“I can't stand it to think my life is going so fast and I'm not really living it.”

It’s pretty to think Rae and I could sit around and read books and write posts. Clearly, it’s not our reality. We have been reading, I assure you. The Paris Wife, which I really enjoyed, unveiled my next read: The Sun Also Rises. That’s right, I’ve never read Hemingway’s first novel that repeatedly makes multiple lists of the 100 Best Novels. I let William Hurt introduce me to Jake Barnes, Robert Cohn, and Lady Brett Ashley. It felt like high time to see what all the fuss was about. 

The fuss is about real life, overlaid with a façade of fiction. The Sun Also Rises is autobiographical—it’s about Hemingway and other writers who were part of the Lost Generation. In the wake of World War I, a group of disillusioned ex-patriates search for meaning abroad. They drink and travel and even run with the bulls in Spain. Fast living may have been an attempt to outrun the haunting effects of war. Jake and Brett’s relationship is easily the most interesting; a war injury prevents them from being together, which may ultimately suggest that love is no different than the other ideals obliterated by war. This book has me pondering—maybe it’s pretty to think that really living life comes naturally? 

Posted by Tracy