Reading Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises: Glossary and Commentary    by H. R. Stoneback Order:  USA  Can Kent State University Press, 2007 (2007) Softcover      Reviewed by Tim Davis Always on the lookout for exciting new perspectives on literary masterpieces, I have discovered an absolute gem in H. R. Stoneback's companion to Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. In his line-by-line annotations and commentary, Stoneback takes readers on a meticulous and invigorating journey through Hemingway's first big novel, the one that established Hemingway 'as one of the great prose stylists and preeminent writers of his time.' As readers of Hemingway know, the author's famous iceberg aesthetic means that only about one-eighth of a story is obvious while the remaining seven-eighths (like an iceberg adrift in the ocean) remains significantly hidden beneath the surface; the careful reader's challenge, therefore, is to read below the surface and thereby discover the complete strength and power of the story. However, the kind of close reading necessary to see below the surface can be a challenge for readers; now - because of Stoneback's contributions to Hemingway scholarship in this tremendous new book from The Kent State University Press - readers can carefully explore all the hidden qualities of The Sun Also Rises. From cathedrals to bullfights, from Paris to Pamplona, and from drinking to redemption, thousands of details of Hemingway's classic novel are opened up to the reader's scrutiny; narrative and aesthetic concerns, history, local knowledge, actual and symbolic landscapes and inscapes, and all aspects of the seven-eighths of the story that lies beneath the surface are thoroughly analyzed; Stoneback, through his erudite and immensely readable commentary 'equips the reader to sound' the novel's 'depths and take full measure of the novel's allusiveness, indirection, and understatement.' This is the one indispensable guide to The Sun Also Rises. Don't miss it! Note: Opinions expressed in reviews and articles on this site are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of BookLoons. Find more NonFiction books on our Shelves or in our book Reviews