I feel this post lol. I read The Sun Also Rises on a whim about two months ago, my first Hemingway read. I read a lot of novels and don't consider myself a slouch by any means. I expected a lot more from this book, to be honest. Some others have offered a pretty keen insight into Jake's character and what he is 'supposed to represent', insights that didn't form for me when I read the book or upon reflection. I too came away with 'wow, must have been nice to be a rich person in the early 20th...'. My own jealousy of these fictional characters, or of Hemingway himself, of course getting in the way of actually getting something out of the book.
I never saw Jake as a 'real person' in the book. Of course I felt for his character in times where he seemed to be stuck on the fringe of something that had meaning, but the insights about him (Jake or Hemingway?) not being able to get it up kind of ruin the beauty of the story for me. I saw Jake as more of a contemplative artsy type who didn't poke whatever he could, even if he wanted to (especially when he wanted to) as it seemed to be the norm among his friends. Like Brett never took his feelings seriously and he knew that so they just played at loving each other from afar, not that he didn't have it in him to actually do the deed.