This book was a very mixed bag for me.

The themes themselves of struggling to redefine masculinity, a pervasive loss of purpose, and a question of what makes life worth living, all had the power to hold my attention. They’re also the only reason I finished the novel. The initial exploration of these themes was enough to get me through the fishing trip. But once we transitioned to Pamplona, the drama with Brett and Cohn muddied the waters for me. The group fed into each other’s worst impulses and I think that Hemingway’s message got diluted in the process. Overall, the last third of the book seemed permissive of the horrible behavior of the characters that the author initially condemned and the conclusion wasn’t grounded enough to make that shift meaningful.

I also struggled with Hemingway’s prose which was so simple as to be repetitive or ineffectual at times. It could be that his writing style just wasn’t for me since there were many points where this took me out of the story. Additionally, his preference for indirectly characterizing Jake through Jake’s opinions of others was less engaging than I’d hoped it would be.

Overall, I thought there was value and interest in the core of the story but I felt the execution didn’t capitalize on its potential. I finished to book wishing that it had been written by another author.