This may be my favorite book of all time. At any rate, it's definitely on the top ten list and by far my favorite Hemingway (and I do love some Hemingway). The first time I read this, I loved Lady Brett Ashley. Is she a bitch? Sure, but I don't think she ever intentionally sets out to hurt anyone. And it might be argued that she has reason to be one: her first true love dies in the war from dysentery (not exactly the most noble of deaths) and she's physically threatened by Lord Ashley, forced to sleep on the floor beside him and his loaded gun (and let's clarify that,no, that's not a euphemism, just in case you're a perv). Then we have the one man who might make her happy, Jake Barnes. Poor, poor Jake, who doesn't have a gun, let alone a loaded one (yup, that's a euphemism--snicker away). I think Brett is one of the most tragic figures in American literature. Disillusioned by the war and how it irrevocably changed her life, she tries to fill the void with alcohol and sex--and destroys herself in the process.

However, upon rereading the novel, I realized how eclipsed Jake had been by Brett during my first reading. I also realized how I had misinterpreted him during my first reading. I thought Jake was as lost as the rest of the "Lost Generation," but I now believe that he is the only one who is not lost (with the exception of Bill Gorton, whose line "The road to hell paved with unbought stuffed dogs" may be my favorite in the book). If there's anyone with reason to give up on life, it's Jake. Does he pine for Brett? Yes. Does he come to hate Cohn for his affair with Brett? Affirmative. Does he get over Brett and realize that, even if properly equipped for a sexual relationship, a relationship with her would end as tragically as all of her other conquests? Abso-damn-lutely. After all, Brett is Circe, according to Cohn, and anyone lured into her bed will lose their manhood. The success of the relationship between Brett and Jake hinges on the fact that Jake literally has nothing to lose in this respect.

Cross posted at This Insignificant Cinder

کتاب خورشید هم چنان می دمد با وجود شاد نوشی ها و مستی ها ی فراوان ، جشن ، کارناوال ، رقص ، شور ،عشق وخوشگذرانی پیامی متفاوت از خوشبختی ، لذت و شادی دارد ، همینگوی در این کتاب دستان پرقدرت گذشته ای را ترسیم کرده که هیچ گاه در بند زمان نمانده ، همواره در تمام دقایق حضور داشته و فراموش شدنی نیست ، همانند آثار دیگر همینگوی جنگ نقش مهمی دررمان داشته و حال و آینده افراد را تعیین می کند .
راوی داستان جیک بارنز خود حکایت عجیبی ایست ، زخمی که او در جنگ اول برداشته ( عقیم شدن و ناتوانی جنسی ) هم جسم او را رنجور ساخته و هم روحش را سخت مجروح کرده ، او خود را در کار زیاد ، خوردن و نوشیدن غرق کرده ، اما قلم جادویی همینگوی ظاهر بارنز را برای خواننده رو کرده ، به قول نویسنده روز آدم می تواند قیافه بگیرد ولی شب چیز دیگری ایست ، کار بارنز بیچاره شب ها گریه کردن است اما روزها بر خود مسلط شده و لذتی را که نمی تواند از کام زنان بگیرد با خوردن و آشامیدن تلاش در جبران آن دارد تا شاید رنج هستی را این گونه فراموش کند .
شرح زندگی بارنز در پاریس را شاید بتوان مانند مقدمه ای بر داستان و سفر نه چندان عرفانی شخصیتهای آن دانست ، اگرچه که به لطف قلم توانای همینگوی ، خواننده با جادو و جذابیت پاریس و زندگی پر هیجان شبانه آن آشنا می شود ، زندگی در پاریس با وجود آنکه شاد و پرزرق و برق به نظر می رسد اما از درون خالی ایست ، پاریس هم همانند مردان کتاب مصیبت دیده است و جنگ زده .
اساس داستان را باید در سفر به اسپانیا دانست ، هنگامی که اندک اندک جمع مستان رسیده و از پاریس مدرن رهسپار اسپانیا قدیمی و سنتی هستند ، اسپانیا که در جنگ شرکت نداشته ، شور و شوق و گرما در مردمان و طبیعت آن کاملا حس می شود . بدون شک همینگوی استاد توصیف است ، او چنان تصویر جادویی از طبیعت اسپانیا نشان داده که خواننده را هم همراه کاراکتر های همواره مست کتاب ، مست و مخمور اسپانیا می کند . اگر چه که اسپانیا زیباست و برت ، تنها زن همراه مردان هم دلربا ست و بساط عشق هم گسترده ، اما نه عشق واقعی شکل گرفته و نه شور و حالی پدید می آید
پامپلونا و فستیوال گاوبازی سن فرمین  جایی ایست که تمامی افراد داستان به پوچی خود ، تلخی زندگی و تلاش ناکام خود برای فراموش کردن گذشته پی می برند ، خماری مستی که زندگی واقعی را پوشانده بود اگر چه برای لحظه ای کوتاه پریده اما دوباره و این بار قویتر باز می گردد ، آنچه آنان در جنگ کشیده اند ، پوچی ، تنهایی ، گویا درمانی ندارد جزمستی .
خواندن کتاب خورشید همچنان می دمد دید و نگاه متفاوتی از جنگ و فروپاشی روحی پس از آن را نشان می دهد ، در این کتاب نویسنده کاری با شهرهای ویران ، مردان مجروح و معلول ندارد ، او روح متلاشی شده پس از جنگ را دیده و تجسم کرده است ، چه شهر و چه انسان ها در داستان همینگوی خالی ، پوشالی ، پوچ و تهی هستند ، زیبایی و حقیقت را می توان در اسپانیا محبوب همینگوی و البته گریختن به طبعیت بکر آن یافت ، اگر چه که در همین اسپانیا ست که افراد پی به پوچی خود می برند .
در پایان می توان گفت آنچه همینگوی در این کتاب نشان داده نمایش شور بختی انسان و تلاش برای رهایی از آن است ، تلاشی که نه تنها شکست خورده بلکه افراد داستان را هم بیشترخرد و ویران کرده و سرانجام در چاه شوربختی زندگی فرو برده است .

Yes, impeccable and precise prose. Yes, a superstar writer. Yes, I hadn't read it before, but that's totally okay.

Somehow, I couple this quaint piece--most of the characters are blah because they belong to that blah generation, I mean, what to do if not fight in war?--with the monstrously intolerable novel by Malcolm Lowry, "Under the Volcano." But thank god this one has the European charm that is all but ridiculed in Lowry's take on some similarly lost days in Mexico. Here are some lost days in Paris, then some in Spain in Pamplona; I rather favor travelogues and valentine-to-(insert place other than home here) books, but the aimlessness, while pretty and underscored symbolically to feelings of hopelessness and totally melancholic disconnects, is rather-- um...uneventful? It is interesting, yes. It's Hemingway for fuckssakes! But I can't help but grin at modern writers who have bested him time and again. "Old Man and the Sea" is, for me, his masterpiece. This, well... just like a Picasso is a Picasso (even the sketches that go for thousands of dollars along the Florida East Coast), a Hemingway is no doubt a Hemingway.

راوی داستان جیکوب بارنز از زندگی خودش و دوستانش ابتدا در پاریس و سپس در سفری به اسپانیا صحبت می‌کنه، زندگی‌ای که پر از مشروب و رابطه و خوشگذرانی‌ست برای فرار از تلخی زندگی پس از جنگ. حرف پنهان در لابه‌لای کتاب خوبه اما چارچوب داستانی کتاب جذاب نیست و البته من از طرفداران همینگوی نیستم. در واقع میشه گفت به جای رمان با یک شبه سفرنامه‌ی کنایی طرف هستیم که بسیاری از اوقات ملال‌آور میشه اما از ارزش اخلاقی کتاب نمیشه چشم پوشید. سخنان مترجم (احمد کسایی‌پور) بسیار روشنگر و کمک کننده در درک بهتر کتاب بود و به نظرم این نکته‌ی مثبتی برای یک کتاب نیست، کتابی که برای فهم حرفش نیاز به توضیح بقیه داره. ه

During the warm, friendly, tender hours of the evening twilight, as the day’s burdens slowly drifted away, my attention was redirected towards F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Life in Letters. As an alleged friend and supporter of Ernest Hemingway, Fitzgerald suggested a number of revisions to The Sun Also Rises.

“Anyhow I think parts of Sun Also are careless + ineffectual.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald

My curiosity was piqued. Would the impressionable Hemingway accept these review points or reject them?

I had to find out! Investigation hats on!

The Sun Also Rises is set shortly after World War I where a group of riotous expats (Robert Cohn, Jake Barnes, Lady Brett Ashley, Bill Gorton, Mike Campbell) find themselves living in Paris with imbibing being the order of the day. After some time, the group decides to gallivant to Spain to experience the bull-fighting season and other largely forgettable activities. However, as so often happens when excess alcohol is involved, many of the characters behave badly.

While Hemingway struggles to balance dialogue with descriptive prose, The Sun Also Rises hits many of the right notes.

There are some gorgeous lines:

“I like him. But he’s just so awful.”

“Cohn had a wonderful quality of bringing out the worst in anybody.”

“It was like certain dinners I remember from the war. There was much wine, an ignored tension, and a feeling of things coming that you could not prevent from happening.”

Interestingly, some of the characters in The Sun Also Rises are based off real-life people. Lady Brett Ashley was inspired by Duff Twysden, and Hemingway struck up a friendship with hotelier, Juanito Quintana who shared his knowledge of bull fighting and ran the now-defunct Hotel Quintana. He is the inspiration behind Montoya and the Montoya Hotel.

The Prince of Wales was mentioned in relation to a medal-awarding ceremony. Now, earlier this month, I was reading out of The Great Gatsby manuscript, and there is a certain section that did not make it into the published book—a passage about a rumor that the Prince of Wales was using dope. Who was the Prince of Wales at this point in history you ask? Edward VIII, the gentleman who ended up abdicating to marry an American divorcee.

Despite the uneven pacing, the symbolism in the last half of the book was worth the endurance. Tip: You may want to look up the difference between a bull and a steer.

Some sections were slow—the fishing scene was particularly boring and seemed only to exist to make the point that someone had the bigger fish. Tee hee.

What did the great F. Scott Fitzgerald really think of The Sun Also Rises?

This two-faced friend of Hemingway wrote to Maxwell Perkins, the editor for both Fitzgerald and Hemingway at Scribner:

“I liked it but with certain qualifications. The fiesta, the fishing trip, the minor characters were fine. The lady I didn’t like, perhaps because I don’t like the original. In the mutilated man I thought Ernest bit off more than can yet be chewn between the covers of a book, then lost his nerve a little and edited the more vitalizing details out. He has since told me that something like this happened.”

Hemingway had had enough of Fitzgerald’s “help.” When Fitzgerald tried to send another set of review notes for Hemingway’s next novel, A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway wrote on the letter, “Kiss my ***” and largely ignored his advice.

The Green Light at the End of the Dock (How much I spent):
Hardcover Text - $82.32 at Abe Books for a First Edition Library copy
Audiobook - Free through Libby

2025 Reading Schedule
JantA Town Like Alice
FebtBirdsong
MartCaptain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Berniere
AprtWar and Peace
MaytThe Woman in White
JuntAtonement
JultThe Shadow of the Wind
AugtJude the Obscure
SeptUlysses
OcttVanity Fair
NovtA Fine Balance
DectGerminal

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Jake's final condition frequently escapes the contemporary reader, who lacks the historical context for reading the novel. If one misses the ironic and understated references, it may not seem like "such a hell of a sad story" as it did to Hemingway. Unless one understands the moral background of the period, one may find the Latin Quarter life nostalgically romantic and fail to see the reflection of America self-destructing in the twenties. The blithe reader may see Cohn as the cause of all the troubles. It was not Cohn; it was the times. It was Jake Barnes, impotent in more ways than one, caught in his times, his value system jerked from beneath his feet. He is, finally, the prewar man stripped of all defenses, bereft of values, seduced and abandoned by his times. If at Botin's he gets a bit drunk listening to Brett, perhaps we can forgive him, for both the reader and Jake realize that he is a most ineffectual man in a most unpromising place.

These concluding lines from essay "The Sun in Its Time: Recovering the Historical Context" by MICHAEL S. REYNOLDS has prompted me to read the work again. This is a good essay indeed and explains much of the background of this work, which, according to the author is not a tribute to the "Lost Generation". I found his interpretations and opinions interesting.

Will be reading this again hence.

Drunken, rich, idiotic expatriots dissatisfied with their lot in life and severely depressed by WW1 travel around Europe after the war and are miserable to the point where I want to scream. URGH.

I seriously adored Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea and therefore happily agreed to read more of his. I am also not only aware of when this book was written and what it is about, but also of what the author is said to have tried to accomplish. BUT IT JUST DOESN'T WORK FOR ME. This was SO bad, I barely have words for it.

No, I don't much care for the fact that Jacob got his testicles shot off and is therefore the embodiment of an impotent or lost generation. That is no reason to make ME miserable as well. *lol*

The title definitely had a hopeful undertone to it (in my opinion), which I liked once I knew roughly what the book would be about, but while reading the book I discovered that to me, every single character here was irresponsible, miserable, insufferable, egocentric, whiney, stupid, usually drunk, ignorant, depressed and many other things but there was NOTHING that made me feel sympathy. Nothing whatsoever. No redeeming qualities either.

And don't get me started on the anti-semitism and homophobia!

I seethed while reading this book and seriously asked myself why Hemingway would choose to portray the characters like this. Because I know that he himself had been an expatriot and dissatisfied. So was this a form of self-loathing? Was he just a depressed, old man, hateful about everything and towards everyone in the world?

Anyway, definitely not a book I want to remember and I'm glad it's over, no matter how much it is praised throughout literary society.

I pored toga što mi je u nekim trenucima bila dosadna, knjiga mi se poprilično dopala.

Radnja romana prvih stotinak i više stranica izgleda otprilike ovako (dok ne pročitate nastavak pa shvatite o čemu je zapravo reč): Izadjemo iz hotela, odemo na zabavu, popijemo piće, odemo na večeru pa i tu popijemo još poneko. Vratimo se u hotel, popijemo piće. Onda odemo u Španiju, budemo u hotelu, večeramo i popijemo ... pa u krug.

Sa druge strane, razumljivo zbog čega je to tako.
Roman je o grupi ljudi koji su deo tzv. Izgubljene generacije, onih koje je Prvi svetski rat fizički i emotivno uništio i sada imaju problema da se vrate u normalu i da žive život kakav bi trebali da žive.
Bret, Džejk i ostali likovi u ovom romanu putuju Evropom pokušavajući da se povežu sa ljudima, provode puno vremena na zabavama, ispijajući alkohol i uveravajući sebe da se dobro zabavljaju, ali na kraju uvek završavaju sami i razočarani.

Početak osrednji, ali su zato poslednje stranice u mom srcu ostavile dubok trag.

I’m sitting here in my balcony right around sunset with a bowl of peanuts in front of me and a mug of iced tea in my hand and I’m suddenly thinking to myself I could be in Spain right now. But oddly, it doesn’t seem to appeal to me at all. I’m somewhat annoyed by the possibility of another busy week looming just ahead of me. Wait, scratch that, not possibility but certainty. I’m grossly evading any academic assignment I might have had and am feeling more potent knowing that I’m above it all. Really, the amount of paperwork I have is insanely comical. I’m really considering dropping out of the university out of indolence. I could really use a breather right now. But gallivanting in Spain with a bunch of alcoholic ex-pats? I dunno. There might have been a time when that would have sounded sexy and chic, but those times have passed. Really, I was more interested in the art of bullfighting than the misadventures of Jake and the gang. I had no idea why I wasn’t as keen as I normally was in reading this Hemingway. Is it Hemingway’s prose? God, no. Is it me? Is it the generational gap that led to my indifference? Maybe. Is it all the absinthe? I can’t say, I haven’t been alcohol’s best friend as of late, but it doesn’t seem enough to actually estrange me from literature. Hmmm... What’s my problem then? Till now, I’m actually not sure. It might be the seeming pointlessness of the book, just a drunken adventure after another with no closure at all. But that’s arguable. I get the whole lost generation thing, but I can’t say that it strikes me as particularly redemptive to them. I know that Hemingway wrote this book to contradict Gertrude Stein, to sort of imply that the lost generation wasn’t really lost at all. He put the passage from Ecclesiastes quoting that “one generation passeth away, and another generation cometh… but the earth abideth forever” and “the sun also rises” to signify that no generation was really lost but that they tread on and live despite all the misfortunes and war put in their way. But coping with life through alcohol and endless vacation seems a bit too escapist for me. I don’t want to get preachy, but even I know that’s the life homeless welfare people lead. Well, if you’re looking for escapism, then voilà! Here you go. But, really it’s not the type of book that sends a good message, or even gives you a snippet of wisdom. Maybe, dear old Ernest wrote it thinking here’s how not to cope with a scarred-life, but I very much doubt that. Then again, it might be the only way a man can live without his penis, or a woman can live without her sense of fidelity. Sure, these are broken people scarred by war, rejection, and some just out of plain foolishness, but I hardly think that living such unkempt lives is a result of their lack of childhood. Maybe it is. Maybe, they contained their playfulness all those times of war and now that they’re adults, they’ve channeled it into their lives somehow. But this is all speculation; Ernie didn’t develop his characters beyond their usual desire for an aperitif and a good fuck. Who cares about the psychological well-being of a bunch of alcoholics anyway? Clearly not the author, so why should I care too? Maybe I’m overthinking this stuff. Maybe this was written basically to entertain, and I wasn’t entertained much. I guess that’s what it all boils down to. The fiesta was really something though. I would still have read it just for that. If you want to read this book, good. Don’t let me deter you. If you’ve read this and loved it, great. But, if I changed your opinion in anyway, then let me offer you this excerpt.

“While we were waiting I saw a cockroach on the parquet floor that must have been at least three inches long. I pointed him out to Bill and then put my shoe on him. We agreed that it must have just come from the garden. It was really an awfully clean hotel.”

That really made me laugh. The free flow of this book, I guess, is what gives it appeal. But the fact that it can have a cockroach type of conversation shows you the general aimlessness of it. With no resolve whatsoever, I’m treating this book as a cockroach from the garden. Hemingway was fairly young when he wrote this, and I know it’s gained popularity because of the lost generation and the total abandonment of responsibility in their adventures thus making it a perfect escapist book, but I simply feel that this is inferior to my previous Hemingways: A Farewell to Arms and The Old Man and the Sea. Still, a sub-par from Hemingway is preferable to the average piece of junk you see in the best-seller shelves these days. Alas, he did better.

The sun also rises when you have a particularly bad hangover and it glares at you till you go blind. Well, at least you had some semblance of fun drinking the night before, or so you think.

I love how Hemingway writes, he was so great at saying a lot while keeping his prose clean and sparse. I found the co-dependent relationship between Brett and Jake fascinating. That Spanish bullfighting though, oof. It was pretty hard to read at times.

داستان زندگی پر زرق و برق و خوش گذرانی های عده ای روزنامه نگار و نویسنده در پاریس بعد از جنگ جهانی اول
سعی من برای لذت بردن از این کتاب بار ها بی نتیجه موند، هرچند که توصیفات پاریس و اسپانیای بعد از جنگ و شرایط زندگی خاص و دقیق بود و باعث شد کتاب رو ادامه بدم، ولی من به دنبال داستان مستحکمی بودم که وجود نداشت.
عمق کتاب زخم خوردگی های روحی بعد از جنگ و پوچی زندگی "نسل گمشده " ی بعد از جنگ بود

the sun also rises and so does Brett’s body count