And Hemingway, in the form of Jake, is at his most noble. With the rich, Papa might have been an ugly, self-indulgent American, but in Spain, with it’s beautiful, expansive countryside and it’s peasants with their rituals of high culture and ceremony, he’s good-natured, a good listener and a good, decent and at times humane expatriate. Let me put it in modern terms: he respected and understood the strength of street knowledge.
Hemingway’s appreciation of Spain and the code of ethics of its people is highlighted when Brett falls for Pedro Romero, the biggest, baddest, and hottest bullfighter in all of Spain (the arc of their relationship leads to the end of the novel). Realizing that Romero is someone braver and more noble than he is, Barnes becomes a different being altogether, less a sardonic, disinterested friend, more a participant observer. He talks the bullfighter up to everyone who will listen, gives him advice, compares notes and stories with his manager and the bullfight experts, and explains to Brett the machinations of the bullfighting game while also giving her a play-by-play of what’s happening. He even doesn’t get that pissed off when Brett sleeps with Pedro!
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, my mind focused on two things. The first was Joan Didion’s compelling argument for Hemingway as a novelist. In Last Words , her review of his final posthumous novel, the deeply flawed True at First Light, Didion made the case that the sum of those novels can be seen in the accumulation of those breathtaking scenes and how “every word, every sentence mattered.” She’s right, every word and every sentence did matter to Hemingway. As a unified body of a work, however, they didn’t matter as much. A great novel, in my opinion, is like a symphony where every disparate element comes together as a whole. In The Sun Also Rises, there are some of the most beautiful notes in the history of the English language, but without a cohesive structure they languish on the page, in need of a conductor to bring them together.
The second thing I thought of was the character of Brett. Here I have a personal revelation to make: my mom, who’s a second-generation feminist, loves her, and loves Hemingway. Reading this I can see why. Like my mom, Brett is a witty, whip smart, all around tough “dame,” and one can sense that Barnes/Hemingway has a deep affection for her. But one should not look that longingly into the eyes of Brett Ashley either, for it is ludicrous to deny Hemingway had gender issues. His celebration of all things male, masculine and macho came at great expense to the women in his writing and his life. Although he strutted as the supreme cock of the walk while living, the subject of sexuality was something of an underlying terror for him until the day he died.
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.