Happy Friday- kicking off a long weekend!

Here’s tonight’s sunset (something I see quite often):

…and here’s something I see much less often: the sunrise.

I show you these photos because A) they are pretty, and B) because tonight I want to talk about one of my all time favorite books: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (Hence today’s cheese-tastic title).

I first read this book either towards the end of high school or the beginning of college, in my classic literature phase. I was deep in the pages of Kafka, Vonnegut, Toni Morrison, and Flaubert. When I wasn’t pouring over Siddhartha, I was writing my own creative short stories while suffering delusions of my own grandeur (some things never change) and dreaming of the day I could visit one of these different worlds.

The Sun Also Rises is about a group of Americans living in France. They take a holiday in Northern Spain for an annual festival (The running of the bulls), and the novel follows the characters’ exploits as they try to navigate their next steps. The characters are incredibly solid and interesting (even the exasperating Cohn and Lady Brett). The narrator of the story has a Fitzgeraldesque lack of chutzpah or personality, leaving you inside his head to feel as though you are experiencing expat life for yourself. There is no doubt that this romanticized version of Spain was a huge part of my decision to go to school in Madrid.

Strangely enough, when I ended up living in Madrid I read about Hemingway’s life in France instead (A Moveable Feast). Read that book if you haven’t- its quick and it makes you step back and think about life.

I am sort of a sucker for “lost generation” literature, and can’t help but feel sort of nostalgic and bittersweet each time I read one of these books. Even if you aren’t usually a Hemingway fan, give The Sun Also Rises a shot.

I promise, you will want to visit Spain afterward. You will also probably want to strangle one or more of the main characters.

Have you read The Sun Also Rises or any famous American Expat Literature? What do you think of it? Are you more of a sunrise or a sunset kind of person? What kind of books did you read in your most “formative” years?

Happy Labor Day Weekend! 

Meri