The Sun Also Rises - Hemmingway

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?