I've read a lot of books by Hemingway, and this is my favourite so far. Quite short, but oh, so good.

Such beautiful writing, of course! I have heard this title for many years, but never had read it until now. So glad I know now the story of The Snows of Kilimanjaro.

I read these short stories because I'm never going to finish For Whom the Bell Tolls and because, since climbing Kili, everyone asks whether I've read them. From the scope of half a century, the stories function more as a lens into the world of Hemingway and men like him and who, at the end of their lives, saw that world slipping away. But reading about these men, who were so determined to be men (and they had a particular and exacting definition of what that meant), its easy to see why their way of life no longer exists (or as been exiled to the fringes). Namely, they would destroy themselves and everyone around them to maintain the ideal. I suppose there is a tragic aspect of it all - men, trying to cling to their code and their as the world changes around them, refusing themselves to change, rending themselves irrelevant.

Some stores were better than others. The first and last, in particular, were highlights. Both are about the end of a man's life, one man's life ended just as he recognized what it was to be a man (which, of course, led to his death) and the other about a man who, at the end of a long life lived exactly how he wanted, takes stock of who he became as a result of his choices.

Good story. Adult. Good twist. Fun to read.

Hemingway at the height of his personal low.

The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other stories is bookended by two magnificent stories of dying and loving in Africa. The title story is rich and layered, implying a whole novel in its condensed space — the story of a man who outlived himself.
“He had had his life and it was over. And then he went on living it again with different people and more money”
The book’s final tale, The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber, sketches the effects of an African safari on a problematic marriage, and a man’s triumph over his own cowardice. They are Hemingway’s best work —five stars.

Other stories stand out in this collection. A Clean, Well-Lighted Place is a paean to dignified nihilism:
“Hail nothing full of nothing, nothing is with thee.”
The Gambler, The Nun, and the Radio highlights both Hemingway’s skill for creating mood and his dry, dark humor. The Killers also shows off his gallows humor and refined sense of nihilism. And Fifty Grand may just be the best story about boxing ever written, displaying Hemingway’s deep knowledge of the sport, its culture, and its characters.

These ten stories, republished together in this volume the year Hemingway died, essentially create a best of volume. They are his best known, most powerful tales, a collection of masterpieces. If you read only one book by Hemingway, this should be the one.

I have not read much Hemingway. I am also not a fan of short stories but after reading these short stories may have to change that viewpoint. The stories follow themes of regret, solitude, hatred of women, stupidity and a love of the outdoors. Hemingway writes crisply and oddly none of his characters are very likeable and mostly without depth or rather shallow. My favourite was the first one about a man dying in the African bush after he was scratched by a thorn, reflecting on his life and all the regrets.

Some of the stories are linked with one character such as Nick who seems to be forever at a crossroads and obsessed with trout fishing. The small bits at the start of the stories about either bullfighting or war are thought provoking. An enjoyable read.

I’d forgotten what a good short story writer Ernest Hemingway could be. This collection came out in 1961, the same year as the author’s death. But most of the stories were published in magazines in the 1920s and 30s, when he was at the height of his powers, and all were available in earlier volumes.

There’s an impressive range of work here, from the ambitious title story about a man dying of gangrene while on safari and slipping into and out of consciousness, remembering scenes from his (wasted) life – the story has the depth and richness of a novel – to the noir classic “The Killers,” which inspired two famous films and contains some very amusing gangster dialogue.

“Fifty Grand” takes you into the world of boxing (there’s also a boxer in “The Killers”), and has a narrative left hook you might not see coming (I didn’t), while “The Gambler, The Nun, And The Radio” – about a man who’s been shot and his colourful hospital visitors – shows you just how funny Hemingway could be.

Also included is a classic story that I’ve read several times but still seems mysterious to me: “A Clean Well-Lighted Place,” about two waiters discussing the final patron in their bar before it closes for the night. The old, deaf man tried to kill himself the week before, and the contrasting reactions of the waiters is very telling.

Some stories in the book didn’t resonate with me, particularly the Nick Adams war tales. (I recall the Adams stories from In Our Time working much better.) But their themes – grace under pressure, war and death, initiations of various sorts – are in keeping with the rest of the volume.

I think my favourite story is the final one, “The Short And Happy Life Of Francis Macomber,” which feels connected to the opening tale because it’s also set on safari and includes a man, woman, death and the concepts of courage and dignity. I love the way it’s constructed and how the characters’ actions in a moment of pressure tell you things that will affect their entire lives. Also, it and “Fifty Grand,” the story that precedes it, are simply exciting on a narrative level.

I don’t know why I’ve been on a Hemingway kick recently – three of his books in less than a month – but I’m glad I picked this up. These days, the author’s legend seems to overshadow his work; it’s encouraging to know the writing, at least in the author’s prime, was solid.

The title story, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, is one of Hemingway’s most famous and no doubt garners such appeal because it deals with the essence of every man’s life...what he has accomplished before he dies. Some see it as a treatise on procrastination, but I do not. I believe it is every man’s lot to die with things undone, hopes unrealized, opportunities missed, and I think Hemingway is making that point as well. We are busy living our lives and these things slip by us, sometimes without a thought, but often with the idea that we will come back to them, do them later, and then life runs out, as life always does. We all die in the midst of living. A secondary, but important theme, would seem to me to be that of isolation. No matter who is there holding our hands, soothing our brows, we die alone. No one can take that journey with us, and those who will continue to live after we are gone do not truly understand our going as we understand it, as an end of second chances, a startling realization that whatever we might have done is lost to us now, forever.

A Day’s Wait is an amazing bit of literature, packed into three scant pages. It is about waiting for death, and the wonder of being spared. I found it very striking and all the more so because of the childish perspective from which it is told.

Fathers and Sons A Way You’ll Never Be and The Killers are Nick Adams stories. Nick is a recurring character for Hemingway, and every time I encounter him in Hemingway’s writing, I feel I have added a piece to a puzzle that I have been working on for decades. Someday I would like to read all the Nick Adams stories together and see if the entire puzzle comes into focus.

In the Fall the war was always there, but we did not go to it any more. Thus begins In Another Country, which is about the unexpected nature of death and the elusiveness of bravery, and this line seemed to set up the story so perfectly for me. Another line I loved, The three with the metals were like hunting-hawks; and I was not a hawk, although I might have seemed a hawk to those who had never hunted; they, the three, knew better, and so we drifted apart.

Fifty Grand registered nothing with me. I do not like prize fighting and I was surprised to find my mind wandering even in the midst of the story.

Finally, The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber is an astounding story about cowardice, sex and marriage, set against the backdrop of a safari. The descriptions of the hunting were difficult to read, they were so stark and from my view senseless, but they served to draw pictures of Macomber, his wife and the Great White Hunter, Wilson. The end was a shocker for me, and I loved the uncertainty surrounding what had happened.

Hemingway is a deceptive storyteller. His stories seem so straightforward and simple, but they are extremely complex and he mines the depths of a man’s soul and often makes you grimace at what you find there. He sometimes seems to be saying that we are all the same...just carrion headed for death...but there in the details you find the devil, we are all exceedingly individual and unique and alone in the journey from cradle to grave.

Very late overdue review because I wasn’t sure if I’d like to broadcast to the world or online that I do not like Hemingway but well.. I don’t

The short stories were basically just war, hunting, macho men, lousy bad relationships and some nature over and over. I swear, gun to my head, if I had to tell them apart from one another.. yeah.
The structure of his writing is nice i guess i’ll give him that. Liked the way he writes his expositions. This is where the ‘good’ starts and ends. That’s it. I was more bothered with the actual content.

I do not understand who gave him the permission to write and publish literature involving women or relationships with women. Beyond horrible. Who told him he does it well?? Who told him it was a good idea? Every single story where a woman by him was mentioned the story immediately went downhill. Just why couldn’t he just leave the female species *alone*?

Every male character of his is also horrible, rude, unhappy and lonely, racist, boring, annoying and you guessed it- misogynistic.
Don’t even bother with the “it was a different time/different cultures/different norms”. Dooon’t caaare. It was all still repetitive bland and tiresome.

‘A Clean, Well-Lighted Place’ was the best most tolerable one, an honourable mention is ‘Cat in the Rain’ and the title explains exactly what I liked about it.

او از کجا بداند هیچکدام از حرف‌هایی که می‌زنیم معنایی ندارد؟ فقط از روی عادت و برای راحت شدن حرف می‌زنیم.

مدت‌ها پس از آنکه حرفش دیگر معنایی نداشت، دروغ‌هایش بیشتر از وقتی که راست می‌گفت به دل زن‌ها می‌نشست.

مسئله این نبود که او دروغ می‌گفت، بیشتر این بود که راستی وجود نداشت که بگوید.

فکر کرد: از مردن هم مثل سایر چیزها دارد حوصله‌ام سر می‌رود.

Anyone looking for a good entry way into Hemingway need look no farther. This basically acts as an unofficial greatest hits. Not only do you get the wonderful and surprisingly vunerable (tho kinda misogynistic) title story, a quiet meditation on death and wasted potential. But you also get A Clean Well Lighted Place considered the greatest short story ever written by none other then James friggin Joyce, and most of the best Nick Adam's stories as well, including The Killers, Fathers and Sons, and A Way You'll never be.

A great collection.