Finished: The Sun Also Rises (Hemingway) A good book that just kind of quietly absorbs you while you're reading. It is supposed to be Hemingway's greatest book, but that might be a little bit of an over-rating. I don't usually find myself with much compassion for those writer artistes after World War I who were called the Lost Generation. It seems that they had money to spend, time to kill, alcohol always present, and they had a displeasure for living in America. I always kind of thought of them as whiners, even though many of them wrote some great books! However, actually, reading The Sun Also Rises I felt a little more compassion for some of the characters because they'd actually been IN the war, and had some physical, as well as emotional scars from it. The protagonist in The Sun Also Rises is Jake Barnes. He's an "ex-patriot" American journalist living in France. He was made impotent by an injury he received in the war. He is in love with the divorced Lady Brett Ashley, and she with him...but they cannot consummate their love because of his physical inability. Lady Brett forgoes the sexless love with Jake and has many relationships, even though she's engaged to another war vet named Mike. Mike spends most of his time getting drunk, and sometimes jealous, but he doesn't seem to mind Lady Brett bedding most of the men she does, hmmm. Jake and company have decided to travel from France to Pamplona, Spain for the running of the bulls and the week long festival that surrounds it. Jake is fascinated by bullfighting, and wants his friends to see the spectacle. Enter Jake's college buddy, Robert Cohn, who was a championship boxer at Princeton. He falls instantly for Brett and has a several day fling with her before going down to Pamplona. Once they are all in Pamplona, Robert then proceeds to act very possessive of Brett, even right in front of her fiance, Mike. Jake gets mad, Mike gets made, Robert gets mad...and punches them both to the ground. Robert is mostly mad because Brett's head has been turned by the gorgeous, and really good, 19 year old bullfighter, Pedro Romano. She goes off to have a fling with Romano and even thinks she's fallen in love with him. He fights his fights for her, clearly. This makes all the men jealous, but Robert Cohn goes ballistic and beats up Romano before his final and biggest bullfight. The group asks him to leave Pamplona, which he does. Romano, though battered, is successful in his last bullfight. Mike and Jake continue to get drunk every night, and Brett and Romano continue their affair. The descriptions of the bullfighting scenes are intense. I've never liked the idea of bullfighting because I just don't like maliciously hurting or toying with any animal. And, one sad result of Brett getting involved with Romano....because Jake is the one who brought Brett to Pamplona, Jake loses the respect of his Spanish friends, who he has been visiting for years when he goes to the bullfights. They didn't like the fact that he let his "friend" have such an influence on their young bullfighter. So, after the last bullfight is over, Brett runs off with Romano. Jake drops Mike at another little city where he will continue to drink, and Jake heads back to France to get back to work. Before Jake even reaches his destination, though, he gets a telegram from Brett. She's in Madrid and she needs his help. Of course, he drops everything and goes because he loves her. When he arrives, Brett tells Jake that she let Romano go because he wanted her to become his exclusively and she knew down the line she would crush him and break his heart. She wonders if Jake will give her some money to make it back to Mike? Brett and Jake ride around in a cab together, and as she leans on his shoulder and they wonder how life could have been for them if they COULD have ended up together, the story ends. It's not a very long or complicated book, but it did tug at my heartstrings a bit for Jake and Brett. However, their lifestyle was one of total debauchery, lol. Anyway....I think I'll probably eventually read For Whom The Bell Tolls and I will have read all the major Hemingways. :-)