Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - The Sun Also Rises

"The Sun Also Rises" defined the Lost Generation, and it certainly feels lost. It's very reminiscent of the very household name The Great Gatsby, published only a year earlier. We follow a group of affluent white folk who live in a world feeling jaded. They hope that each new day will be better, but their freedom brings them to poor conclusions. The characters are put in situations where they don't HAVE to do the right thing, and so each decision is just a little selfish. Usually not grossly so: they're all human, and we would act the same. But these little building disagreements, without distraction, gradually build into conflict. I like our protagonist well enough. I like Bill. I want to like Brett, I want to like Robert, and Mike, and Romero. In the end there's no reason to dislike them either. They're all lost and hurt people, formed by circumstance.
P.S.: There is a single page where the n-word is uttered casually something like 15 times. It doesn't seem malicious, but it's flagrant. Just be aware that if you read this book about problematic people, understand that the author also was a problematic person in a lost world. 8.5/10.

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ezulc's review against another edition

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adventurous tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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antananarywa's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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reverie_and_books's review against another edition

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reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway - Review

»It is awfully easy to be hard-boiled about everything in the daytime, but at night it is another thing.«

Well, how to put this. I don’t think Hemingways writing style is really for me. That aside, the story is interesting enough, even though I feared for my liver just by reading about all this wine and Pernod.

It’s the 1930s. A bunch of expatriate writers meet in Paris, drink, write letters, drink some more, and muse about Lady Brett Ashley. They set out to Spain to watch bull fights. Those scenes are truly vibrant!

It’s a love triangle, it’s also about a post-war atmosphere with barely told and barely felt emotions. There is a constant question of belonging. One can read this on a surface level and feel like the writer really likes to describe routes and sights. One could also dig deeper and analyze everything that is said between these lines, in moments of quiet. And as I’ve been told, this is what Hemingway set out to do: telling a grand story with limited words and prose.

»This wine is too good for toast-drinking, my dear. You don't want to mix emotions up with a wine like that. You lose the taste.«

Not exactly my cup of tea, but I can see why it is such a widely discussed novel. And it’s a bit haunting, too. I keep thinking about it long after putting this book back on its shelf.

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lauramcc7's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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abe26's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced

3.75

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optionalobjectives's review against another edition

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reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I wasn't surprised to find almost every character in this book a little pathetic and despicable. Hemingway can't resist a little autobiography and he and his crowd were, in general, drunken tourists. Yet, almost in spite of myself, I think that he succeeds in the execution of his main themes and in description. It makes sense for a book about failure to feature a range of characters who are failures of different types. Cohn, in particular, works broadly well as a foil to Jake, the main character. Neither can let go of the object of their desire (one Lady Brett Ashley, who is also terrible but possessed of mysterious allure to every man in the book), but where Cohn clings to an ultimately violent end, Jake remains more mellow and tragic. Between that and the way that Hemingway's prose pulled me through the swirls and eddies of the fiesta of San Fermín, this was a worthwhile read in the end.

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shadestate's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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