Two nights ago, I finished a book by Hemingway. After reading his most popular work about a fisherman catching a marlin, I was quite hooked on the writing style and simplicity of the prose. As far as novels go, I appreciate a story that focuses on adventure. The main character of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises is an adventurer even though they may not acknowledge the fact. As protagonist Jake Barnes travels with friends, first around Paris and later around eastern Spain, we learn more about an odd love pentagon (2 more sides than the traditional love triangle). Michael, Cohn, a previous husband, a new bullfighter, and Jake himself all have an infatuation with an aspect of a particular Lady Ashley Brett. This women represents something different to nearly every major male character in the story. It seems they all rely on her words and actions desperately. Along the way we learn more about why each particular love of Brett's has fallen for her.
(Spoilers ahead)
Whether it was for stability, passion, or fear; the men who fall for her are trying to fill some lackluster part of their own life by having Brett. Unfortunately, we find that 4 sides of the love pentagon do not find what they want in Brett and that she was simply a mirage to the hopes they once placed in her. In the end, Jake finds Brett as his love because he is the first one who treats her (almost) as an equal pattern and a friend). I found the commentary in this story, set in the 1920's, as a great way to compare the operation of interpersonal relations in the modern age.
7.5/10
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