There comes a time in life when you realize those books you read in high school need to be revisited. The Sun Also Rises is one of those books. Why? Because now you are older and have more life experience under your belt. This leads to a better and deeper understanding of a novel than you might of had in your youth.
The first time I read this novel I was just a teenager. Since then, I have experience so much more: including living as an expat myself as well as several visits to Paris. Reading this book the second time around as an adult with more life experience was so much different. So much better.
The Sun Also Rises - The Second Time Around
Truly, this novel truly felt like time travel. While reading, it is as if you are there with everyone.
I loved and hated this novel all at once. Even though you feel very much a part of the story, you are there with mostly unlikeable characters. I really disliked nearly all the characters in this novel with the exception of Jake and Bill (and even they were not entirely my favorite).
It is strange to read a book where you don’t like the characters very much but are still very much enjoying the story. These characters were unpleasant, annoying, and ultimately, sad. Jake I liked because he seemed genuinely to care about the others and I felt sorry for him with his injury and how it was affecting his life. Bill I liked because he seemed like a good-natured friend to Jake.
There was the wish that Jake would disentangle himself from Brett already. She seemed to always be using him and stringing him along. It drove me nuts. In fact, I felt everyone should just disentangle themselves from Brett. She was the center of all the issues with these characters like a hurricane just wrecking everyone. Yet all were at fault because they allowed themselves to be in that situation. And yet, obviously there would be no story had it been otherwise.
I loved Hemingway’s style of writing. Immediate and direct. There were a few times with the dialogue when I would lose track of who was actually speaking and have to stop and trace back. Yet, it still has feel of immediacy as if you right there listening the actual conversation in real time.
There are a lot of novels being published these days that are set in this time period. But I find it is so much better to read a novel written by an author who lived it. Hence, this real sense of “authenticity” as if you are actually time traveling in your reading. You really do to experience the “lost generation” from the author who was of this generation.
Part of reading books from a specific time period in the past, you will encounter words or phrases that shock the modern ear or are used in ways you are unfamiliar. For example the use of the word “tight” to mean drunk. The first time I read it I didn’t know what they were talking about but I quickly caught on.
With words used in the noel that might shock someone in this day and age, you have to remember to put the novel in the context of the time it was written. You cannot “judge” if from where we are now necessarily. There were a few times where words were used that were shocking to me in this day and age.
Alas, I cannot hate this novel simply because I did not like the characters as people. Rather, I loved it for what this novel is about – a kind of snapshot in time (June-July) in the lives of this lost generation. So in this way, the place, the time, and the people of this novel are intertwined together for better or for worse and it comes together to give such a real experience to the reader – even if that experience leaves you with a bit of a hangover, distaste for such ‘friends’, and a longing for it all not to end just quite yet.
A Note on Book Introductions
I don’t read introductions in books. (I’m more of an afterwards person myself.)
Here are my reasons:
- I don’t want the novel spoiled (especially if I haven’t read it before), and
- I don’t want to enter into a novel with someone else’s opinions and ideas about the novel in my head – I want to experience it without preconceptions.
The Signet Classic (Mass Market Paperback) Edition Introduction:
Spoiler: Not my favorite and couldn’t even finish it.
Occasionally, I will go back and read the introduction after I finish the book. In this case, I tried to do that. I read the couple of pages of the introduction in this Signet Classic edition and had to quit. It really didn’t do this book justice. Other than that and to say, “I couldn’t even finish reading this introduction”, I won’t give it any more time.
The Introduction to The Sun Also Rises That IS Worth Reading
Let me point you to an edition with a fantastic introduction (that I read instead, AFTER I finished the book, of course):
It is this Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition.
The introduction to this edition is by the author Amor Towles. He wrote a book I completely adored called A Gentleman in Moscow which is how this introduction caught my attention.
This introduction is everything you could ever want in an introduction. It really brings home the novel and gives deeper understanding of things that I had felt but couldn’t quite put into words. It also introduced me to a new understanding of the novel that I didn’t have before (with several ‘aha’ moments).
Of course, read it more like an “afterward” especially if you haven’t read the novel before or don’t remember from when you read it the first time. You don’t want the introduction to spoil the novel for you. I would highly recommend reading this introduction after you finish the novel.
The Takaway
If you haven’t read this novel since you were young, go back and read it again. Give yourself a chance to read it knowing what you know now and having had the life experiences you have gained. I guarantee whether you love it or hate it, it will be better than the first time your read it.
