1926; 232 pages. New Author? : Yes. Genres : High-Brow; Classic American
Literature; Roman à
Clef. Overall Rating: 8*/10.
Gertrude Stein dubbed them the
“Lost Generation”. They were a group of expatriate
writers—mostly Americans and British—who lived in Paris in the years following
World War One.
Wouldn’t that be a great
lifestyle? Hang out in Parisian cafés
all day, drinking wine, writing novels, and joining in witty repartee with
one’s fellow authors.
The American author Ernest
Hemingway was part of the Lost Generation.
He got to know its members quite well.
He even wrote a book about his interactions with them, which was published in
1926.
It’s called The Sun Also Rises.
What’s To Like...
At 232 pages (the
hardcover version), The Sun Also Rises
is a relatively quick, highbrow read.
The story is told in the First-Person POV by our protagonist, Jake
Barnes, who's a newspaper article writer.
The storyline is divided into
three parts. Part One portrays
the lives the Lost Generation as they lounge about in Paris. Part Two, encompassing more than n
half the pages, recounts a trip to Pamplona, Spain to watch the famous “running of the
bulls” and join in a weeklong fiesta. Part
Three hints at a possible change about to occur in Jake’s life.
The novel is written in the
“roman à clef” style,
which means the storyline draws upon real-life people and events as the basis
for a fictional account. That also
means Jake Barnes’s experiences are based on Hemingway’s life at the time. You’d think that he and all these characters would be thoroughly enjoying the artistic life of high society, but that is not the
case. They squabble with each other,
bemoan their lack of funds, and drown themselves in booze.
I really liked the “feel”
Ernest Hemingway gives for living in post-World War One France and Spain. I’ve been to both countries, and could tell the
author had actually lived there. The
bull-fighting excursion made a profound impact on him.
I also liked how a bunch of French and
Spanish phrases and dialogue find their way into the text. It adds to the realism of the tale. And since it’s been 100 years since Hemingway
wrote this, even some of the English words and phrases are old-fashioned. A couple examples are given below.
The ending, Part Three, is
both bittersweet and satisfying, although somewhat inconclusive. To give details would introduce
spoilers. The storyline leaves room for
a sequel but I don’t think one was ever written. Perhaps that means these were not the
happiest years of Hemingway's life.
Kewlest New Word ...
Darbs (n,;
plural) : excellent, outstanding, and/or highly attractive persons. (1920s slang)
Others: Mattock (n.); Bankrupt
(as a noun); “Live on tick” (phrase).
Ratings…
Amazon: 4.0*/5, based on 16,089 ratings
and 1,803 reviews.
Goodreads: 3.79*/5,
based on 504,043
ratings and 25,347 reviews.
Excerpts...
“All I want out of wines is to enjoy them.”
“Let’s enjoy a little more of this,” Brett
pushed her glass forward. The count
poured very carefully. “There, my dear. Now you enjoy that slowly, and then you can
get drunk.”
“Drunk?
Drunk?”
“My dear, you are charming when you are
drunk.”
“Listen to the man.”
“Mr. Barnes,” the count poured my glass
full. “She is the only lady I have ever
known who was as charming when she was drunk as when she was sober.”
“You haven’t been around much, have you?” (pg. 57)
“They let the bulls out of the cages one at
a time, and they have steers in the corral to receive them and keep them from
fighting, and the bulls tear in at the steers and the steers run around like
old maids trying to quiet them down.”
“Do they ever gore the steers?”
“Sure.
Sometimes they go right after them and kill them.”
“Can’t the steers do anything?”
“No.
They’re trying to make friends.”
“What do they have them in for?”
“To quiet down the bulls and keep them from
breaking horns against the stone walls, or goring each other.”
“Must be swell being a steer.” (pg. 124)
“Did the typewriter
put you to sleep?” (pg.
13)
There was a lot more cussing
than I expected from a book written in the 1920s. I counted 27 instances in the first 20% of
the book. There were also a number of
racial epithets, sexual orientation epithets, and one nationality epithet. And of course, plentiful alcohol consumption on a
daily and nightly occurrence contributed to the profanity level.
My only editing quibble is minor: there is a lack of section breaks when a scene shift occurs in a paragraph. I wouldn’t call it confusing, but was a bit
irksome.
I frankly wasn’t all that
enthralled when I finished The Sun Also Rises.
Nothing much had changed for any of the
characters, including Jake Barnes. But
reading the Wikipedia article about it increased my appreciation for what
Ernest Hemingway was trying to convey.
It spawned a whole new style of writing, called “Modernism”.
And 100 years later, critics are still debating the merits of this book.
8 Stars. One last thing. Jake Barnes reveals early on that he has suffered a serious World War One wound that renders him impotent. In real life, Ernest Hemingway also suffered a serious wound during the war. Wikipedia is uncharacteristically vague about the details of Heminway’s wound. But one has to wonder if he suffered the same disability as his protagonist did.
