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Product Description: The quintessential novel of the Lost Generation, The Sun Also Rises is one of Ernest Hemingway's masterpieces and a classic example of his spare but powerful writing style. A poignant look at the disillusionment and angst of the post-World War I generation, the novel introduces two of Hemingway's most unforgettable characters: Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley. The story follows the flamboyant Brett and the hapless Jake as they journey from the wild nightlife of 1920s Paris to the brutal bullfighting rings of Spain with a motley group of expatriates. It is an age of moral bankruptcy, spiritual dissolution, unrealized love, and vanishing illusions. First published in 1926, The Sun Also Rises helped to establish Hemingway as one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century Amazon.com: The Sun Also Rises first appeared in 1926, and yet it's as fresh and clean and fine as it ever was, maybe finer. Hemingway's famously plain declarative sentences linger in the mind like poetry: "Brett was damned good-looking. She wore a slipover jersey sweater and a tweed skirt, and her hair was brushed back like a boy's. She started all that." His cast of thirtysomething dissolute expatriates--Brett and her drunken fiancé, Mike Campbell, the unhappy Princeton Jewish boxer Robert Cohn, the sardonic novelist Bill Gorton--are as familiar as the "cool crowd" we all once knew. No wonder this quintessential lost-generation novel has inspired several generations of imitators, in style as well as lifestyle. Jake Barnes, Hemingway's narrator with a mysterious war wound that has left him sexually incapable, is the heart and soul of the book. Brett, the beautiful, doomed English woman he adores, provides the glamour of natural chic and sexual unattainability. Alcohol and post-World War I anomie fuel the plot: weary of drinking and dancing in Paris cafés, the expatriate gang decamps for the Spanish town of Pamplona for the "wonderful nightmare" of a week-long fiesta. Brett, with fiancé and ex-lover Cohn in tow, breaks hearts all around until she falls, briefly, for the handsome teenage bullfighter Pedro Romero. "My God! he's a lovely boy," she tells Jake. "And how I would love to see him get into those clothes. He must use a shoe-horn." Whereupon the party disbands. But what's most shocking about the book is its lean, adjective-free style. The Sun Also Rises is Hemingway's masterpiece--one of them, anyway--and no matter how many times you've read it or how you feel about the manners and morals of the characters, you won't be able to resist its spell. This is a classic that really does live up to its reputation. --David Laskin Customer Reviews: Rating: 
Date: 2008-06-25
Huge waste of time
i had to read this book for my senior english class. now normally i try to be optamistic about assigned reading but that was nearly impossible to do conserning this piece of literature. one of the main things that annoyed me the most about this book was that the narrator doesnt even introduce new characters. or rather he will introduce them in fragments later on. he just talks about a brand spankin new character as if you had already known them your entire life.
another thing that bothered me is the fact the this book goes absolutely nowhere. the narrator just tells about his day. everyhting about his day. where he went to eat what he drank, what person he ran into. its like a minute-by-minute recount of his day. it takes so long reading just the filler that, when there actually is something important going on, you completely miss it.
also some characters go off on some completely random subjects, its hard to make out their point. if there is any point to be made at all.
through most of the book i was in a daze trying to force myself to read and comprehend this book when all i was really doing was looking at the words without paying attention to them. i COULDNT pay attention to them.
this book might be fine in dandy for people who like rambling, annoying, old style literature; but for younger, more modern people... it is a HUGE WASTE OF TIME. not that some of us really have a choice in the matter, we have to read it if we wanna have a decent grade in english class. Rating: 
Date: 2008-06-20
Timeless Classic
Our book club selected The Sun Also Rises as last month's reading selection. Several had read the book years ago and were now re-reading it, while others had never read it. It was not everyone's favorite book, but we all admired Hemmingway's ability to convey complex characters and undercurrents using the simplest of words and spare writing style. It is Hemingway's enduring magic. Rating: 
Date: 2008-05-28
The First from a Brilliant Writer
A young Ernest Hemingway writes his first novel. Full of the joy and sadness of youth, no one is better than Hemingway in evoking the sensual pleasures of the world. Lovely prose, wonderful energy... Hemingway in the first flush of his true talent. Not to be missed.
Donald Gallinger is the author of The Master Planets Rating:
Date: 2008-05-22
Review from a Lit Scholar
I think Hemingway attacked the theme of insecurity because, he was also dealing with his own issues.
Hemingway had a history of alcoholism and this novel serves as release for the author. The speaker, Jake, takes an adventure and in turn experiences a self-discovery. The fiestas, society, and friends meant everything for Jake at the novel's opening. However through a difficult journey dealing with lost love and false friends, Jake manages to realize several truths in his life: his drinking will lose him friends and those he calls friends are not true in their loyalty.
Montoya, the hotel owner that shared Jake's passion for bullfighting, no longer wished to associate with Jake after the fiesta. Due to all the rabble-rousing, partying, drinking, and the friends Jake brought, Montoya no longer could bear to be associated with Jake. Hemingway, too, lost friends as a result of his hurtful drinking habits.
Despite his losses, Jake realizes that his love for Brett is merely and allusion. The novel ends:
"'Oh, Jake,' Brett said, 'we could have had such a damned good time together.'... 'Yes,' I said. 'Isn't it pretty to think so?'"
Jake has come to terms with the fact that he is to be a loner, that he needs to be alone.
The Sun Also Rises is considered not only one of Ernest Hemingway's best books, but also one of the greatest classics of modern literature. I believe that the book is so powerful to read because the author underwent a catharsis in writing the novel. In writing the novel, Hemingway attacks his alcoholism and takes the first steps towards dealing with it. It is from that natural process that the reader is able to feel the emotions in the book. The language is curt yet true. The book is great. Rating: 
Date: 2008-05-21
Expats Party From Paris to Pamplona
I have actually heard more than one person say that "The Sun Also Rises" is their favorite book. I have no idea why they would say that. Maybe I just didn't "get it."
The novel revolves around five English-speaking expatriates who spend their time drinking and carousing their way from Paris to a festival in Pamplona. The four men in the group are all in love with the one woman to some extent. And the woman has affection of some type for each of the men.
There is some humorous drunken dialogue from time to time. There are some good descriptions of bullfighting and trout fishing . Beyond that, there is not much to recommend "The Sun Also Rises."
There is very little story to be told. The book reads like the travel journal of a lovesick person that has been translated from another language into English. Perhaps it just hasn't aged as well as some of Hemingway's other work. "The Sun Also Rises" was lost on me.
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