Public reader discussion about The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway.
By deer_noisy7993
I’m not really great at breaking books down or seeing the “message” in them. I just finished *The Sun Also Rises* by Hemingway and I got what was happening, but I can’t really point to some big takeaway like I feel I can with authors like Steinbeck. I’d love to hear what you all think it’s about or what you pulled from it, because I want to understand Hemingway a bit better before I read more of his stuff.
By cosmosharbor41
A while back I saw a discussion thread get taken down because the OP asked what women thought about *The Old Man and the Sea*. Kinda a bummer, because the convo was finally getting into *The Sun Also Rises* too. That thread fizzled out quick, but now I’m honestly wondering what male vs female readers thought of *Sun Also*. When I’ve brought it up here before, the reactions weren’t super brutal. A lot of people seemed to feel for the characters, like there’s some real empathy there. I personally felt pretty bad for Robert especially—he gets it the worst, and then there’s that obvious antisemitism other characters throw at him. But I’m not sure where Lady Ashley fits into all that. I keep thinking she has a lot in common with those three guys who are all taken with her—kinda lost/aimless, but at the same time desperate for some kind of passion to shake them out of their rut. And they live this comfy expat life in Paris, bouncing around from place to place, trying to keep the mood going. They come off like they’re being romantically selfish, and they toss people aside, and then surprise, surprise, they get wrecked by other people who don’t want them anymore. Then they act like they can’t figure out why it ends like that. The “romantic selfish” thing honestly feels very on-brand for Hemingway too. Like he basically turned a vacation into a story where he was lusting after a married woman while his wife was there, and then he sort of edits his wife out of the book… which is just… oof. With Lady Ashley, you can kinda remove the war stuff and the anger problem you see in the men, she’s more carefree. Also she plays that “Helen of Troy” role where the men revolve around her. But other than that, I always felt like she’s still stuck in the same loop—this lonely aimlessness that never really resolves. And it ends the same way for everyone: sad, restless, and alone. I’ve noticed online people get pretty heated about her, though. Like they’re harsher than they are about some of the guys. Which makes me wonder if her being a woman has something to do with it, but I’m not sure. If you’ve read it, what do you think?
By TinyChapter
I kind of got the vibe that Jake is using Brett, at least in some way. He tries really hard to keep his impotence from messing with his head, but he still seems pretty stuck on a bunch of ugly feelings about his sexuality, and Brett just ends up being this outlet for it. Like, he can wallow a little without really losing anything, since Brett doesn’t seem like she’s built for monogamy anyway. I assumed the whole thing was happening on the subconscious level for him until the very last line. Then I was like… wait. Either I totally read it wrong, or Jake knows exactly what’s going on between them. And I don’t think the “Brett’s a b**ch” angle is really the main blocker for them having anything real (also not the best character explanation either). What do you all think?
By draft_ribbon
I’m pretty new here, but I’m usually on the film side. I checked out *Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises* mostly because Hemingway’s name was on it, and honestly I’m really let down so far. I slogged through the first 50 pages and ended up looking it up on Wikipedia just to make sure I wasn’t missing something, and that helped me a bit… but now I’m about 100 pages in and it’s starting to feel like a chore to keep going. I get that it’s supposed to be about Jake and his feelings for Brett, but it feels like Hemingway spends way too much time describing the towns and everything around them. At this point I don’t feel anything for the characters at all. I know it’s a famous, beloved book, but I also remember that when it first came out people didn’t like it, and I kinda get why they criticized it. I’m a big fan of classic novels and I really love Hemingway’s *Farewell to Arms*, so this one has been a letdown. I’m honestly thinking about returning it and grabbing something else. Does anyone want to explain what people see in this book? And if you don’t like it either, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
By notebookdeviate9725
Just finished this a couple weeks ago and I can’t stop turning it over in my head. It’s super short, and it definitely does that Hemingway thing where everything’s simple on the surface but the ideas are huge. I get the whole Lost Generation vibe—like he’s really asking what love even means, what happiness is, and what life is supposed to be for. But I’m still kind of thrown off by how there’s no real climax or big “payoff” at the end. Also, I really don’t like Brett. She comes off like a party girl who’s just moving from one guy to the next, and it’s hard for me to buy the “gold-digger” label, but she does go after the matador and then Jake too. And Jake isn’t exactly living the high-life—he’s just a newsman—so it doesn’t feel like she’s even leveling up much. By the end, I honestly felt empty, like something was missing. Maybe that’s the point, though? Like maybe I was supposed to feel as worn out as he did. I can’t really ask Hemingway what he was trying to make me feel, so I’m not sure. One thing I did like: the way Montoya basically brushes Jake off at the end by having the girl send the bill instead of doing any kind of goodbye. That felt subtle and effective. Same with Cohn being weirdly unsure about whether his first book success even counts as real success. Honestly, Cohn felt like the most real person in the whole book. The Count was interesting too—like he’s spending money on happiness and sharing it instead of just waiting around for it to show up—but he’s barely in the story long enough for it to really land. So yeah, I walked away kind of underwhelmed… but I also keep thinking about it, which I guess means it actually did something. Anyone else read it? Am I overthinking it or missing something obvious?
By StoneWrites2004
How much do I need to know about WWI before I start reading these two books? I’m only asking because I just finished For Whom the Bell Tolls, and I don’t think I would’ve liked it nearly as much if I hadn’t already known a decent amount about the Spanish Civil War.