The Sun Also Rises: Ernest Hemingway

My second read from Ernest Hemingway. Romanticizes Paris and Spain of the early twentieth century. The writing in the book mirrors very closely to the aspirations of American life and culture. While written beautifully, the book feels like an indulgent account of a rich writer living aimlessly  without a bigger sense of purpose in life. Some people connect deeply with this type of aimless meanderings but it is still hard to fully grasp the context in which this book is treated as a classic. Maybe it is because American culture typically rewards an analytical mind and to find novelists in the early twentieth century who could even dare to write fiction, romanticize life and explore its human emotional side are rare and few and thus celebrated in a big way.  I am also sure Ernest Hemingway’s  short lived life and his suicide at an early age contributed to his added fame and publicity. 

Personally I have yet not fully grasped why big adjectives are generally used for fiction novelists from America when there are writers from other countries, less known but far more talented in their writings. While it is hard to beat American non fiction, the depth and layers I have often discovered in Eastern and European fiction are nowhere close to being found in American writings. The American analytical mind is best ( e.g. Pulitzer prize winners) where scientific, journalistic, new modern age society issues of human psychology and equality are discussed in detail but the other side of exploring philosophies, bigger purpose in life, interdependence of humans, and sacrifices one should make in disciplining the mind  is rarely highlighted and celebrated. It is possible that America is relatively a new country and also has a lot of financial abundance. Here people haven’t yet seen the financial and emotional hardships at a scale that other countries have seen. Culture gets built over many centuries and since art and society mirror itself very closely, the emotions explored by American writers are also baked in a life lived in abundance and thus lack the multi dimensionality that writers from other cultures are able to capture in their writings.