Published: 1926 (Scribner)
Setting: Paris, Bayonne, Burguete, Pamplona, San Sebastian, Madrid
Summary: A bunch of lost souls galivant around Paris and the Basque country, drinking themselves into the ground, only to pick themselves up after a tight four-hour nap to party the next day. Jake is a cool customer, he may have lost his ability to have sex, but he is the even-tempered rock which his impulsive friends revolve around. Brett is lost, she saw her partner die in the war, and married into English nobility only to be tormented. Now she is in Paris, engaged to some schmuck named Mike, pined after by sad-sack Robert Cohn, and doted on by Jake. It’s hard to fault Brett for her Circe-esque ways, yet she brings every lament she has upon herself. Brett cannot get out of her own way.
When our hapless collective gets bored, they decide to tag along with Jake and Bill to go fiesta in Pamplona. Before the bulls appear, or Brett, Mike and Robert for that matter, Jake and Bill have a quite retreat up in the mountains on the border of France and Spain to do some good old-fashioned fishing. This section of the book reads like a dream, long slumbers under shady trees and trout biting the hook. Jake is at peace, and so is Bill. They make their way to Pamplona, and the fiesta begins, literally and metaphorically. Brett brings her suitcases full of baggage, and Robert Cohn thinks she is the one. Mike is pissed about this, but it seems like he is always a little on-tilt. Cohn goes full sad boy hours when Romero, the 19-year-old bull fighter, enters Brett’s ring. Romero is perfect in every way, and he cuts through all of these 30 something’s bullshit. He kills his friends; he fights his demons. Jake may have achieved this nirvana as well, but he keeps saving Brett, even after she left Robert and Mike for Romero, only to leave him in Madrid. As much as Brett loves Romero, and all of her other men, she doesn’t love herself. Neither do any of these people. Perhaps Gertrude Stein was right, neither do any of the Lost Generation.
Quote of the book: An interaction between Brett and Romero
“You kill your friends?” She asked.
“Always,” he said in in English, and laughed. “So they don’t kill me.” He looked at her across the table.”
Favorite character: Jake, Hemingway wrote this character to be the most likable, and he was. Jake has a job; he is the kindest and most self-aware, and he isn’t an insufferable cancer of friend like Brett or Robert.
Favorite setting: Burguete. I have gone fishing once in my life, but Hemingway’s description of the bus ride up, the hotel, and the fishing make me want to experience these chapters.
Please Stay for: The scenery and the dialogue-perfection
Please Question: The rampant anti-Semitism-omnipresent
Will Reviews Things 