Literary Masterpieces: The Sun Also Rises (review)

128 ¦ THE HEMINGWAY REVIEW LiteraryMasterpieces: The Sun Also Rises. By Albert J. DeFazio III. Gale Study Guides to Great Literature. Volume Two. Detroit: Gale Group, 2000. 166 pp. Cloth $49.95. This second volume in the Literary Masterpieces series provides a wealth of information for readers of The Sun Also Rises. Primarily designed as a study guide for students, the volume also is useful to instructors with information on the writing of the novel, a summary of critical scholarship, and key biographical details, as well as pictures and sidebar comments. In fact, there is so much here in this relatively slim book that instructors may well wish to keep it to themselves until their classes have at least read the novel. Albert DeFazio, the editor of this volume and meticulous bibliographer of -Hemingway studies, organizes the book into eight logical and "user-friendly" sections: "About The Sun Also Rises" (containing chapter plot summaries, descriptions ofthe people in the novel,biographical material on Hemingway, and a section on themes, metaphors and allusions); "The Evolution of The Sun Also Rises"(with notesonwritingand revisingthemanuscript);"Themesin TheSun AUo Rises" (explicating three themes: values, the new woman, and the hero); "Critical Response to The Sun Also Rises" (providing a fairly comprehensive summaryand surveyofcritical opinion, as well as DeFazio's own thirteen page critical analysis);"The Sun Also Risesin History";"Adaptations of The SunAlso Rises"; "Resources for Study of The Sun Also Rises" (including study questions and several glossaries to help readers with foreign terms and the historical or popular culture references in the novel); and a Master Index. Section one, "About The Sun Abo Rises',' is the most student-oriented of the sections with a chapter-by-chapter plot summary of the novel, sprinkled with quotations to anchor the key events in each chapter. Even in short chapter summaries , DeFazio chooses quotations that clearlyelucidate the events as, forexample , when Montoya "did not even nod" at Jake after he introduces Brett to Romero. In his discussion of each of the characters, DeFazio describes both the novel's characters and the real peopleon whom Hemingwaybased the character, helping readers to see how the novelist changes his acquaintances into fictional characters. A six page overview ofHemingway' life introduces readers to the authorin astraightforward,objectivewaywhichhelpstemperthemoresensational impressions that students are likely to have of Hemingway, based only on their T.HE Hemingway REVIEW, vol.. 22, No. i. EAEl 2002. Copyright d} 2002 Carol Hemingway. All Rights Reserved. Published by the University of Idaho Press, Moscow, Idaho. BOOK REVIEWS · 129 knowledge of his lifestyle and suicide. For example, DeFazio rightly credits the plane crashes in Africa as contributing factors to Hemingway's ill health later in lifeand hissubsequentsuicide. Finallyinthissection,DeFaziosetsforthseveral of the novel's major themes, metaphors, and allusions (to which he returns in greater depth in section three). Particularly useful to readers is his discussion of Hemingway's use of contrasts to reveal his themes, beginning with finding the epigraphs to the novel as"contradictory"ratherthan"complementary"(2o). Thesecondsection describingthewritingand revisingofthemanuscriptwill be especially interesting to students and others who have had little exposure to an author'sprocessofwriting. Manystudentsconfusetheirown difficultieswith writing with what they see as a lack of intelligence or talent. When they see the false starts and muddled narrative ofthe beginningofthe Sun Also Risesmanuscript ,they maybegin to realize thedifficultythateven Hemingwayhad increating a work offiction.They maybegin to get some sense ofthe workthat writing demands and the multiple revisions that are necessary to get a text to say what one wants it to say. Also interesting in this section are the discussions of commercial and legal considerations that arisebetween authorand editor. In the third section on themes, DeFazio does a superbjob ofexplaining Hemingway 's use ofironyand ambiguityto a readership who may not readily understand those ideas as expressed in literature. In my experience, students don't often read carefully enough to spot irony, and ambiguity can frustrate the studentswhojustwant toknowwhatthisbook meansorwhat theinstructorthinks this book means. When students are thrown back on their own resources as readers and interpreters,theysometimes resent havingto make the effort:"Why can't the authorjust say what he means?" DeFazio's extensive discussion ofvalues ,Brett's roleasa newkindofwoman,and thepresenceorlackofa hero in The Sun Also Rises...