You voted, and the results are in!
Our next HuffPost Book Club pick is The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. This was my pick, and I am just thrilled that you voted it into the majority!
I read The Sun Also Rises for the first time about two years ago.
Let me set the scene: I had just moved to New York (Brooklyn, to be exact). I knew no one; I had no job; I had no money.
So, basically, all I did was eat Ramen noodles and cheap pizza, intermittently apply for jobs, and read a lot. After picked up the quintessential "you've-just-arrived-in-New-York-City" books (E.B. White's Here Is New York and Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's), I was looking for something else to read.
Now, I had read some of Hemingway short stories, but never a novel. In fact, I was formerly turned off by him because all my English teachers (mainly female) talked about was what a misogynist he was and how they didn't understand how he was even included in the American canon and that they weren't going to teach him.
The oddest part about my not having yet read his novels is that I actually loved his short stories. "Hills Like White Elephants" was my favorite. His prose is so crisp, succinct, beautifully simple. If you need a gentle shove to join our Book Club this month, I suggest you take 15 minutes and read this.
The guy whose lease I had taken over was an English teacher (how convenient), and he had stack of books that he left at the apartment. The Sun Also Rises was one of them. I decided to be open-minded, and give Hemingway a chance.
The story is about a group of British and American expats who travel from Paris to Pamplona, Spain to view the running of the bulls and bullfighting. On the surface, it's a love story between the protagonist Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley, but there are deeper themes explored in this book: death, masculinity, nature.
Hemingway biographer Jeffrey Meyers noted that it is "recognized as Hemingway's greatest work," and Hemingway scholar Linda Wagner-Martin called it his most important novel.
The book deeply impacted me. As our latest Book Club pick, we're going to spend a month reading it together, liveblogging and discussing with our community not only the narrative, but also the life and cultural impact of Hemingway via our Book Club page.
Whether you're a Hemingway lover, hater, or you've never read any of his work before, we'd love to add your voice to the conversation. Drop us a line if you'd like to blog about the book. We'd love to feature your reading experience.
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