The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway, is a required reading for my Contemporary Literature class. Why this book is so extraordinary is beyond my comprehension.
Now keep in mind: My major is product design, not english, or literature, and I have never read anything written by Ernest Hemingway.
The book, as far as I've read, is about a group of young to middle aged people partying their lives away. It's about the characters masking the way they feel about the war that just ended, their insecurities, and the way that booze and dance really just makes them feel worse. And yet they continue on the same path.
The main character, Jake Barnes, is introduced through his introduction of Robert Cohn. Everything that Barnes feels about Cohn reveals his own personality. This is an interesting way of introducing a character but this is where my interest in the book ends. Barnes is still hung up on a girl, Brett Ashley. Her character seems to use all the men in the book in order to make herself feel important and, I believe, if nobody paid attention to her, she would undoubtably feel lost and without a purpose. I believe what Hemingway is describing is the "Lost Generation". A group of youths leftover from the war.
The book and all the dialogue seems too passive. It seems like there is no climactic point in the horizon and that everyone will go on pretending to be happy until the end of time. Another thing that really bothers me is the way Hemingway feels he must describe each and every turn that the characters make when traveling in Paris. Paragraphs upon paragraphs are spent in naming streets. Why? I've never lived in Paris and these names conjure up no images to go along with the plot.
I will keep you up to date as I continue reading and hopefully will change my mind about the book.
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