book 4

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
251 pages

I did not like this book.  I mean, I get that it's a classic, and that everyone should read Hemingway, but eh.  Nothing happens.  There is so much description of the land.  The whole time I was thinking of that chapter in the Grapes of Wrath where the turtle crosses the road.  I was bored out of my mind.

I understand that this was the lost generation.  I am a social studies teacher, and I understand the feeling encapsulated in the story.  I get the Lost Generation.  I appreciate the sentiments, the angst, the hopelessness, and the "tomorrow we die" attitude.  I just don't think I needed 251 pages of it.  Some of the description was nice, like the bull fights and all that, but overall I just wanted to be finished with the book so I could start a new one as soon as possible.

My favorite annoying part of the book was the following line: " The girl came in with the coffee and buttered toast.  Or, rather, it was bread toasted and buttered."  Really?  Isn't that time same thing?  I read it out loud to everyone I could.