Mon, Aug 08, 2011

: Snows of Kilimanjaro

Author: Ernest Hemmingway

I “read” the audio book version of this which may not have been the best idea. I didn’t realize it was short stories and those don’t always work quite as well as novels in the car (where I listen to audiobooks). If you miss hearing a sentence in a novel, you haven’t missed much, but in a short story, just one line can be critical. Because of that I found a few of these stories difficult to follow. Like the very first one, “Snows of Kilimanjaro,” I didn’t even realize was a story and thought it was the beginning of a novel (which seemed odd, since it’s about a guy on his deathbed, which is an unusual way to begin a novel). I wasn’t paying full attention, either, and suddenly the “novel” ended and I realized it was just a short story. Because of all that I’d like to go back and relisten to these at some point: I think I’d get more and more out of them over time. That said, I did enjoy the stories, and actor Stacy Keach did a surprisingly good job reading them. Some I liked more than others, though I can’t say that any are particularly memorable. I did enjoy the writing style even in stories I didn’t get (like in the boxing story, which I didn’t really follow or understand). Probably my favorite was the story about the lion hunter in Africa. I need to read more Hemmingway.

Topic: [/book]

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