Fiesta - Ernest Hemingway

“I mistrust all frank and simple people” declares Jake Barnes, the cynical narrator of this torrid tale of dissolute expats. Luckily for Jake there aren’t that many frank and simple people in this story. Set in Paris in an undetermined period after the First World War the novel follows the lives of a group of American and British expats. Jake recounts the goings on to us, in between working the odd hour in his job as a reporter for an American newspaper. Mostly there’s an awful lot of sitting round in cafes having lunch, then moving on to brandies, then pre dinner drinks, then dinner, then ... more

This novel shows once again the excellence of Hemingway’s storytelling. He deserves his reputation for this book. If you like reading thrillers then you might be disappointed with this book, because the story is not that captivating after all. The author describes a passage in the lives of a couple of friends, who are present during a fiesta in a small Spanish village. With unparalleled precision, Hemingway describes the atmosphere in the village, like the relationship between the inhabitants and the rich tourists. He also describes a “Corrida”, the bull fight, with great detail. The main ... more