I have had a bad case of writer’s block for the past month. I suppose a month isn’t the longest period of time to go without saying much, reading much, or putting ink to paper, but I blame Hemingway. I feel like I just don’t get it. I miss all the important parts, I think everyone in his stories talk funny, and it is just dull dull dull dull. A group of four white guys and a minx go to Pamplona. So what? Who cares. One of them is Jewish. Apparently this was a big deal when it was written, but today that just equates to three white guys. It took me well over a month to stomach this story.
The best part of this book was that it inspired The Rum Diary. You can tell that HST took a lot from Hemingway’s iconic terse language. There is nothing to be ashamed of because of that. It just isn’t my cup of tea. I will take the verbosity and detail of Fitzgerald over elusive, esoteric, and hidden secrets of Hemingway. Hemingway refers to this as the 7/8th iceberg method. Only 1/8 of what is really going on should be explicitly stated, everything else resides under the surface. Thats great if you want to leave all that up to the imagination of the reader, but to me, that is just laziness. Oh, I’m so great that the reader has to do all the work. Give me a break. Your job as a writer is for the reader to be ABLE to imagine what is going on. I felt like the whole story existed in a vacuum.
Part one is alright. The only memorable character is Brett. All the guys just blend together. Nothing distinguishes them besides the fact that one is rich, one is impotent, and one is Jewish. They all suck. They are mean and not worth sympathizing for. There is a lot of warming up that you must do to get on board with how the people talk in The Sun Also Rises. People just don’t talk that way. It is overtly romantic and stupid. Occasionally I enjoyed what was being said, but then I didn’t know who the hell was talking.
It is a perfect example of someone not prepared to write a novel writing one. I don’t think Hemingway is stupid, I just think that he wasn’t ready. It is a good FIRST novel, but not one you should read by any means. It is PRACTICE. Hopefully A Farewell to Arms will redeem him, but frankly, everything I’ve read by him is garbage. I constantly found myself wandering, unengaged and not caring about the story. There really isn’t much plot. There are things that happen around a seductress. Possible argument for a character arch but a very weak one. Half the book is them finding a place to drink and the other half is them drinking. Warning: major N Bombs halfway through.
It is really a bummer when a book bums you out about reading. I usually do book reviews on Youtube, but this one isn’t worth the trouble. It really took away a lot of joy. It makes you feel stupid for not getting it, and I’m positive that it was written drunk. It reads that way anyway. For as simple as his language is, the story is very hectic.
50/100
Ben Bonkoske 