Aug 9, 2009
THE SUN ALSO RISES, AND HAS A DRINK
I’m reading The Sun Also Rises
One line made me laugh. It comes about halfway through the book, when the main character - Jake Barnes - visits a man he knows in Pamplona to buy tickets for the bullfighting. Jake says:
He was an archivist, and all the archives of the town were in his office. That has nothing to do with the story.
It’s a strange thing to say. The whole book is full of observations like that - why tell us that this one is irrelevant? I guess it serves to remind the reader how every detail is being marshalled towards the final effect. Anyway, it struck me as amusing.
It’s a fine book, as Jake would say. Reading it, I’m reminded of one of the liqueurs the characters are endlessly drinking - a pernod, or an aguardiente. Like them, this is cool, dry and slightly sour - and, of course, unexpectedly strong.
If you’re looking for something to go on holiday with you could do worse than this. It’s easy to read, has short chapters and is only 210 pages long. It also makes you think about drinking - something we can only really do properly on holiday. All his novels have that effect, or at least they do on me.
All Hemingway’s novels could also be summed up by the drinks in them - For Whom The Bell Tolls would be a spicy Spanish wine, Green Hills of Africa a whisky. A Farewell to Arms has vast amounts of all sorts of booze, including a the delightful-sounding eggnog spiked with sherry. Perhaps it would be a beer, or maybe a vermouth. The Old Man and the Sea is all about the absence of drink.
Speaking of which…
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Mostly drink…. But sometimes he makes you think about food too.
There’s even a recipe somewhere in Hemingway (can’t remember where) which goes something like this:
Catch a trout
Cook it in boiling water and a glass of white wine
Eat
Except I think it’s more laconic and he’s very specific about the wine – some sort of Hock or Slyvaner I think.
STOP PRESS: have just googled this and found that there’s another quite different trout recipe in the sun also rises that I‘d forgotten about - so he’s virtually Nigel Slater.
But thinking about Hemingway made me think about taste (and not just the taste of trout or cuba libras). I loved Hemingway when I was a teenager, then later I came to find him bombastic and posturing. Re-reading some of the short stories recently, I fell in love with them again, but struck this time by their melancholy, wisdom and vulnerability.
All of that says far more about me than about Hemingway of course, but it made we wonder whether there isn’t a link between taste and confidence. Confidence in our judgement and ultimately in ourselves?
Thanks HonestJon.
In Madrid, on holiday, I did have the opportunity to stop off at Botin, the place Hemingway said was the best restaurant in the world.
But it was too expensive.
Thought you’d like to know.