The story is told from the perspective of Jake Barnes, an expatriate journalist from Kansas City, who does news-grams from an American station in Paris. He most closely resembles Hemingway’s own voice insomuch that he likes booze, broads, fights, bulls, and all things macho. The book's first part is comprised of Jake’s observation of his circle of friends. Jake kind of likes Brett Ashley, the verbose, effervescent, sharp-tongued English “dame” whose rapport with Jake makes for some of the liveliest parts of the novel. Jake can’t stand Mike, Brett’s melodramatic boyfriend. He pretends to like Robert Cohn, a Jewish novelist, but actually despises him because of his heritage. Closing the circle is Jake's friend Bill, a more verbose, more genial, and at times more vulgar version of the narrator.
In addition there are other spicy character dynamics relected in the conflicts and interrelationships between secondary characters. And Jake observes it all, sometimes reacting, sometimes giving out advice, sometimes intervening into their lives and discussions, sometimes doing anything but.
And how well Hemingway writes in those observations! The Hemingway sentence, the particular cultural trademark that established him in the world’s consciousness for so long, is here and it is as advertised. The beauty of Hemingway’s sentences didn’t come in any biblical/Shakespearean prose rhythms (Faulkner) or obsession for perfect lyrical beauty( Fitzgerald, although Hemingway was just as obsessed about writing, maybe more so). No, the poetry in Hemingway’s prose lies in it’s succinctness, it’s clarity, it’s austerity, it’s lack of excess or pretense — and the way he could describe a character, a scene or a setting also contributes to his greatness.
Whether the scenes takes place in Paris cafés, or the beautiful landscapes of Spain, or the bullfight arena at the exact tension-filled moment where the matador and the bull begin combat, one marvels on how he can say so much in such a small space, and do it in such a unique and beautifully American manner. His language in itself makes him indispensable, and its beauty is in abundance here.
When one comes to the question of what that beautiful language is saying, however, tough questions must be asked and brutally honest assertions made. It needs to be said that Jake, and subsequently Hemingway’s vision of Cohn and Jews is utterly rancid. I am no fan of political correctness, but to overlook the slurs and outbursts is an even more insidious form of it. Granted, we're not talking about controversial poet Amiri Baraka here, as Barnes/Hemingway feigns some feeling from him. But comparing Hemingway’s anti-Semitism and Baraka’s is like comparing a toxic waste barrel to a toxic waste dump. Yes, the dump is obviously larger, but one can also do without the barrel.
Article comments
1 - Joey
Bravo. Thanks for a great Sunday morning review!
2 - Howard Dratch
"... it is a shame that we don't read him now..."
Hemingway is the ultimate 20th-century American artist/monster, one of the most schizophrenic of our literary masters. His biases shackle a great deal of his work to his time, but they are part of a total package intractable from the man himself. Every novel that he wrote had holes...Impossible! Are you saying that Hemingway is out of favor and forgotten? I am getting old and like Hemingway in Cuba, I am living in Mexico, beginning to catch up 21st c. culture through the 'net.
If he is not now read; then, as you sort of wrote, "American literature has lost something since he hasn't mattered any more." Absolutely!
You did a great article but took on all of Hemingway and most of the 20th century in tackling either The Sun Also Rises let alone the entire oevre of an American icon. Perhaps he was even heard of past the Bush wall and over the puddle.
I have to stick to Jake and Lady Brett,to The Sun Also Rises to this one work of many that are sometimes spotty, yes, but are definitely an integral part of the American landscape of words and stories. More importantly, they were the characters of my youth and models from the clay-footed hero of the mid-century.
Jake and the Lady Brett were companions of my youth and, Charles Dickens or not, struck me as strong characters worthy of becoming part of my psyche. Jake faces his impotence - or not - and pushes on, a victim of the times and the history of the century. Did he or Ernest throw around their masculinity a bit (doth he?) protesting too much. But it is, at least, masculinity. And it is the stuff of pain and loss.
Oh, but I did and did not want to be Jake roaming Europe, strong and silent with only a trace of his feminine side showing. Or perhaps I just wanted to live in Paris and meet beautiful Ladies. It was, no matter, the stuff of dreams, that taxi ride with Lady Brett, a tear and "...At the end, when Brett and Jake, back at Gay Paree, ride off into the sunset just as unsure of their relationship as they were in the beginning of the book...".
To be sure, you mention some unsuccessful parts of the novel and, surprisingly, I don't remember them so I accept that they may have let me down to slide over them.
I don't even really remember the anti-Semitism but I was escaping the South where anti-Semitism was a part of daily life from friends, foes, teachers and everyone else so I found it easier to ignore -- then. I was also just escaping adolescence which also clouds my judgement. (Time to re-read yet another book I have read more than once).
We all have holes. Few (Dickens excepted usually) made works without some holes. Perfection is a heavy load to carry.
But you made the most frightening of statements when you wrote that
Because of his flaws, I will not say that it's a shame that we don't read him now, but American literature has lost something since he hasn't mattered any more .
Perfect or not, hyper-masculine or humanly flawed; it will be a sadder America if Hemingway is not kept in the pantheon of patron (unsaintly) writers.
3 - Jesper Docter
I loved this article. I totally agree with Lashley, when he basically says that "The Sun Also Rises" is as good as it is bad. After I had read the book I was a bit disappointed by the plot and often I had to struggle to get to the next page. It was the first book by Hemingway I had ever read and that's not something you want to do if you want to stay enthousiastic about good old Ernest.
4 - Scott
Have you read this book lately? Jake "kind of" likes Brett? Jake "can't stand" Mike? Wow. As for the "crippling flaw" of anti-semitism, you need to open your mind and read the book in the context of its times. Also, the book isn't a structural mess, any more than life is, which is probably the point.
5 - bliffle
"Sun also Rises" was the first Hemingway I read in 1955 and though I groaned at the sorta corny plot, I loved the descriptions of the country and the air and the ambience. To this day, being in Spain or France reminds me of the sense of air and light that I got from Hemingway, and for that I am grateful, because it is always pleasing and thrilling.
6 - zingzing
i dunno about hemingway not being read anymore... am i missing something? maybe i misread? maybe it's a personal prejudice, but out of all the authors of his day... faulkner, joyce, steinbeck, fitzgerald are maybe more widely read (for a book or two). maybe. i'd say he's still one of the most popular mid-century american authors. i dunno.
that said, this was a very good review. i haven't read the book in some years, but it made me want to go back and check it out with a few more years of "manhood" behind me.
7 - kejti
please can anybody tell me what does the other mean with the title "the sun also rises?".I've read half of the book and to tell the truth I haven't mada any conclusion
8 - ACE
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ARTICLE! I HOPE IT WILL HELP ME WITH MY TERM PAPAER..
9 - slotz
Dude, the possessive form of "it" is "its" not "it's". FAIL.