The Snows of Kilimanjaro was first published in the 1930s. It is a short story about a man named Harry following a truck breakdown in Africa. Actually it is the shortest read we have ever had for book club at a whopping 20-something pages! The story was a bit hard to follow at first, but all credit to the power of Hemingway's writing- the reader quickly picks up on what is going on. His writing is quite sparse and concise. Megan loved the character's self-awareness and thought the writing was beautifully rendered as death approached.
Those of us who had read the biographies last year didn't have a particularly high opinion of Ernest as a person. One of the things we noticed whilst reading this short story was that we picked up on a lot of things that we had earlier read about. Hemingway writes of Harry: "Now he would never write the things that he had saved to write until he knew enough to write them well." His life experiences really did seem to influence his writing, something that often led to tension with his friends and associates in real life.
Many commented that rating this was particularly difficult due to it being a short story. I don't think that anyone loved the story or the character of Harry, but we tried to view the writing objectively. Carmel was glad that she had read it as she has had Hemingway on her list of things to read for a long time.
Scores:
Carmel- 7
Cheryl- 5
Glenda- 7
Kirrily- 5
Kristy- 7
Megan- 8
Average- 6.5
