The Sun Also Rises was my introduction into Hemingway. He had been built up as this great author so I knew I wanted some work of his. I read the first paragraph of the wiki while in a book store to decide if this was the Hemingway book I wanted to pick up. That wiki states that "Hemingway biographer Jeffrey Meyers writes that it is now 'recognized as Hemingway's greatest work.'" I purchased it for seven dollars.

The book is separated into three distinct parts and by the time I was halfway through part two I still had no grasp on what the plot was or where it was going. This isn't to say the book is confusing. Quite the opposite is the case actually. The book is relatively straightforward provided your good with remembering names. If you are expecting some grand narrative to rival the likes of The Odyssey, you will not find it here. Or at least I didn't.

I won't say much for the specifics, I want to leave that unspoiled for the reader, but I will say this: The context surrounding the book's existence is more important than the story in the book itself. Hemingway worked for the Red Cross ambulance corps during WWI. During this time he was in Italy where one fateful night an artillery piece went off mere meters away from where he was. Hemingway and other would be severely injured, one Italian would die. Hemingway would spend the next four months reaming of the war and past that in hospital recovering. He fell in love with a nurse but it would not end up working out. These events inspired his novel "A Farewell to Arms." This book is based on real life events from Hemingway's life post war. After WWI, like many of the soldiers across the globe, Hemingway was listless. Going from war and the excitement, the terror, the adrenaline, the sense of purpose, to civilian.

The Sun Also Rises captures this essence. There is a plot but it is not a very exciting one. It is a look into the daily life of a man, a man who socializes, drinks, is well traveled, fishes, and goes to see the running of the bulls. Despite how exciting this sounds it all feels so very mundane. It is a perfect look into life post WWI for some. In that regard it is phenomenal.

I can't lie. I never finished this book. I got to that aforementioned half way point and put it down. I read the Wikipedia plot synopsis and the "Themes and Analysis" section and left it at that. I understand the book. I appreciate what it is and why it is. But ultimately I read (fiction) to be teleported into a new world, to forget the mundanity of my own life. [Insert related rant about capitalism, capitalist isolation, and neoliberal monoculture here.] Frankly if I wanted to really feel how Hemingway may have wanted the reader to feel, to understand the listlessness he felt, I would just need to walk outside.

It is not for me, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't recommend it.