Quality writing

I expected this to rather dry and heavy, instead I found it to be refreshingly light and actually laugh out loud funny in places. This is due in part to the excellent reading by Nathan Osgood. The characters are all 'scarred' for one reason or another and seem to seek solace in alcohol and other diversions, some of which fulfill an apparent need to self harm. Set in France and Spain it reads at times like a travelogue, the style is economical but still manages to have a strong sense of time and place and puts the reader/listener there. Written in 1926, there is use of the 'N' word and it seems antisemitism was already well entrenched in Western culture at that time, but it is what it is - no need for airbrushing. This is a segment of time, spanning a couple of months, beautifully preserved forever.

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Hemingway a master of observation!

Travel back to a different era and listen to the masters unique observations of people traveling and living during an unhurried time with their preoccupation of eating drinking and enjoyment, beautifully written and observed to carry the listener through a gentle period,

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One of his best.

Excellent writing and narration. If you like Hemingway you won’t be disappointed. Good very good.

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One of Hemingway's Finest

In my view this is the best novel by Ernest Hemingway. The narrator did a suburb job, especially navigating among the several accents of the characters. Hemingway captured the feeling of place as the action moved between locations in France and Spain. All of the characters among this aimless bar hopping “lost generation” after WWI were interesting and well-drawn and revealed a great deal about human nature. Well worth a listen!

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4 people found this helpful

Awful Book

To say this book is outdated is an understatement.

Even if one ignores all the racism, antisemitism and homophobia, there are plenty of twentieth-century notions of what it is to be a man and supposed masculinity.

There is an odd fascination with hunting and fishing with an almost lecherous fetishisation of bullfighting. It features poorly drawn characters that are paper paper-thin stereotypes.

The most offensive and annoying thing, though, is that it is boring.

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Such a disappointment

Nothing happens, other than a few Americans and Brits who start in Paris then travel to North West Spain. They talk to each other, go to bars, drink and do more talking to each other. The most frequently occurring word must be ‘said’; someone said something and someone else said something else back to them.
Even the bull running/fighting parts of the story lack any interest. It is also, in my opinion, anti Semitic.
I’m a fan of Hemingway and the life he had was fascinating. While this may be semi autobiographical it is a such dull story.
No criticism of the reader though, Nathan Osgood does a good job.

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2 people found this helpful

Nothing of consequence happens

Writing for the sake of writing, with some exaggerated but not particularly likeable or interesting characters who bumble about doing nothing more than consume words, until it reaches the end.

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boring

Nothing really "happens" in this book. My own life is more exciting! How this became a best-selling book, I have absolutist absolutely no idea

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3 people found this helpful

The Sun Never Rises

Several dull American men go travelling in Paris and fishing in Spain. They spend lots of time “having another drink” but rarely say or do anything of import or interest, beyond trivial talk about people they know, including their equally dull English friend and travelling companion, Brett (female) who also features in the novel and frequently enjoys “another drink”. They attend a bullfight and Brett falls in love (at first sight) with the young and handsome bullfighter, with whom she temporarily elopes. The relationship lasts several days and she decides to return to the lacklustre man she started with.

Having endured this book, I cannot understand how Hemingway achieved the reputation for good writing. “The Sun Also Rises” is prosaic and lacks insight and poetry. It is tiresome, misogynistic, boorish, racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic. Even the Spanish fiesta fails to come alive. Rather than being a “sunrise”, this novel is for me, grey and overcast.

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2 people found this helpful