THE SUN ALSO RISES - Ernest Hemingway

Here is a book I finished on August 5th 2013 at 3:29am

The idea to read this book came as I began the pleasure of reading Hemingway's classic collection.  As I have mentioned in other posts on Hemingway here  I have only digested 5 of his works so far, and I am taking a break for now.

This book was everything I was hoping Hemingway would be again.  After reading Old Man and the Sea in 2009 I was a true fan, but A Moveable Feast almost ruined Hemingway for me.  Thanks goodness this book was next on my list and reignited my interest.  As usual Hemingway writes only what he knows about well.  I have not come across a book yet that he has written where he is trying to explain something foreign to him.  He writes of war becasue he has seen war, he writes of hunting, fihsing, bull fighting, love, liquor, and travel.  All of these Hemingway was adept in, and this book is no exception to that. 

Putting it simply and without giving too much away, as this is a 'must read' - The story follows the adventures of Jake. A man living in post World War I Paris (another of Hemingway's themes exposed) It follows him through several places over a short period of time and depicts the relationship he has with his friends during this time.  In particular there is the a worthwhile relationship he has with a character named Lady Brett, a woman I have no doubt would be loyal to Jake if it had not been for an accident he sustained in the war which has left him unable to 'love' a woman of Brett's caliber.  But one of the many delights of the novel is watching how the careless Brett, not being able to have Jake as she wants him, takes down men and renders them into slaves for her affection; notably the poor character Cohn - as you will see when you read it. Again, I don't want to give too much away, but that relationship is one of my favorites in literary history (or my short lived version of it thus far)

There are scenes in this book that are reminiscent of Old Man and the Sea in that they are so overly descriptive that it makes you feel you are right there with the characters, watching their conversations unfold..  There is a fishing scene in this book where Hemingway describes the water, the wine bottles cooling in the stream and the way they wrap the fish in newspaper after they are caught -  is written in the classic Hemingway style; that is to say, simply written enough to digest effortlessly but with an element of old world class that makes you feel like a gentleman for just reading it.  Later in the book when the 'gang' all assembles in Spain for the bull fights I have never before imagined such a party even possible, and what makes it so believable is that Hemingway lives this life first hand, and his description of it you damn well know is based on true accounts of this glorious madness.

I recommend this book for any Hemingway fan of course, for those that have wanted to know what it's like to experience the thrill of a bull fight in heightened detail or to know how the tight grip of jealousy can render men in to fools.  For lovers of wine and travel, this book speaks for a time I wish I had been given the chance to experience first hand.  This book is as close as I will ever be able to come to that time. 

This book is 251 pages and I took it down in a day off.  On my sliding scale I gave this a solid 8/10 for its ability to remind me a time that my grandfather would have lived.  A place where telegrams where your equivalent to emails and Hemingway's uncanny ability to place the reader directly in a characters head, in the same place as they are during the world as it collapses around them.  Such a good book, and on topics only Hemingway could possibly write about.