The Sun Also Rises

--- Spoilers included ---
Hemingway's, The Sun Also Rises is a simple book: The characters chat, drink, fish, drink, chat, watch bull fights, chat, fight, drink ... and have a lot of sex, too. This is the Lost Generation, the men and women who came back from WWI are unable to find their way through life in America and so instead become the ex-patriots who frequent the salons and cafes in Paris.

Although this is a sad story, Hemingway's choice of title indicates his belief that each day brings a fresh start. Portions of the story are autobiographical - Hemingway lived and loved this fast life as an ex-pat in Paris. His friend, Gertrude Stein coined the term "Lost Generation".

The book is an easy read. The writing is a mix of true-to-life descriptions of fish jumping and bulls running along with inane conversations that give witness to the characters' superficial lives.

The protagonist, is Jake, a young man now sexually impotent due to a  freak accident in the war. He works as a journalist and hangs out in the cafes of Paris with a few war buddies and a lively crowd of aristocrats, artists and writers. The characters live a false, fast-paced life, with drink and sex as covers for deep wounds, presumably left over from an ugly war. Even Jake, who is okay with his groin injury, has bouts of drinking to cover his heart wounds from an on-again, off-again relationship with Brett, a sexy, beautiful divorcee. Brett is a sex addict and so unable to settle with Jake in his injured state. Which is probably a good thing for him because Brett is bad news. She is not only engaged to an alcoholic named Mike, but has affairs with every man who grabs her attention.

Jake is a serious fan of the bull fights in Pamplona and has planned a fishing trip to Spain followed by a week at the bull fights with a friend visiting from New York. Jake's knowledge of the bull fighters and bulls has given him an "in" with the hotelier who puts up the bull fighters and the hotelier arranges for rooms for Jake and his friends. The expectation is that the friends will take up Jake's passion for the fights. However, a recent affair between Brett and a sensitive Jewish writer named Robert (who was a mid-weight boxer in college) colors the scene. When Bret and Mike arrive in Pamplona, Robert is with them, unable to let go of Brett.

Mike pointedly tells Robert to leave. But Robert is too much in love to see that he is unwelcome. The scenes get ugly as the characters turn to heavy drinking. But it gets uglier yet when Brett falls for the star bull fighter and with Jake's help succeeds in meeting him then seducing him. To Mike, this is just another day in the life of being Brett's finance', but Robert becomes unglued and begins messing up faces including the bull fighter's. Robert finally leaves town in shame and sorrow on the last day of the festival. The bull fighting community including the hotelier are outraged at all of this and further incensed when, after the bull fights, they learn that Brett has run off to Madrid with the bull fighter. Jake and his friends are no longer welcome in Pamploma. Mike returns to Scotland, the friend to New York and Jake tells everyone that he will finish his vacation fishing near the French/Spanish border. In truth, he stays in that area in order to be ready for the inevitable call for rescue from Brett once she has had her fill of the handsome bull fighter.

After being rescued, as Brett comes to terms with the drama she has created and decides to return to Mike, she says to Jake, "You know it makes one feel rather good deciding not to be a bitch. .. It's sort of what we have instead of God." To which Jake replies, "Some people have God. Quite a lot." Brett replies, "He never worked well with me." And Jake: "Should we have another martini?"

Yes! Lets have another martini. The last 5 bottles of wine were not quite enough to cover these wounds. The story ends with Jake and Brett in a cafe in Madrid imaging the "pretty" life they could have had together.