A Review: The Sun Also Rises

Title of Work: The Sun Also Rises
Author: Ernest Hemingway
Format:
Published: 1926
Started:
Finished: 2023-11-09\

Posted: Goodreads
Rating: 4/5

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It’s light but light happened to be exactly what I needed.

I can’t map out exactly why I think so yet but I kept thinking as I read that TSAR is like the classic novel equivalent of reality TV. Sure, maybe Hemingway is getting at something deeper here but, in practice, we get lots of brief, dramatized observations of the daily experiences and relationships between a small group of friends over a short period of time. Maybe more on this later.

They drink. They laugh. They fight. They pine after and sleep with each other. They drink some more. They travel around France and Spain. They go to parties. They eat lots. They drink, and drink, and drink. Contrary to other reviewers, this didn’t feel overly repetitive or unnecessary to me. I really quite enjoyed getting to know the quirks and idiosyncrasies of each character as they wore on each other over the course of their holiday.

TSAR is short enough and light enough to be great vacation or bedtime reading. Hemingway, polyglot that he was, works in more español, bit by bit as the fiesta wears on, as the inebriation and interpersonal tensions rise, and as the story winds down. It feels as though he’s coming around to the idea of Spain, of lingering there for a while after his friends leave, of trying on a Spanish life. But, as it goes, he is called away by his will-they-won’t-they lover and the Spanish dream disappears again over the horizon, following the setting summer sun.