Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - The Sun Also Rises

This was a hard read. Luckily it was short.
It was definitely a product of its time. The casual approach to racist, antisemitism, and homophobia left me grimacing a good 3rd of the book.

I'm sure it's well written but I couldn't really concentrate on that.

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aeudaimonia's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This is a great book, really well written, and unfortunately not at all to my taste. Decided to give Hemingway another chance with this one (hated The Old Man and the Sea when I read it in high school, but loved For Whom the Bell Tolls). It's not that The Sun Also Rises fell flat for me necessarily; the characters are for the most part 3-dimensional and subtle, and the story, though verging on "no plot, just vibes," serves the characters and themes perfectly well. But the plot is so dependent on the characters, and the characters are so unlikeable, that reading the book became my least favorite chore - though less than 200 pages it took me over three weeks to finish. I'll probably come back to the book in a few years or so, and reread The Old Man as well; maybe I'll see them though new eyes. But for now I am so, so relieved to be done.

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kendramichele's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective slow-paced

2.0

Hemingway is very good at what he's trying to do, capturing a generation dealing with the aftermath of a world war, characters isolating and intersecting, drifting towards some semblance of possibility and authenticity. His writing is incredibly distinctive. I just couldn't connect with the sparse, repetitive style. It isn't that I was expecting an action-packed read, or that I generally dislike novels that are more slow-paced; there's something deeply human to the aimlessness of these characters, yet it failed to deeply engage me.

Sometimes books resonate, sometimes they don't, and for me this one simply didn't.

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