Written in a different time with a different sensibility. An interesting character study though nothing much happens and mostly unlikeable cast. ( )

"you can't get away from yourself by moving from one place to another."

First published in 1926 and set in the 1920's, 'The Sun Also Rises' centres around a group of expatriates who wander around Europe squandering large sums of money, drinking extraordinary amounts of alcohol, indulging in casual sex and generally doing nothing useful as they hunt for contentment. The novel’s narrator is Jake Barnes, an American veteran of World War I, who while fighting at the frontline suffered an injury which left him unable to have sex and rendered him impotent. After the war, Jake decided to stay in Europe working as a journalist in Paris where he lived next to his college friend Robert Cohn.

The crux of the tension in the book is Jake’s relationship with socialite Lady Brett Ashley. Twice divorced, Brett is a femme fatale, who moved from London to Paris. Brett and Jake first met during the war when Brett worked as a nurse and Jake recuperating from his injuries; she was the love of his life. The reason for their falling out is never directly mentioned but it is implied that she could not commit to a relationship that doesn't contain sex. Despite their past, Jake and Ashley, remain good friends. Brett is engaged to another man so when Robert confesses his romantic interest in her tensions raise up a notch. Jake, Brett, and Robert are joined by an eclectic cast of characters, most of them American expatriates, and they all travel to Spain initially to do some freshwater fishing and then to Pamplona to the bullfighting festival.

The book is divided into three parts but throughout there are images of the decadence and disillusionment of the so-called 'Lost Generation', a generation who had lived through the war but were still traumatised by it, who were resilient but also rudderless. A generation who were simply coping in their own way.

"I can't stand it to think my life is going so fast and I'm not really living it."

Nature is also integral to the novel, the tranquillity of the Spanish countryside comes alive in Hemingway’s prose and vividly contrasts to the hustle and bustle of the festival and the bloodshed of the bullfighting.

This was Hemingway's first published novel and whilst you can readily see the quality of the prose that will heavily feature in his seminal 'war' novels this one felt somehow experimental. I found the plot thin and generally aimless; and I don't regret reading it, it is also my least favourite of Hemingway's novels that I've read to date. ( )

My first taste of Hemingway and, honestly, i really have no idea what all the hype is about.

The Sun Also Rises is nothing but rich-alcoholics-get-bored-with-Paris-so-go-off-to-a-fiesta-in-Spain-for-a-week-to-get-drunk-there-instead.   They mostly do nothing but drink alcohol of various types and expenses of which Hemingway will inform you like any decent, decadent, wealthy alcoholic would.   They eat when they get hungry, sleep when they feel they need to and watch a few bull fights; about which, Hemingway is rather keen to portray to the world that the local Spanish know him to be an "officianado", and that everyone must accept that it's the height of art and wonder to brutalise animals for the entertainment of drunks.

Oh, and there's lots of pathetic drunken arguments with pathetic drunken people arguing about other drunken people, or about people who won't get drunk with them -- with a good dose of antisemitism thrown in, which was only necessary if Hemingway was eager to portray his antisemitic credentials to the world as it bought absolutely nothing whatsoever to the actual story.

Blah, blah, blah...

...mostly, it's all just typical drunken alcoholic boring twaddle written down through the haze of a hangover the next morning.

And now i can't be bothered to write another word about Hemingway ever again, and i certainly won't be reading any of his other books.   I gave him a chance and he failed miserably -- but failing miserably is what alcoholics do best. ( )

My problem with this book is the gloomy and depressing tone, with no real objective or purpose for it. ( )

A great story about nothing in particular. Makes you feel like you were there. ( )