The Sun Also Rises - A Mixed Review. I have mixed feelings…
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The Sun Also Rises - A Mixed Review.
I have mixed feelings about this book. I went into it having recently finished *A Farewell to Arms*, a novel I think is as close to a perfection of Hemingway’s style as a long-form piece of writing is ever likely to be. With *The Sun Also Rises,* I always felt it was on the cusp of being something truly great. I was constantly waiting for the scene or sentence that would push it over the edge, but unfortunately it never arrived. I was left feeling hollow and with a sense that the entire endeavour had been rather pointless. I suppose in this it has achieved its aims.
In *A Farewell to Arms,* the spectre of the war creates a constant pressure on the characters and its presence creates the urgency and eventual fatalism within the love story. Something I appreciate about the novel is how centred Hemingway manages to keep the war without ever revealing detail or descending into a voyeuristic viewing of the conflict. The war is kept as an ever-looming threat. It’s this presence that means little context is needed to understand the setting, the characters, or the generation that followed the conclusion of the war.
*The Sun Also Rises* relies more heavily on contextual knowledge of the war and its lingering effects on both the civilian and ex-service populations at the time. The war is not the same centralising force. This lack of a unifying force heightens the feeling of pointlessness and emptiness throughout the novel and after finishing it. Hemingway clearly meant to create this effect; I could have missed more of the subtle allusions to the war, likely as a result of reading this directly after *A Farewell to Arms*, in which the war is jumping out at you on every page.
Overall, I’m struggling to articulate exactly what I want to say on this point, but it is certainly the reason for placing this below some of the other works of Hemingway. I am interested in coming back to the novel in a few years to see if I can more easily follow the central theme.
I believe this was Hemingway’s first published novel; it certainly did not feel he was already a master of his style. In *A Farewell to Arms*, he feels incredibly precise, restrained and oftentimes hypnotic through repetition. If you haven’t already, read just the first paragraph of that book. It captures exactly the upper bounds of where he can reach as a writer. He uses repetition of nouns and phrases to create a rhythm or cadence in his writing that I found was able to emotionally reach me in a surprising way.
*The Sun Also Rises* presents a far looser version of Hemingway’s style. The snappy dialogue can be quite jarring and occasionally difficult to follow. I suppose it represents real social situations with a less strict style of communication. I found, however, it never really resonated with me the same way as his rhythmic prose does. Ultimately, I found I didn’t care about the characters’ interactions, and I didn’t have the same compassion for them as I did those in *A Farewell to Arms*.
If you asked me which prose style I was likely to prefer prior to reading I would almost certainly have said the looser, more conversational variation. This is what I found so confounding. Perhaps I struggled with the dialogue. Now being over a hundred years removed from the publication, it’s possible the awkward- sounding speech didn’t resonate as well as it should have.
The highlights of the novel were by far the drinking culture and the bullfighting traditions. I lived abroad through my 20s and relate immensely to the vapid nature surrounding alcohol. The faux camaraderie and countless ‘meaningful’ nights that are now forgotten were excellently captured here. Alcohol, taken to such an extreme, can push people who would otherwise hate each other into existing side by side for as long as the drinking continues. Hemingway perfectly captures the disgust you can feel towards the people around you, even when they serve as a reflection of yourself. Despite everything just mentioned, it made me want to break sobriety more than anything has in the past year. I can’t think of another author who has captured my relationship to alcohol as well as Hemingway manages here.
The descriptions of bullfighting and its traditions were also excellent. There is an interview online now in which Orson Welles mentions hearing bullfighting described as both ‘indefensible and irresistible’. I have been to Spain many times and have never once even considered attending a fight. The novel somehow managed to unlock a primal desire to witness a fight in person, despite knowing how depraved the act is. I watched several fights online and the brutality wrapped in pageantry and ceremony illustrates perfectly a lot of what the novel was trying to say.
This was certainly still an excellent novel, and something I am interested in re-reading at some point. It just didn’t reach the heights I perhaps had unfairly placed on it prior to reading.
If anyone bothered reading this far, I'd love to hear your thoughts. I am especially keen for any more recommendations on post-World War I literature.
#entertainment
source
I have mixed feelings about this book. I went into it having recently finished *A Farewell to Arms*, a novel I think is as close to a perfection of Hemingway’s style as a long-form piece of writing is ever likely to be. With *The Sun Also Rises,* I always felt it was on the cusp of being something truly great. I was constantly waiting for the scene or sentence that would push it over the edge, but unfortunately it never arrived. I was left feeling hollow and with a sense that the entire endeavour had been rather pointless. I suppose in this it has achieved its aims.
In *A Farewell to Arms,* the spectre of the war creates a constant pressure on the characters and its presence creates the urgency and eventual fatalism within the love story. Something I appreciate about the novel is how centred Hemingway manages to keep the war without ever revealing detail or descending into a voyeuristic viewing of the conflict. The war is kept as an ever-looming threat. It’s this presence that means little context is needed to understand the setting, the characters, or the generation that followed the conclusion of the war.
*The Sun Also Rises* relies more heavily on contextual knowledge of the war and its lingering effects on both the civilian and ex-service populations at the time. The war is not the same centralising force. This lack of a unifying force heightens the feeling of pointlessness and emptiness throughout the novel and after finishing it. Hemingway clearly meant to create this effect; I could have missed more of the subtle allusions to the war, likely as a result of reading this directly after *A Farewell to Arms*, in which the war is jumping out at you on every page.
Overall, I’m struggling to articulate exactly what I want to say on this point, but it is certainly the reason for placing this below some of the other works of Hemingway. I am interested in coming back to the novel in a few years to see if I can more easily follow the central theme.
I believe this was Hemingway’s first published novel; it certainly did not feel he was already a master of his style. In *A Farewell to Arms*, he feels incredibly precise, restrained and oftentimes hypnotic through repetition. If you haven’t already, read just the first paragraph of that book. It captures exactly the upper bounds of where he can reach as a writer. He uses repetition of nouns and phrases to create a rhythm or cadence in his writing that I found was able to emotionally reach me in a surprising way.
*The Sun Also Rises* presents a far looser version of Hemingway’s style. The snappy dialogue can be quite jarring and occasionally difficult to follow. I suppose it represents real social situations with a less strict style of communication. I found, however, it never really resonated with me the same way as his rhythmic prose does. Ultimately, I found I didn’t care about the characters’ interactions, and I didn’t have the same compassion for them as I did those in *A Farewell to Arms*.
If you asked me which prose style I was likely to prefer prior to reading I would almost certainly have said the looser, more conversational variation. This is what I found so confounding. Perhaps I struggled with the dialogue. Now being over a hundred years removed from the publication, it’s possible the awkward- sounding speech didn’t resonate as well as it should have.
The highlights of the novel were by far the drinking culture and the bullfighting traditions. I lived abroad through my 20s and relate immensely to the vapid nature surrounding alcohol. The faux camaraderie and countless ‘meaningful’ nights that are now forgotten were excellently captured here. Alcohol, taken to such an extreme, can push people who would otherwise hate each other into existing side by side for as long as the drinking continues. Hemingway perfectly captures the disgust you can feel towards the people around you, even when they serve as a reflection of yourself. Despite everything just mentioned, it made me want to break sobriety more than anything has in the past year. I can’t think of another author who has captured my relationship to alcohol as well as Hemingway manages here.
The descriptions of bullfighting and its traditions were also excellent. There is an interview online now in which Orson Welles mentions hearing bullfighting described as both ‘indefensible and irresistible’. I have been to Spain many times and have never once even considered attending a fight. The novel somehow managed to unlock a primal desire to witness a fight in person, despite knowing how depraved the act is. I watched several fights online and the brutality wrapped in pageantry and ceremony illustrates perfectly a lot of what the novel was trying to say.
This was certainly still an excellent novel, and something I am interested in re-reading at some point. It just didn’t reach the heights I perhaps had unfairly placed on it prior to reading.
If anyone bothered reading this far, I'd love to hear your thoughts. I am especially keen for any more recommendations on post-World War I literature.
#entertainment
source
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