The Sun Also Rises (Ernest Hemingway, 1926)

Book club selection (via Nick; session held June 12, 2016).

Last read back in 2005, per here.

While I wouldn't change the ranking expressed in 2005 regarding the three Hemingway novels most familiar to me - I will say that I found this novel quite a bit more interesting than I did back then.  Not entirely sure why.  Brett and Jake with a quite-nice love story even if it never would work; other men more or less used by Brett, if perhaps willingly. Robert Cohn; the count; Mike; sidekick Bill. Romero, Montoya.  Details around Paris; contrast with Spanish national character elements.

The bullfighting sequences are entirely foreign to me - can't imagine why folks enjoy - but then there's American football, boxing, etc.

True at First Light (Ernest Hemingway, 1999 (posthumous))

Starting back in August 2005, I've gotten through For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms. And I was ready for a break from Hemingway, but this book looked to be something different.

And it was. His son (Patrick) actually edited this for publication 35 years after Hemingway's death. It is based on experiences on safari near Nairobi in 1953. I think the manuscripts (which were extricated along with other unpublished stuff from Cuba in exchange for Hemingway's real estate) needed a lot of work, and the book is uneven. But I ended up really liking it. The book is pretty much autobiographical, though fictional. It being 1953, the old-style safari and colonial days are done for. The protagonist oscillates between his American and European mores and the African lifestyle that he seems to really enjoy. His wife kills a huge lion, using her mediocre hunting skills. He likes a native girl. They hunt and drink and talk and fly in airplanes. It's good.

Hemingway had quite the interesting life, summarized here. Injured while driving an ambulance in Italy during WW I (A Farewell to Arms gets into this). Hung out in Paris in some expatriate group after the war (The Sun Also Rises gets into this). Spent time in Spain around the time of the Civil War (For Whom the Bell Tolls gets into this). And all sorts of other things before shooting himself in the head. Of those three novels, I thought For Whom the Bell Tolls was definitely the best.

Also read this at the gym. (It's amazing how many pages you can cover during 30 minutes every other day on a stairmaster.)

A Farewell to Arms (Ernest Hemingway, 1929)

This tells the story of an American serving as an ambulance driver on the Italian front in WW I. He falls in love with an English nurse; she attends him following an injury and they fall in love.

He returns to the front, but the Germans overwhelm the Italians and the protagonist eventually deserts as he figures out that scapegoats are being sought. Finds the nurse, and they cross the border into Switzerland.

I liked it, but not nearly as much as For Whom The Bell Tolls.

The Sun Also Rises (Ernest Hemingway, 1926)

American expats in Paris go to Pamplona for bullfights. Post WWI disaffection theme (?) Main character = Jake; female character (Brett) is just leading guys around, including the lead bullfighter; Jake tires of Robert Cohn, who is misled by Brett and is annoying.

I understand this is the book that made Hemingway famous, led to folks imitating his spare writing style, etc. I didn't like it very much, far prefer For Whom the Bell Tolls and A Farewell to Arms.

For Whom the Bell Tolls (Ernest Hemingway, 1940)

My favorite of the Hemingway novels.

Robert Jordan (an American fighting on the side of the Republic) is assigned to blow up a bridge in the Spanish Civil War (covered in detail in this book). He works with local partisans. Pilar (steady older woman) is married to Pablo (unsteady partisan leader). Jordan falls in love with Maria. Interesting story line about Jordan's family history.

Hemingway was in Spain for much of the civil war and elements of the book supposedly are based on incidents he observed or heard about.

Like A Farewell to Arms, characters are disillusioned about war and war leadership.