The Sun Also Rises | Ernest Hemingway

This episode of Books for Men features The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. A classic literary novel about an impotent ex-pat journalist living in Paris who falls for a promiscuous divorcee. More importantly, Hemingway's debut changed writing forever. Listen for more!

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Welcome back to Books for Men, a podcast to inspire more men to read and bring together men who do. So I'd made mentioned last week that I am going to be featuring some of my favorite authors as we close out 2022 here. Hard to believe that we've already been doing the show now for five months. It's been a lot of fun. And this week I have probably the most important book that I've shared on the podcast to date. Maybe not my favorite book, but I think it's probably the most important and I'll share more on that in a moment. So, today's book is The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. He's probably one of those authors or individuals in general that doesn't need much of an introduction, but I feel like I have to give him one anyway, right? So he's on probably the Mount Rushmore of American-born writers.

(01:01)

And although that's debatable, I think there are probably many who would agree that there is definitely a before and after point with Ernest Hemingway. And by that, I mean what literature was like before Ernest Hemingway and what literature was like after Ernest Hemingway. And you can't say that for a lot of people in a lot of the arts. I said that I think on an earlier episode about Bob Dylan, or maybe I didn't, but I will say it here Now, there was a before and after with Bob Dylan as far as music is concerned, but I'm not here to debate that right now. We'll talk about Hemingway, and this leads me to why this is probably the most important book that I've shared on Books for Men. It was lean, it was terse, it was direct, and it didn't just inform all of the books and authors that came after it, but it also informed all of the teachers across the country who were helping writers become writers.

(01:54)

So his influence was really undeniable. So much so that It's funny, I was reading last night the new memoir of Haruki Murakami, the great Japanese writer, someone who I love, who probably will feature on this podcast eventually. I couldn't help but jot down a quote as I read this because it fit perfectly for what I was going to share with you today. He says, “It is my impression in fact that if so Soseki, which is a Japanese writer in Hemingway, had never developed those styles. The literature that we read today in the West would be somewhat different. Taking it a step further, I think it's arguable that their styles have become part of the mental landscapes of Japanese and English readers.” So he goes as far as saying that without you even knowing the style of Hemingway has informed what you perceive as a reader.

(02:51)

That's pretty high regard from Murakami. And if you do enough reading on the subject matter, or you read enough biographies or autobiographies of writers who came after Hemingway, most of them cite Hemingway in some fashion. It's been, in my experience, less common for them not to cite Hemingway's influence than it is to cite Hemingway's influence. So take that with a grain of salt. Now, I could sit here and tell you from personal experience that I have been influenced by Ernest Hemingway. It kind of feels weird to even say it. It almost goes without saying, because whether you've actually read his work or you haven't read his work, the influence is there. Undoubtedly. For someone like myself who has read pretty much all of his novels, a lot of his non-fiction, and a lot of his short stories, I have a wonderfully bound eight-book box set that encompasses a lot of his material.

(03:51)

To me, the sun also rises is the most powerful. It's not always the case that a debut is the most powerful. I know there are going to be many people out there who say, what about For Whom the Bell Tolls? What about A Farewell to Arms? Or what about his memoir that came out post-humorously, A Movable Feast? All great books, especially that last one. Love that memoir. But again, to me, the most powerful is the Sun also rises. And the only one that comes in a close second to it is one of his last works, which was the short novella, The Old Man and the Sea, which was the book that he won the Pulitzer Prize, which was really just an exclamation mark on a career that would see him win the Nobel Prize in literature as well the following year. So I think that was 53 and 54, but enough about the author by now.

(04:43)

I'm sure you get the point. He was important and influential, and you should know who he is. If for some crazy reason, you don't, you should probably pick up this book as a starter. So I guess it's time I tell you what the book is about. Basically, in a nutshell, it's about a love story that can't really take place because the protagonist is an expat journalist who is now living in Paris. Jake Barnes is his name, is impotent, and he has feelings and a desire for this promiscuous divorcee named Lady Brett Ashley and their friends. But they can't pursue the relationship based on the fact of who each of them is as individuals. And so the book goes on to explore the somewhat trivial events of this group of friends as they go from drinking and having fun at cafes in Paris, down to a bullfight in Spain and yada, yada, yada.

(05:44)

So this is really a symbol for an entire generation, which was known as the Lost Generation for their directionless wandering attitude following the aftermath of World War I and the explores this group of people and this journey. So I should point out, it's pretty common knowledge that Hemingway writes from his own personal experience, and that coincides directly with some of his philosophical viewpoints on writing itself. In that the writer, his only job is to write, and I'm using air quotes, one true sentence. That's the job of the writer, to just write one true sentence after the next. And the only way that you can write true sentences is by having personally experienced that thing. And that's how you know it so well or so truly, which parlays into his larger theory that many people have written about, which is called the Iceberg Theory, in that what you omit from your writing is just as important as what you include.

(06:41)

Because just as an iceberg shows one-eighth of itself and everything else is beneath. If you are writing truly, then your reader is going to be able to know things about your characters without you actually stating them. And so the only reason why I reiterate this or bring this up again is that The Sun Also Rises definitely utilizes this technique and utilizes his personal experience. And there are probably a lot of people that would say his writing the power of it is sourced from that material and that life experience. And not to pull Murakami back in again, but he says that he thinks that because that is the case with Hemingway as he aged and life kind of seeped out of him, right? Because he was known for this big life of hunting, big game in Africa and fishing for big fish and falling in love with bullfighting and all this different stuff.

(07:43)

As his life started to get reduced and he got older, that's when his writing started to suffer a little bit. And this is just Murakami's opinion, but I thought it was really, really interesting. And of course, for those of you who don't know, Hemingway's story ends very tragically in that later in his life, he sank into a deep, deep depression and alcoholism ultimately ending in him taking his own life at the probably very height of his fame. So maybe there is something to Murakami's ideas on Hemingway and just how intertwined his vitality and physical life are with the quality of his work. And I will just tie this back to what I said earlier in that The Old Man in the Sea was perhaps his next most powerful work. And I think that that has to do with the fact that there was such emotional truth in that novel based on where Hemingway was in his life.

(08:47)

And I think that really shined through. I think there are a lot of people who would agree that that work coincides with his life and writing. Perhaps. I did want to share just two more quick things before I wrap this up. And one of 'em is that the ending of this book is one that I absolutely love, specifically the last line of the book. It is super memorable. It is one of my favorite last lines, last scenes of any book ever. It really relates heavily to the title of this book. I know that there's some debate on what this title could mean, but I truly believe that it is a hopeful title in that if the sun sets, the sun also rises. So although our lives are directionless and we don't know, there is still tomorrow, and the sun will also rise, that is just my take.

(09:41)

I think that there are a lot of people who agree with me. I think that there are some who don't, but read the book and you shall find out. And the last thing that I just wanted to mention was when I was in Paris, I did the whole Hemingway tour, so to speak. So anything that involved Hemingway, I went and checked it out, whether it was cafes that were mentioned in some of his books or some of the bars or some of the neighborhoods, even his first apartment that he rented when he was in Paris, I went and took a picture in front of it, all kinds of little cool stuff like that. And I sat at the stool where he supposedly wrote, The Sun Also Rises. So there's a restaurant called La Closerie des Lilas, and I'm probably butchering that, but there is a stool at the bar and he's got his nameplate, and supposedly that's where he wrote The Sun Also Rises.

(10:34)

So I thought that was pretty cool, and you can go do it too if you ever go to Paris. Anyway, that's all I've got. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Books for Men. If you did, please remember to share it with family, friends, and anyone who you think might enjoy it. The main goal of this show is to inspire more men to read and bring together men who do, and we are going to need women to do that just as much as we need men to do that. So please spread the word on the podcast. It would mean the world to me, and you would be raising awareness for something that is super, super important for a well-rounded society. Of course, if you want to double down on that, you can by rating, reviewing, subscribing, and following on whatever podcast platform you'll listen to this on. And remember, you could find out more information at BooksforMen.org where you can also sign up for the newsletter, which is a monthly roundup of all the books and authors that you hear on the podcast.