A significant new contribution to Hemmingway scholarship, this book seeks to show that the moral world of The Sun Also Rises is profoundly unstable, and that every character can be seen as being both endorsed and critiqued by the text. This is manifested especially in Jake's status as a partially reliable narrator, and above all in his judgment of Brett. Jake consistently hides his true feelings for Brett from the reader and from himself, as he seeks to appear in control of his life.

Reading the text in this way also renders the novel's famous conclusion less decisive than is usually assumed. This book will be of interest to upper-level undergraduates as well as graduate students and scholars.