Hemingway's ability to capture the psychologically and morally lost generation as it aimlessly wanders what it perceives to be a meaningless world is almost uncanny. This work exemplifies his obsession with direct, honest prose from a collection of characters who attempt to mask their empty lives by keeping their glasses filled with alcohol.

But that is not to say their lives are without challenge. Jake, the protagonist, carries the burden of a war injury that rendered him impotent. The problem of it is only compounded by the fact Brett, the love of his life, is one of his traveling companions. She is a strong independent women whose love for him is equally strong but she is unwilling to sacrifice herself to a celibate existence.

The destructiveness of sex isn’t lost on Jake alone. With Brett at the center, jealousy abounds among his friends. As a liberated woman, Brett makes Jake, Mike, and Robert miserable with sometimes disastrous consequences. Even less involved Bill is not immune to the petty cruelty that erupts between this oddly bound circle of friends as they try to cope with the aftermath of World War 1.

Brilliant in its telling, The Sun Also Rises is one of Hemingway’s finest. Set in Europe (and mostly Spain) after the bunch of them seek out to loose themselves during fiesta, Hemingway expertly tells his story twice — first in the behavior of the bulls they have all some to watch and then in their own actions that appear no better then the beasts who are compelled to play out their lives as written.