Hitting the Books with Gary Thorne: "Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises"

"I mistrust all frank and simple people, especially when their stories hold together, and I always had a suspicion that perhaps Robert Cohn had never been middleweight boxing champion, and that perhaps a horse had stepped on his facer, or that maybe his mother has been frightened or seen something, or that he had, maybe, bumped into something as a young child, but I finally had somebody verify the story from Spider Kelly."

Not bad for the writer considered to be the master of the simple sentence: Ernest Hemingway. "Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises" was one of his earlier books that became a world success. Paris, bullfights, love, friendships, odd acquaintances and absinthe flow through this work that so reflects the life Hemingway was living at the time.

The settings - Paris, Pamplona, Madrid, San Sebastian - are just that, settings. It's the characters and what they do that matters. All seek what they cannot have, but are determined to live life in the state of whatever fiesta draws them.

Recognized as a literary classic, the novel was written in 1927 and is reflective of the times, but the characters and their interactions are timeless.

The magic of coming to know the characters in a novel is the genus of great writers and Hemingway could do that to the nth degree. You are constantly left to wonder what will they do next and when that can be said of a novel.

Every Hemingway read is an insight into the man since he wrote of those he knew and the life he lead. "Papa" came to be a character through his own living life to the fullest style. You get a peek inside that life in this work.

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"That every day should be a fiesta seemed to me a marvelous discovery" ― Ernest Hemingway

The Maryland Book Bank can be found at MarylandBookBank.org. They distribute free books to kids in the community. You can help. Book donations are accepted. Don't let the already-read pages just sit there. Spread the good news to kids who might otherwise never see the words.

Their Books For Kids Day is May 6 from 9 a.m.-2 p.m., rain or shine, in the parking lot of Poly Western High School at the corner of Falls Road and Cold Spring Lane.

Their site says, "Our goal is to collect 30,000 new and gently used books of all kinds to benefit children in need, and we can't reach that goal without you!"

You can learn more at their website. Seems a most worthy cause.

Gary Thorne is the play-by-play voice of the Orioles on MASN, and the 2017 season is his 11th with the club and 32nd covering Major League Baseball. His blog will appear regularly throughout the season. The Orioles and Sarasota County have partnered on the Big League Reader Program, which rewarded kids who read three books in February with tickets to a Grapefruit League game at Ed Smith Stadium in March.

* Hitting the Books with Gary Thorne. © Copyright 2017 Gary F. Thorne. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog's author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Gary F. Thorne and MASNsports.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.