The Sun Also Rises
by Ernest Hemingway
I thought it high time I read an Ernest Hemingway novel, and while I’d heard rumors and mockings of his style, I thought they must have been exaggerations. Everything I’d ever heard about Ernest Hemingway turned out to be true! He writes in long-winded, paragraph-long sentences connected with strings of “ands” mixed with short, choppy, blunt sentences that seem as though there was very little thought put into them. It’s a very jarring combination, but if you’re enamored with him, you’ll find that style genius. I was not; I believe he’s highly overrated.
The novel itself doesn’t contain a particularly interesting story: A common, crass woman with hardly any morals spends time with a group of men, all of whom are in love with her. They all travel to Spain together on vacation, and they spend virtually the entire novel drunk as skunks. The dialogue may have been direct translations from Hemingway’s own drunken exchanges with his friends, but that doesn’t make it an entertaining read. When characters repeat lines over and over, and do the same things over and over, drinking themselves to oblivion, yelling at each other, insulting their rivals, and never seeking any sort of change, it doesn’t feel as though the author has put any thought into the book. It feels like he went out with his friends, got drunk, came home and jotted down what he remembered. Then, in the morning, he sent the pages to his editor, who, without altering a word, published them.
Now, before any of you bite my head off, let me say that the deeper meaning of the novel did not slip past me. The title is repeated in the opening quotation from The Bible. It’s made very clear from before the first page that nothing’s going to change, everyone will stay stuck in their frustrations, and the sun will rise again in the morning. So, when Hemingway repeats his dialogues and situations, I’m sure he’s attempting to be profound in reference to his title. However, his main character—the first-person narrator—is not a very nice or likable man, a stark contrast to the extremely likable first-person narrator in The Great Gatsby. I didn’t feel sorry for him that the scenes before him never changed. He’s critical of everyone, judgmental, devious, and has a basic dislike for mankind. His cynicism is overwhelming. I would have preferred a story starring a fresher, more optimistic protagonist who slowly gets beaten down to adapt the realization that “the sun also rises”.
However, if you’re looking for a Hemingway novel because you feel guilty for leaving him out of your classics education, The Sun Also Rises is a good start. It’s a great representation of his writing and it’s also a very quick read. I plowed through it in a weekend. The only enjoyment I derived from reading it was imagining the cast of the 1957 film adaptation. Every word of description and dialogue written of the female character was so perfectly tailored to Ava Gardner, it’s as if Ernest Hemingway had met her before writing the book. It was a remarkable similarity to her real-life persona, and when I watched the film, I was able to appreciate so much more of the story.
Be sure to check out Hot Toasty Rag's review of the film adaptation of The Sun Also Rises here!
The novel itself doesn’t contain a particularly interesting story: A common, crass woman with hardly any morals spends time with a group of men, all of whom are in love with her. They all travel to Spain together on vacation, and they spend virtually the entire novel drunk as skunks. The dialogue may have been direct translations from Hemingway’s own drunken exchanges with his friends, but that doesn’t make it an entertaining read. When characters repeat lines over and over, and do the same things over and over, drinking themselves to oblivion, yelling at each other, insulting their rivals, and never seeking any sort of change, it doesn’t feel as though the author has put any thought into the book. It feels like he went out with his friends, got drunk, came home and jotted down what he remembered. Then, in the morning, he sent the pages to his editor, who, without altering a word, published them.
Now, before any of you bite my head off, let me say that the deeper meaning of the novel did not slip past me. The title is repeated in the opening quotation from The Bible. It’s made very clear from before the first page that nothing’s going to change, everyone will stay stuck in their frustrations, and the sun will rise again in the morning. So, when Hemingway repeats his dialogues and situations, I’m sure he’s attempting to be profound in reference to his title. However, his main character—the first-person narrator—is not a very nice or likable man, a stark contrast to the extremely likable first-person narrator in The Great Gatsby. I didn’t feel sorry for him that the scenes before him never changed. He’s critical of everyone, judgmental, devious, and has a basic dislike for mankind. His cynicism is overwhelming. I would have preferred a story starring a fresher, more optimistic protagonist who slowly gets beaten down to adapt the realization that “the sun also rises”.
However, if you’re looking for a Hemingway novel because you feel guilty for leaving him out of your classics education, The Sun Also Rises is a good start. It’s a great representation of his writing and it’s also a very quick read. I plowed through it in a weekend. The only enjoyment I derived from reading it was imagining the cast of the 1957 film adaptation. Every word of description and dialogue written of the female character was so perfectly tailored to Ava Gardner, it’s as if Ernest Hemingway had met her before writing the book. It was a remarkable similarity to her real-life persona, and when I watched the film, I was able to appreciate so much more of the story.
Be sure to check out Hot Toasty Rag's review of the film adaptation of The Sun Also Rises here!