but I finally finished The Sun Also Rises. I have mixed feelings about Hemingway. Tammy says he's silly and he is in many ways. But there are moments when it is just so good-- when his writing just comes together and it moves you, you feel there, in the moment. There are a couple of scenes like that in SAR and it just makes your mouth hang agog to read some of it. Other bits are tedious and silly.
I had much the same reaction to To Have and Have Not. I very nearly gave up on the book and probably would have had I not be competing with someone to read it. So, I pushed on. And, much to my very great surprise, I found that the ending of the book was one of the greatest pieces of modernist literature that exists. The last image of the hero the reader gets...my god, it sums up an entire age. Hemingway knew what he was doing with that-- no question about it.
Will he replace Faulkner? No, nor Steinbeck nor Fitzgerald nor Norris either. But, I can say I have read it and enjoyed it and see why others like it. I prefer the short stories, myself, but to each his own.
I'll sum up the book in the words of one of his characters--
"Amusing, but damned unpleasant."
