[Book Review #3] The Sun Also Rises
One-line comment: Young men hollowed out by war seek solace in the revelry of Paris and the bullfights of Spain — yet carry within them an unhealing loneliness and an absence of love. A bittersweet yet powerful elegy for the Lost Generation; a story of wandering souls.
Basic Information
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| 📖 Title | The Sun Also Rises |
| ✍️ Author | Ernest Hemingway |
| 🏷️ Genre | Novel |
| 📅 Year Published | 1926 (USA) / Japanese translation 1955 |
| ⏱️ Estimated Reading Time | Approx. 6–9 hours (approx. 250 pages in the original; approx. 350 pages in Japanese translation) |
| 📅 Date Finished | June 3, 2025 |
| ⭐ Rating | ★★★★☆ (4 out of 5) |
Recommended For
- Those who want to explore the post-war sense of loss and the question of "what it means to live" through literature
- Those who want to savor Hemingway's concise style rooted in the Iceberg Theory (*)
- Those who want to immerse themselves in the atmosphere of 1920s Paris and Spain
(*) The Iceberg Theory holds that what is left unwritten gives a work its depth and weight. For more, see the review of A Pale View of Hills.
Summary
The story is set in postwar Paris. The protagonist Jake has lost his sexual capacity due to a war wound, and suffers over his love for Brett, a freewheeling aristocratic woman. Together with their circle, they pursue pleasure in cafés and travel to Pamplona, Spain, for the running of the bulls and the bullfights — yet beneath it all drifts an incurable loneliness and despair. The lives of young people who surrender to pleasure yet cannot find a way out are rendered in Hemingway's distinctively hardboiled style. This enduring masterpiece vividly captures both the emptiness of a "Lost Generation" bereft of purpose, and the ongoing rhythms of life that continue regardless.
A Memorable Passage
"I did not care what it was all about. All I wanted to know was how to live in it."
— Chapter 14
This line appears in a scene where Jake lies awake alone in bed at night in Pamplona, just before the festival of the running of the bulls begins. In the moments leading up to it, he has come to accept that nothing of value in life is ever free — it always comes at a cost: time, emotion, physical pain. And in Jake's case, the price paid is among the cruelest imaginable: the sexual impotence brought on by his war wound.
So what did he gain in return? First, a tough-minded clarity — the ability to look at bare reality without being deceived by illusion. Before the war stripped them body and soul, young men believed in values like "for the homeland" and "for honor." But Jake, through his devastating wound, came to see that such fine-sounding words were lies.
Second, a quiet solidarity between lonely souls — something that transcends worldly relationships driven by desire. Ironically, it is precisely because physical union is foreclosed that Jake and Brett share a profound spiritual bond that neither can share with anyone else.
Holding all of this within him, what Jake is saying is this: what matters is not the meaning of the world, but the practical strategy of how to go on living in it without losing oneself.
Reflection: Jake's Price and the Paradigm Shift of Our Own Time
I believe this brief monologue distills a piercing paradigm shift born of the tumultuous 1920s.
1. The 1920s: The Collapse of Old Values
Before the First World War, words like "love," "courage," "homeland," and "God" carried absolute weight — things one was meant to believe in. Suffering was supposed to have meaning; living rightly was supposed to be rewarded. But those who survived the brutal battlefield came to see that these words were powerless before the fire of war — and sometimes little more than a deception used to send young men to their deaths. The world has no inherent meaning. There is only naked fact, and unending loss.
2. From the Loss of Meaning to Self-Discipline
Stripped of meaning, these young men did not surrender to self-destruction. Instead, they found a kind of salvation in their own discipline — their own answer to the question of how to live. The ritual of fishing, the way one holds one's drink, the grace a matador shows in the face of death. These became the only means by which one could confirm that the self was still functioning correctly, even in a world without meaning.
3. Resonance with the Present: A New Paradigm Shift
A hundred years on, we find ourselves in the midst of a strikingly similar shift. The great certainties that once seemed unshakeable — lifetime employment, ever-rising prosperity, a template for happiness — have crumbled. Today's equivalent of Jake's price might be the loss of inner peace amid the noise of social media. And that is precisely why the modern impulse to find one's own axis through frugality, diet, exercise, or the quiet rhythms of daily life resonates so deeply with Hemingway's aesthetic.
How Shall We Live?
What Jake gained at the end of all his suffering was not despair, but the strength not to expect. When we demand too much meaning from the world, we break when it fails to deliver. But when — like Jake — we focus on how to move beautifully within the rules as they are, perhaps we can come to terms with an absurd reality: quietly, and with strength.
Overall Thoughts
This novel is now exactly one hundred years old. I read it as if trying to breathe in the air of the 1920s — and what I found there was the same truth as today: people struggle, and in that struggle, they search for a way to live. They fall into despair at times, yet refuse to let go of hope entirely. I felt a raw, straightforward human vitality throughout. In a story told with such quiet restraint, so many different feelings come through. This is a book I want to return to again and again.
Thank you so much for reading.
I hope this helps you find your next great read.
See you in the next review!
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