The Sun Also Rises
by Ernest Hemingway
Quick synopsis: A group of American and British expatriates travel through Paris and Spain, where they fish, drink, eat at cafes, and attend the fiestas of the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona.
My first Hemingway novel. I never thought I'd make it through, but somehow, someway, I did.
I remember reading The Snows of Kilimanjaro in my English class a few semesters ago and being mesmerized by it. It was so strong, so heartfelt, so... sentimental. The prose was thick and vivid, the characterizations so fierce, the word usage so perfect. I may not remember much about the plot itself, but I do remember being really impressed.
I guess I expected the same thing with The Sun Also Rises. And because this is not a book club and I promised myself I would speculate why people are so taken by this classic, I cannot sit here and write about how bored I was reading it, or how pithy it sounded, or that I missed seeing and feeling the scenes and the emotions of each character.
I will admit, though, that by the end, my vexation was relieved somewhat--I am now not so turned off to the idea of reading another Hemingway novel. In fact, I welcome it, and I hope I do it someday so I can compare it to his first. Because, after all, he got me on a short story--maybe it was just this novel that didn't necessarily float my boat.
If anything, Hemingway is a master at his own technique: this idea that stories are related to icebergs, and that 7/8ths of it is underwater. We don't see it, but we know it's there. And it's true. In very simple terms and in very simple means, I understood the (somewhat) the emotional conflict between Jake, the narrator, and Brett, the flighty woman every man falls in love with. It became so apparent to me what was going on (most of the time), yet I was shocked at how little there was. Hemingway at his best.
I did miss something that was very important, in my opinion, that I didn't realize until I read some reviews and articles on the book. Jake Barnes is impotent from a wound he got in the war, and that is why he cannot be with Brett. She, being sexually needy, cannot be with a man who cannot satisfy her, and that is why their relationship would never work. Somehow, I didn't catch this factoid, and I just figured she could never be with him because she just couldn't settle down with one man. Was this something I missed because I skimmed? Because I would go days without opening the book, thus becoming disoriented at starting again? Or did I miss it because it wasn't actually said in plain text? I don't know. Unfortunately, I can't go back in time and re-experience reading it.
The book became magical for me during the intense scenes of the bull-fighting. Maybe because it was the most descriptive, and that is what I craved. Maybe because it I understood the characters more and their place in the novel and in the world, and they weren't just names (which, I will say, I felt like they were up until this point). Maybe because, I don't know, I forgot I was reading and was fully invested in this dream, fully participating in these scenes.
I do appreciate what Hemingway did for literature, becoming a pioneer of the modern style, making the simple and seemingly trite perhaps more complicated than it looks and sounds. And no matter my opinion on the man and his work, it means really nothing when compared to what he has done for authors and readers alike, even if I may not be quite there. In the end, I wasn't as annoyed with The Sun Also Rises as I was when I first began, and I hope that one day I can give it another read and become absolutely mystified.
