Matthew's review
The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories (Scribner Classics)
by Ernest Hemingway
Hemingway was a very good writer of stories. To me, his best stories - A Clean, Well-Lighted Place is one - are better than any of the novels, even The Sun Also Rises & For Whom the Bell Tolls. Short, Happy Life, the stories and the interludes in In Our Time, The 3 Day Blow - these are some of the best American writing ever.
Alice Munro and William Trevor are the only living story writers who are at this level and Chekhov, to whom they all bow, was the master.
Matthew's review
The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories (Scribner Classics) by Ernest Hemingway
Matthew's review
rating:
For some strange reason, I was surprised that I liked this book. I had never had much interest in reading his short stories, mostly because I think that the short story as a medium is very hard to do well, and I have to admit that I didn't feel he was up to it.
Most of the stories are, as you might expect, about men being real men, resignedly keeping their emotions inside or dying brave deaths, which I must admit is something that Hemingway does very well. However, my favorite stories from this collection were the shorter and simpler ones, in which Hemingway fills innocous events with unpredictable importance. In one story, a physically and psychologically wounded soldier rants about grass hoppers. In another, a small boy believes that his fever will kill him, through a confusion concerning the difference between Farenheit and Celsius. These stories have none of the hallmarks of traditional plotting; no real conflict, no climax, no dénoument. Or if they are there they are the sort...more
Most of the stories are, as you might expect, about men being real men, resignedly keeping their emotions inside or dying brave deaths, which I must admit is something that Hemingway does very well. However, my favorite stories from this collection were the shorter and simpler ones, in which Hemingway fills innocous events with unpredictable importance. In one story, a physically and psychologically wounded soldier rants about grass hoppers. In another, a small boy believes that his fever will kill him, through a confusion concerning the difference between Farenheit and Celsius. These stories have none of the hallmarks of traditional plotting; no real conflict, no climax, no dénoument. Or if they are there they are the sort...more
Hemingway was a very good writer of stories. To me, his best stories - A Clean, Well-Lighted Place is one - are better than any of the novels, even The Sun Also Rises & For Whom the Bell Tolls. Short, Happy Life, the stories and the interludes in In Our Time, The 3 Day Blow - these are some of the best American writing ever.
Alice Munro and William Trevor are the only living story writers who are at this level and Chekhov, to whom they all bow, was the master.
