The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (2006, Unabridged, Compact Disc)

The trauma of World War I heralded the death of American idealism and gave rise to a disillusioned class of figurative and literal cripples. Jake Barnes, the protagonist of Hemingway’s acknowledged masterpiece, is in every way unmanned by his active war service. Remaining in Paris after his recovery, he becomes one of the Lost Generation’s post-war expatriates. He is aimless, works just hard enough to pay his bar tab, is never sober, and is hopelessly in love with the beautiful and tantalizingly amoral Lady Brett Ashley. Their sterile but significant relationship operates on many levels, and though Hemingway’s prose is simple, this novel is complex.

William Hurt’s reading clarifies the book substantially by bringing the characters and their world brilliantly to life. With deliberately slow overarticulation, he gives us a Jake who is processing his thoughts on too little sleep and through a miasma of alcohol-induced indifference. Hurt’s fully-articulated interpretation of the men in the novel allows readers to share their camaraderie and feel the pain and emptiness behind the non-stop revelry. Hurt’s British accent for Lady Brett is unconvincing. Fortunately, however, while her presence dominates the novel, she has relatively few spoken lines. A tour-de-force.