Book Review – The Snows of Kilimanjaro
An Ernest Hemingway Collection That is Half Fluff and Half Classic
May 10, 2009
As a topical collection, 1961’s The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories (Scribner, ISBN: 0684862212) by Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) serves as a good overview of the more dreary side of Hemingway’s standard subject matter: unspoken dissatisfaction, the absence of emotion in the midst of war, and decent men in the midst of bad lives.
The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Death
In the title story, protagonist-writer Harry turns into the expectation of death towards the end of his life after realizing that he, like us all, will die with stories untold. The monologue where he talks about saving the best stories for too long is surely one of the most terse and accurate statements on the creation of and co-existence with art.
The oft-anthologized “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” retrogrades and shifts the viewpoint of the people who surround misery as opposed to misery itself. Of course, in fitting with the feel of the rest of the stories, there exists the inescapable unity within the brotherhood of melancholy.
An Uneven Collection
Despite the success of both the title story and “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” Hemingway definitely put out an uneven collection. “A Day’s Wait” seems tossed off and pointless: Hemingway’s version of J.D. Salinger’s “Down at the Dinghy” or maybe a story Carver would site as the inspiration for “The Father” almost 20 years later. “A Day’s Wait” fails at the short form that “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” uses to its advantage.
The ridiculously-titled (and perhaps misplaced) “The Gambler, the Nun, and the Radio” is a solid story, despite the ending revealing too much with its final exchange of dialogue The heavy-handed revelation at the end is forgivable, however, and this stands as one of Hemingway’s funniest stories (and funny on purpose, which is rare for Hemingway).
Two Nick Adams stories – the odd “Fathers and Sons” and the solid-yet-anticlimactic “The Killers” – are all right, but the stupid-simplicity of Adams is bound to leave a reader wondering why he has become a reoccurring character in Hemingway’s work.
Between them is “In Another Country,” where the style makes what is important either unsaid or trivialized, thereby perfecting the concept of a dead and unsettled center in the middle of a chaotic swirl of feelings. A third Nick Adams story (“A Way You’ll Never Be”) seemed like a poorly done “In Another Country.”
A Strong Finish and a Good Introduction
The collection closes with “Fifty Grand” and “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” two tales of realization and redemption. This is a very nice introduction to Hemingway’s short fiction, with a enough different types of sadness for everyone.
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