-Up More...

4 comments like (9 people liked it)

Mar 17, 2010

bup rated it:

Man those people drank a lot. I got dehydrated just reading about it.

If you like Hemingway because of the way he's able to use short words over and over and they hit you like it's the first time you've ever really heard them, you'll love this book. If you like Hemingway because of manly men doing things where you're like, "I'm a man, or at least I've observed them at close range, and I don't get why the correct man reaction to ________ (insult/woman's inscrutable comment/witness More...

3 comments like (7 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Mike rated it:

A magnificent and deceptively simple book. If you judged it solely on its plot, you probably wouldn't come away very impressed: a collection of American ex-patriots travel from Paris to Pamplona for the running of the bulls; drink too much and make fools of themselves; then return to Paris a few weeks older and not much wiser. Where Hemingway really succeeds, though, is in capturing brief flashes of life that any reader will recognize.

Again, I'm hardly qualified to propose and defe More...

2 comments like (9 people liked it)

Jul 22, 2011

Alex rated it:

Here's how the story lines eventually unravel
Three men (at least or rather three and half) and one Le Femme Fatal
From Paris to Pamplona in escape from boredom for the leisure travel
Where they all drink Pernod Absinthe until she meets the boy, who boldly fights the bull
Jake acts as liaison arranging Brett-bullfighter sex affair
Cohn beats the shit off Spanish boy, Mike keeps on drinking and pretends that he's cool and doesn't care

1. Memorable 5
2. Social More...

7 comments like (5 people liked it)

Mar 01, 2010

Ellen rated it:

One of the questions the novel raises is who is the hero?

From our perspective the disappearance of the hero is nothing new. When Hemingway wrote this book, the lack of a clear protagonist was not yet a tradition. Certainly, there was literature featuring anti-heroes, but in this novel, it is not even clear if there is a central character.

Even Hemingway did not seem entirely sure. The story of how Hemingway revised the novel is a fascinating account on its own. One p More...

8 comments like (8 people liked it)

Jun 29, 2009

Logan rated it:

Hemingway has never been a close friend of mine. We've had some dalliances, to be sure, but he's never been the sort of author that I call long distance on a rainy night just to be reassured by the sound of their voice. It's not that we don't get along. It is just that our relationship has always been more like that of friends-of-a-friend. We just hadn't had the opportunity to get falling down drunk with one another and confess the trials and tribulations of life to each other. Fortunately More...

12 comments like (12 people liked it)

Jul 11, 2008

Jake rated it:

I always feel a little odd writing about books that are considered “great literature.” Mostly because I read either for fun, or to investigate particular subjects or authors that I find personally interesting. I’m not particularly interested in literary theory (by not particularly, I mean, not at all), and find wading through academic analysis of writing to be more of a chore than it’s usually worth. So in reviewing a classic work like the Sun Also Rises, I’m always conscious of the fact that I’ More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Apr 08, 2009

Joseph rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

6 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 25, 2009

Allison rated it:

I honestly didn't think that this book would be as bad as it was. I was assigned to read this book for class, and the books we've read for class have hitherto been better than this.

This book has virtually no plot, and the characters are very flat. The entire book consists of a group of people, each of them disliking at least one person in their party, driving around Paris drinking. Then they decide to go to Spain and drink. So the rest of the book is about them drinking with each ot More...

4 comments like (9 people liked it)

Oct 10, 2011

Helynne rated it:

The expatriot American writers, poets, painters, musicians,etc., who hung out in Paris in the 1920s were an innovative and talented bunch. But they were a somewhat sad lot as well. Hemingway’s first novel is a semi-autobiographical look at these 30-something people’s desperate search for meaning in life through a hedonistic, booze-soaked chase from place to place in France and Spain. His story makes it easy to see why these folks were called the “lost generation.” (In his memoir, A Mem More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Dec 07, 2007

Danny rated it:

For a long time I was convinced that there were two sorts of people in the world: those who adore Hemingway, gush about his genius and lavish praise upon him at every opportunity, and those who despise him utterly. As it turns out, there is a third category: those who have read him and still remain wholly indifferent. I am that third category.

I found my copy of The Sun Also Rises in a thrift-store for a buck, and I figured, 'meh, what the hell?' It is supposed to be one of the fable More...

2 comments like (6 people liked it)

Feb 01, 2009

Weinz rated it:

Hemmingway is masterful at saying something without saying it. I believe the sign of a true classic is different readers being able to find different meanings and symbolism in the same story. This story does that. What I saw in it was people putting up the front of happiness while being empty and void of any joy on the inside. Hemmingway's own inner unhappiness comes through in this text in such a revealing way. It made the pain of the protagonist all the more palpable.

Although it h More...

3 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jan 24, 2009

Richard rated it:

ANOTHER PERCEPTION:

The matador is Death. He is inevitable and inescapable. Not cruel, just there -- and he has come for the bull, who will fight for his life and lose. But don't feel sorry for the bull for the bull will die fighting, a chance not given to other bulls -- who will die without dignity.
The people who enjoy watching are not yet aware that there is a matador for each of them. Not cruel. Just there. Inevitable. So what do you do? You get drunk and have a lot of sex an More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Apr 22, 2011

Rebecca rated it:

If a novel is a vehicle one rides to get to a literary destination, Victor Hugo is a highly polished cabriolet carriage with a rounded, butter yellow apron trimmed in mahogany, swept up on the sides finishing into unyielding arabesques capped with a pale blue hood, lined in ivory velvet and carried by a three-year-old dappled gray with a silvery blaze down his nose.

Ernest Hemingway is a cart. Pulled by an ass.

I understand his technique of base dialogue and understated descri More...

5 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 10, 2011

Daniel rated it:

The novel written by Ernest Hemmingway "The Sun Also Rises" is the one of his first literary works that gave rise to the writing potential of this author. what makes this novel so interesting is how Ernest is capable of writing a parallel story using characters that have no relation to him, however, what they do throuought the novel relates or demosntrates his life experience.

more specifically about the novel itself, is the frecuencey of conflicts that rise quite often bet More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 24, 2010

Austin rated it:

Forgive me for saying so, but the first quarter of The Sun Also Rises is pretty bad. The three quarters that follow are magnificent. The first quarter is essentially a long list of Paris bars and cafes (the Select, the Rotonde, etc.), what streets they're on, and what was quaffed there (usually Pernod, but sometimes brandy or champagne or wine). Occasionally there are also detailed descriptions of hailing a taxi, opening the door, sitting down in it, and instructing the driver to head to Boul More...

6 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 09, 2011

Meghan rated it:

I'm really happy that I gave Hemingway a second chance. The only other book of his that I'd read previously was 'The Old Man and the Sea', and it was in high school. Given what I know now of his major works, I'd say it likely wasn't the most representative of his books, so I'm looking forward to reading more.

'The Sun Also Rises' was very different from the fiction I normally read, but fits in well with my experience of early twentieth century American literature. Though I haven't read More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 21, 2011

Becky rated it:

I'll be hooked on thoughts of this book for a while. This is most likely due to the interesting dynamics of the characters and the way things got to rolling once the fiesta started. I have to admit my mind was a little checked out during the first two thirds of the book. Please don't jump to conclusions! There was nothing wrong with the story or Hemingway's writing here (that is if you accept his shorthand style, which I do ;), it's just that I'd had my fill of getting to know characters & More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 12, 2010

Jessie rated it:

I'm almost scared to say this about a Hemingway, but I just did not enjoy this book. Nothing happened, none of the charachters were very likable at all, I did not feel a connection to any of then really and the book was really just boring in some parts.

Brett is awful. I really do not understand why nearly all the men in the book are infatuated with her. Maybe she's pretty and charasmatic, but honestly I think she's a sociopath. I read somewhere that Hemingway was sexist and this was More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

May 03, 2011

D_Davis rated it:

Love the prose, hate the story. I also can't stand any of the characters. I just don't care about anything they do, or anything that happens to them.

At just over 1/2 through, I doubt I will continue reading it.

I absolutely love Hemingway's style, I just wish this story was more interesting. Given the choice, I'll take an interesting story over good prose any old day.

If only he was a SF writer...

:)

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The Sun Also Rises - a More...

4 comments like (2 people liked it)