The Sun Also Rises

by Earnest Hemingway

The Sun Also Rises is a 1926 novel by American writer Ernest Hemingway, his first, that portrays American and British expatriates who travel along the Camino de Santiago from Paris to the Festival of San Fermín in Pamplona and watch the running of the bulls and the bullfights. An early modernist novel, it received mixed reviews upon publication. Hemingway biographer Jeffrey Meyers writes that it is now "recognized as Hemingway's greatest work" and Hemingway scholar Linda Wagner-Martin calls it his most important novel.

Genres: Fiction, Classics

236 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 1, 2024

Reviews

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is more of a travel chronically of a group of expat friends, who struggle with delusion and are emotionality wounded by WW1. They act entitled, promiscuous, and drink heavily all while engaging often in casual sex. Odd narrater and his friend Brett are staple in love, but Brett can not accept this since he is left impotent by a war injury, and she basically lives for the moment for sex.

The story is well written, I enjoyed the style. It is direct and minimalistic.

If you need a plot, you might skip this one

[Reagan Dricken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written well; the whoring around of Brett certainly gets old, but it’s necessary to help illustrate the endless search for fulfillment of those who don’t have God. All in all, a really good moral-mirror to remind us of the sinfulness that exists within all of us. Hang in for the first half and buckle up for the second.

[Tonya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is about the 6th time I've read The Sun Also Rises. I always discover something new.

[alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

hemingslay

[Imelda Ojeda · Rating 5 out of 5]

What is left for a man to do after he has seen and experienced deep emotional and physical loss?

If YOLO was a book, this would be it! this book will transport you to the epicenter of the roaring twenties: Paris, Madrid, Pamplona, excessive drinking, partying, sex, bull fighting, friendships, love, and pain. What keeps people from behaving badly once they don’t have anything left to lose?

A Simply written but conceptually rich and meaningful novel in a post war world.

[kaylie rayne ‪‪‪♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

hemingway creates a world that you dread leaving. the ending was entirely nostalgic for me and felt very similar to the last day of a wonderful vacation, knowing inevitably you are to leave and not knowing if you’ll ever be back. It was all due to the expertise in setting and character creation.

I have a knack for loving unlikable characters, and so I loved every one of the characters in this book.

If my friends and I were to have a eurosummer I fear that it would end up very much like this book, but I’m not complaining too much.

[Jee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hemingway’s diary entries through a situationship with a married woman and lashing out cash with other expat friends in Paris

[Cihat Sarıhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those who are not familiar with the era and setting, it’s hard to stay engaged with the story. But it’s also a good story for understanding the zeitgeist. You can clearly see how people ruined their lives in search of happiness. They were people who seemed to do nothing but live their lives nonstop. The emptiness of these people is evident in the dialogues. On the other hand, the author describes the setting and events so vividly that I felt as if I were visiting Pamplona and having a drink at Café Iruña. Overall, it was a pleasant journey.

[Pearson Nunnally · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although slow and at times leaving you eager for adventure that really doesn’t come, The Sun Also Rises immediately grabs your attention in a different way. Starting in the post WW1 world of expats in Paris, France, it immerses you into the front seat of disorderly friend group of party-going young Americans and Brits delving into the extravagance of 1920s-30s French culture. From drunken speakeasy arguments, to calm fishing in Spanish waters, to bearing witness to the insane world of bullfighting, you begin to find familiarity in these authors, painters, boxers and wives, seeing every flawed and humorous side of them.

[David Allwood · Rating 1 out of 5]

One hundred years after first being published, Ernest Hemingway has evolved into such a legendary outsized character that his writing cannot match the outsized mythical reputation of the author. Apparently, he was a leading figure of the ‘lost generation’ and his writing created a new sparse, efficient style. Despite being a new style, one hundred years later there is nothing new about his approach. In ‘The Sun Also Rises’ it is evident that his writing was of that time and has not aged well in a constantly changing world. The men are mostly misogynists, they drink too much, and they congregate together to do masculine things. The women are judged by the men as to whether they are pretty or not and are not welcome as participants, except for sex. Lady Ashley Brett is a slight exception in that she mixes it with the boys but she also specialises in giving the boys the pleasure they desire. Overall, very little happens. The group gossips in Paris and they attend blood sport in Pamplona and jealousies gradually emerge, and anti-semitism becomes rife. Hemingway hedonistic mates would, these days be judged as completely toxic and ultimately cancelled. What was once possibly a fresh interesting modern book has now aged, not gracefully, but into a dull, offensive, and ultimately pointless story, reflective of its times but little else. Over the past century, as Hemingway evolved into a towering literary figure, his first book has shrunk into a dated curiosity from another time.

[Jenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

While it took some acclimating, I finally did get used to the cut and dry prose delivered by Mr. Hemingway. While it is likely not a book I would pick up again, there were a myriad of details I could appreciate about it. Namely, the way I could tell what Hemingway was passionate about in life through Jake and his adventures. He writes about his passions in such romantic yet simplistic detail that it makes me also want to take up such hobbies as watching bull-fighting or fishing. All-in-all it was a little anticlimactic for me, but not at all a bad way to pass time.

[Carol Grygleski · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading about some disillusioned 30 somethings vacationing around Europe. Though I can’t live this lifestyle, it reminded me that as much as times change, they also remain the same. I feel like I can draw many parallels to life in the wake of COVID and people just feeling rather listless and disconnected. It also gave me more insight into the Silent Generation. I think I want to read more Hemingway now.

[BarbB · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overrated in my opinion, but in its defense, this is a hundred years since publication. Interesting insight into the post WWI "lost generation". He conveys place well- I felt immersed in parts of their travels, especially Spain. It's a struggle to keep reading a book in which I don't like the characters. Left me feeling a bit empty in the end.

[Dominic Catalano · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the worst novels I’ve ever read. The characters never do anything except get drunk, fight, drink, throw insults around, get drunk, eat, sleep with each other, and drink. Did I mention they like to get drunk?
I guess it’s great at depicting what a sorry life it is to live like that, which is apparently how most people live: without purpose.

[Guillermo Montoya · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Isn’t it pretty to think so?” The lost generation essential. Jake Barnes and company represent a post war era so beautifully. I believe the ideas behind the search for meaning in a bleak world is universal however. In this political climate even more so. Reckless behavior to mask the insecurity’s and lack of fulfillment of one’s life.

[Romi Levin · Rating 4 out of 5]

אני רוצה לתת לספר הזה חמישה כוכבים, אבל אני צריכה קודם לקרוא אותו שוב. בבוא העת… אני מרגישה שהבנתי ולא הבנתי כל כך הרבה. הרגשתי הכל וכלום בבת אחת. בכלל פספסתי את פרט המידע הכי חשוב שהוא התמה העיקרית של הספר. נכון שהדבר לא כתוב במפורש, ועדיין. אולי אם הייתי קוראת בעברית הייתי מצליחה לקרוא יותר בין השורות.

[Ricardo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would’ve given 2.5 if could

Positives
- Lots of great descriptive passages/scene setting

Negatives
- Stilted and at times tedious dialogue
- Really has not aged well - lots of racist and anti-semitic characters
- Felt bored at various points, particularly the parts set in Paris

[andi · Rating 4 out of 5]

returning to this book really connected me to my past self that had read it at 17 and marked the pages with notes. I found new things to love about this book with this go round. Much to be said about Hemingway but this is an excellent piece of writing that I will always love and return to.

[Jimmy Quintana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wish I could’ve enjoyed it. Think it’s bc so much dialogue and very anti climatic. I understand was written in observation of the looseness of the times. I respect it as an American classic but was not for me

[ainsley · Rating 3 out of 5]

i’ll give it a 3.5 stars. to understand what hemingway is trying to do here, you have to go on spotify and find the playlist titled “the sun also rises by ernest hemingway” and then everything will make sense. i promise.

[Layne TD · Rating 4 out of 5]

260 pages of requited yet impossible love and the romantic suffering that comes with it! But the most impressive part of Hemingway’s prose is after the fiesta when you can actually feel the wine hangover emanating off the page.

[WR James · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this back in my teens and thought, yeah, OK. Read it again and, this time, wow. Obviously I've grown up since the first time I read it. Great characterisation, story, as you'd expect, in the real world where Wokery and other rubbish are none existent.

[Kevin Cortright · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extraordinary display of dialogue, Hemingway conveys ideas through his characters that come off so naturally that you almost forget that they aren’t real. These messy, drunk expats felt grounded in a reality that I never knew, yet even a hundred years later I could appreciate.

[Sophia CC · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vivid adventure. A woman who treats men as men treat women.

[Rebecca Castillo · Rating 3 out of 5]

old man sure loved his slurs

[Ranette · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Old Man and the Sea is my favorite Hemingway story, but I don't care for this one.

[Rachael Spearman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read it in one day! 3.5⭐️

[Kelley Turk · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Burton Brandt · Rating 1 out of 5]

So… what?

I wouldn’t have kept reading this if it wasn’t Hemingway. I was confused and felt as though the same sentences were repeats sometimes 3 times in the same page. Just confused.

[Elise B]

DNF’d this book…. I loved Farewell to Arms and I thought I enjoyed Hemingway but I could not get through this one. Sad. Might try again another time