I picked up this collection of ten Ernest Hemingway short stories when I was looking for Literature (with a capital L) to suggest to my real-life book club for its monthly read (whoever is hosting book club that month is responsible for nominating 5 or 6 books, and then everyone in attendance votes). Poor Hemingway was a no-vote-getter; North and South won in a landslide. But since (a) I'd already brought this book home from the library, (b) I like short stories, and (c) I felt like I needed to add more Hemingway to my life than the one or two short stories I'd read in the past, I decided to read this book anyway.

These stories were written in the 1920s and 1930s. Ernest was a good-looking guy when he was young:


Maybe his good looks and intelligence and talent made it more difficult for him to be happy and satisfied in life; I don't know. In any case, he lived an adventurous and problematic life (he was married four times, had any number of affairs, and committed suicide at age 61 due to serious illness).

Hemingway had a somewhat unique and testosterone-soaked code of honor in which dignity and courage were the paramount virtues, and that comes through pretty clearly in most of these stories. They're chock-full of violence and brutality and various types of unpleasantness:

* detailed, brutal scenes of hunting on an African safari in "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber"
* a man dying of an infected leg in "The Snows of Kilimanjaro"
* a fixed (or is it?) boxing match in "Fifty Grand"
* hit men on the prowl in "The Killers"
* men suffering both physical and mental war wounds in ... several stories.

The women characters in these stories are of the ball-and-chain variety and/or actively predatory and cruel; the first and last stories in particular have some really nasty relationship issues. Some of the stories are so slice-of-life that I'm not sure what their point was.

It would be very easy, especially in our day and age, to be dismissive of his stories. I can't say that the values espoused in them really speak to me in any profound or moving way.

And yet there's something in these stories, often below the surface of his simply-told tales, that has worked its way into my head and pokes at me and my comfortable life. "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" is, at least in part, a cautionary story about using your talents and not letting life pass you by because it's easier to say "I'll do that sometime later." These stories have made me think a little harder about being, and doing, what is important to me, even if they're not the same things that Hemingway thought were important.

It seldom gets better than Hemingway.

Wie immer in einer Kurzgeschichten-Sammlung gibt es Geschichten, die einem gefallen und Geschichten, die einem nicht so zusagen. Hier gefiel mir 80% des Geschriebenen wirklich sehr gut, der Rest entsprach einfach nicht meinem Geschmack oder nicht meinen Interessengebieten.
Dennoch konnte mir diese Sammlung einen wunderbaren ersten Eindruck von Hemingway bieten und mir Lust auf seine Romane machen.
Die Vielseitigkeit der Geschichten hat mir hier wirklich gefallen und hat mich positiv überrascht, da ich erwartet hatte, es ging mehr um den Krieg, wie es bei Hemingway ja doch des Öfteren der Fall war. Hier ist aber sicherlich für jeden etwas dabei und so habe auch ich hier viele Geschichten wirklich genossen. Eine Empfehlung an alle die, die Kurzgeschichten oder Hemingway mögen oder sich einfach mal ein kleines Bild vom Schreibstil dieses Autors machen wollen. Als Einstieg, meiner Meinung nach, wunderbar geeignet.

4.0 Stars. Wow. What a story!

I had not read anything about this story before I read it, and was expecting a tale of adventure. Maybe something along the lines of mountain climbing in the snow or something. Hemingway was known to be a big outdoorsman, so outdoors adventure was my expectation.

Instead I got sort a ‘Hemingway meets The Death of Ivan Ilych’ read! A writer laments the fact that he never wrote very much of what he wanted to write about, while lying in a camp on the plains of Africa, waiting to die of the gangrene he’d contracted from a scrape with a thorn.

Oh well!

It was a good story anyway. The writer, of course, wrote the little stories as he was telling the audience these unwritten tales he should have written. A few small but interesting tales; his girlfriend nearby the whole time encouraging him to drink broth and do other things to help himself while they waited for the plane to come.

It was certainly worth the read.

4

Hemingway’in en popüler yapıtlarından seçilmiş on kısa öyküden oluşan kitaptır. Bir hikayenin nerede başlayıp nerede bitmesi gerektiği konusundaki muazzam başarısına kaynaklık eden içgüdüsünü bolca fark edebilirsiniz. Kitaba ismini veren hikaye en iyi hikayesiydi. Hemingway'i ve onun yarattığı dünyaları daha yakından tanımak ve çözümlemek uğraşında olanların mutlaka okuması gereken bir kitaptır.

‘’Bir rüyayı rüya yapan şey nerede başlayıp nerede bittiğini bilmememizdir."

( editado)
Dizem que neste conto Hemingway ridiculariza o conceito de ricos e pobres transmitido por Scott Fitzgerald em «The rich boy», que li há poucas semanas.
Eis que encontro a passagem:

«Agora ela já não bebia tanto. Desde que o tinha a ele. Porém, se ele não morresse, nunca escreveria a respeito dela, sabia-o perfeitamente. Nem a respeito de quaisquer outros. Os ricos eram maçadores e bebiam muito ou jogavam excessivamente ao gamão. Eram maçadores e repetiam-se constantemente. Lembrava-se do pobre Julian e do aborrecimento que este lhes tinha. Certa vez principiara a escrever uma novela que começava assim: "Os muito ricos são diferentes de ti e de mim". E alguém dissera a Julian : " Sim, têm mais dinheiro ". Mas Julian não achara graça ao comentário. Considerava-os uma raça especial, cheia de atractivos, e quando verificou que não era como os imaginava, essa conclusão destroçara-o completamente.
Tinha desprezo por aqueles que tudo destroem. Não era preciso gostar para compreender. " Tudo podia vencer, pensou, "porque nada o magoava, desde que não lhe ligasse importância.»

De salientar, que, no início deste excerto, noto também uma piadinha ao « Terna é a Noite», que estou a ler em simultâneo.

Não sei exactamente qual era a relação entre Hemingway e Scott Fitzgerald; eram inimigos declarados, ou detestavam-se cordialmente? Mas, pergunto eu, ambos não transmitem a ideia de uma vida ociosa caracterizada por bichos carpinteiros?

Quanto a este conto: no sopé do Kilimanjaro, acompanhado por um criado e uma mulher, um escritor com gangrena recorda e reflecte sobre o seu passado ( a vida ) e a morte inevitável. E começa a ficar aborrecido com a vida e a morte, ou a ideia de morrer. Porque é uma maçada tudo o que interessa durante muito tempo; porque pouco interessa a companhia que gostaríamos de ter; porque as pessoas acabam sempre por se afastar; porque quando as festas acabam, ficamos sempre sós com os donos da casa.
O pessimismo de Hemingway num conto que não me deslumbrou, mas tem um título bonito.

The Snows of Kilimanjaro July 2021
The first short story in the collection. Hemingway gives Harry a terminal outcome but Harry is a writer and a dreamer. His life has not gone as well as he wished. His relationship with Helen is just that. His thoughts are memories (italicized words, I believe are streams of unconsciousness) are sad to me. Harry may have done many selfish and evil things in his life, but he still had times when he was kind and humane to others.The end is what Harry wanted. The snow-white mountain of Kilimanjaro is a beautiful place for Harry.

Hemingway is writing about death, regret and taking life for granted.
He seems to always have an underlying meaning that I have not missed again in this story.

“the snow as smooth to see as cake frosting and as light as powder and he remembered the noiseless rush speed made as you dropped down like a bird”

What a great story! I loved the way the man's thoughts wandered as he lay on his camp cot waiting to face death and thinking about the stories he was never going to write, but writing them in his head. Even the story about his end felt so real.

I listened to it three times over. It got better and better each time! Charlton Heston's voice added so much life to the man's arguements with wife and his feelings about what was happening to him.

Thank God this was only about 30 pages.

برف های کیلیمانجارو نویسنده ارنست همینگوی ترجمه علی حسنی فرد

If he is to lose everything, he should not place himself in a position to lose that. He should not place himself in a position to lose. He should find things he cannot lose.