Book Review #27: The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Short Stories by Ernest Hemingway

My Overall Review: 8.5/10

Introduction:

I decided to dive into some of Hemingway’s earlier work, namely his short stories. I bought this book at the Boulder Bookstore for $4.99 and then proceeded to read it each day before sitting down to write as a warm-up to get my creative thoughts flowing. Hemingway’s powerful simplicity remains second to none in my mind. 

Overview:

This book shares some of Hemingway's early stories told in his distinctive style.

In these early Hemingway stories, which are partly autobiographical, men and women of passion live, fight, love, and die in scenes of dramatic intensity. They range from haunting tragedy on the snow-capped peak of Kilimanjaro, to brutal America with its deceptive calm, and war-ravaged Europe.

My Thoughts:

It’s interesting to explore different writers and their different pieces of work. For a long time, I thought that novels and longer-form content were all there was when it comes to big-name authors and their work but I was wrong.

Shocker. 

As it turns out, it takes a different type of skill set to write short stories than it does novels and vice versa. Not everyone who writes good short stories is good at writing novels and not everyone who writes good novels is good at writing short stories. So it’s interesting to me as a writer to study not only the styles of different authors out there but also to study those same authors within different types of writing. Namely novels, short stories, poetry, and different genres.

Ernest Hemingway is a controversial figure when it comes to writing for no other reason than the fact that his writing is painfully simple. He uses simple and short sentences, short dialogue between characters, settings, and plot lines that are both non-exciting and seemingly boring. Yet, within his writing, there is much more than meets the eye. It takes someone who can read between the lines and someone who tries to understand what the characters are going through to fully comprehend the point that Hemingway is trying to make. To some, Hemingway can be extremely boring. But to me, I find a lot of beauty in his simple approach to writing. 

In my own writing, I oftentimes remind myself when I get too caught up in fancy words and exciting plot lines to simplify things and to be more like Hemingway. I would recommend this book to anyone who may not like Hemingway in his long-form content but someone who wants to experience his style of writing in smaller does.

Happy reading friends!

Have any thoughts on my take(good or bad)? Let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear from you!