The Hemingway Library Edition - Green Hills of Africa

In Hemingway's nonfiction recounting of his life in Kenya and of the many, many animals he shot while there, Green Hills is his quintessential nonfiction reportage mastered. While Wolfe would wear a white suit, Hemingway dresses as a hunter and became part of the land, even as he continually searches for the next great hunting plain.

Hemingway was no stranger to the Kenya in his fiction; fictional memoir True at First Light and numerous short stories were set there. But like Death in the Afternoon is a near essential companion to H.'s classic The Sun Also Rises, Green Hills offers a unique, if romanticized, recounting of the life that, if not inspired, at least influenced the fiction.

The back half of the book focuses on reaching an untouched hunting area known to few. Set against a race against the clock as Hemingway must depart, his seeming bloodlust for shooting rare and exotic animals mainly for their pelts seems unconscionable now, but when viewed as a historical record of how things were, is refreshing in its honesty.

This book worked on two levels. On one level it's a recounting of a big-game safari that Hemingway undertook with one of his many wives (referred to only by initials, POM) and two of their friends - Karl, whom he finds himself rivalling in a bid to bag the best game; Mr JP or Pop, in real life an acclaimed hunter/guide who apparently accompanied Roosevelt on a safari.
The details can be a bit confusing as the four of them move, sometimes together and sometimes separately, across a lot of African country that is differentiated only by the quality of its game and a lot of long African names that are impossible to keep track of. Otherwise it's easygoing - this is Hemingway's simple direct prose at its best, and probably the most readable of his books that I've come across so far. There is a simplicity and contentment in his writing that evokes very well the lifestyle they led, untroubled by anything except the desire to shoot the perfect kudu; each day spent in a beautiful country eating, reading, walking and hunting, then going to sleep and waking to do the exact same things; where all triumphs and tragedies are to do with hunting and no world beyond that exists. For once Hemingway even has a happyending!
It's certainly an eye-opener for the majority of us who, not being rich white expatriates in a time when environmentalism and animal rights hardly merited concern, will never embark on a safari. The fact that it's wholly non-fiction is a trifle surprising, for events build up to a convenient climax, and the ending contains convenient closure.
Delve a little deeper and Hemingway allows us to accompany him through his thoughts - his reflections on Africa, hunting, writing, living. He has a knack for looking at things in an unique light, reducing concepts down to simple terms and insisting that this is the way things are... Also, an idea of the author himself - the type of person he is - is built up quite clearly, more so than in `A Moveable Feast'. There the author as a distinct individual never quite took shape; here he does, a character with his own follies and graces.... but it's interesting and well-written - two

Hemingway was a depressive who had a special relationship with death. His excellent--essentially true--tale, 'The Green Hills of Africa' highlights this relationship. No, not because it the killing integral to hunting but because it highlights disappointment and, to a certain extent, selfishness. Hemingway is altogether human. He doesn't always bag the best trophy. His trophies are smaller or 'uglier' than those of his friend. It is a source of personal disappointment.

Having hunted almost everwhere for almost everything, I know that luck is just that 'luck'. It bears no relationship to effort or even expertise. Sometimes the least likely hunter is blessed and the old pro, who knows all the tricks and kills himself with effort, goes off empty-handed or with a lesser animal. Actually this is exactly what keeps most of us hunting...the gamble. Like a gambling addict we keep at it because the highs and lows are just so compelling. Hemingway, in his own way, knew this and he recognized it's necessity and inevitability. Hemingway knew death and his disappointment was death in a very tight package. At age 61 he took a shotgun and blew his head off. No surprise and perhaps inevitable.

Ron Braithwaite author of novels--'Skull Rack' and 'Hummingbird God'--on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico

some highlights: the swahili word "m'uzuri" meaning good or well reminds hemingway of missouri. such classical hemingway wry humor. also, "simba" is another swahili word that i had the pleasure of learning in this book, which reminds ME of the disney beloved character, of course. (and jason raize, who played the adult simba on broadway who died tragically too young--look him up, people!)

the few pages in chapter one where hemingway met a guy in africa who has heard of hemingway from a lit magazine were excellent. it's hemingway pointing to the sources of great american writings. mark twain's huck topped this chart. moby-dick was mentioned, of course. and henry james (the "two most beautiful words in the english language" as the great--yet not really well known--american poet jim crenner says).

having stated all this, i think this is one of hemingway's weakest books i've ever read. his occasional incredibly long sentences that he does so breathtakingly, magnificently well in other books don't seem to live up to the golden standard that i've seen. the details of the hunt are bloody. bloody boring, that is, at some points.

this is hemingway's second attempt at non-fiction so i'd be interested in checking out his tome of a book on bull-fighting. tho, as any lover of hemingway's writings would know, my lukewarm reaction to "green hills" doesn't even put a tiny dent on my great admiration for this remarkable american writer.

p.s: i finished this book on friday the 13th, june 2008. and how many chapters are there? i love coincidences like this.

In this rare non-fiction work from Ernest Hemingway he brings to life a month long hunting expedition that he spent with his wife Pauline in Africa in nineteen-thirty-three, but he writes it in the true Hemingway tradition. Rather than having it read like a documentary he writes it in the form of a novel.

Both entertaining and exciting it makes the reader hungry for the hunt. At times there is a bit of embellishment, such as making a clean kill on a Rhino at three-hundred yards with a Springfield rifle, (probably with open sights) in chapter four. Such probable exaggerations can be overlooked when we read his descriptions of the land and of the Masai and feel the remorse in his heart after wounding and losing a magnificent Sable Antelope to the jackals.

It's my opinion that Green Hills of Africa is one of the finest hunting stories that has ever been written. Not for the sheer content of the story itself, but for the style, for Hemingway's style, ... and for the way that he recounts a true life adventure in the style of prose that has always proven so riveting in his fiction.

This is a travelogue of Hemmingway's experiences hunting big game in East Africa in the 1930s. EH uses an evocative language to paint a beautiful and romantic picture of an Africa that is now gone forever. The reader can feel the African heat, and sense the frustration when the quarry escapes. There are some glimmers of the best of EH in this book (when he is discussing American literature or the philosophy of writing, for example), but this is certainly not his best work. There are some graphic descriptions of hunting in this book, and a few historical anecdotes. I thought the discussion about the campaigns of von Lettow to be interesting. This must have been common knowledge for Europeans or Americans at the time, but has, I suspect, been completely forgotten by most. The reader will also glean some insights into Hemmingway as a person, and his obsessions with writing and with hunting. It is interesting that EH described himself as jealous and petulant, wanting to have the best trophy to take home, and having a serious case of bad attitude when bested.

Overall, this is a decent, but not outstanding book. Someone approaching Hemmingway for the first time should not, in my opinion, start with this book. There are other novels (or collections of short stories) that should be read first. On the other hand, if you are looking for a entertaining story about big game hunting or about an Africa that has since disappeared, you would be hard pressed to find a better read. An absolute must for any serious EH fan.

"Green Hills of Africa" was Hemingway's first non-fiction book, written after a 1933 trip to Eastern Africa (Kenya, Tanzania). It went a long way in establishing Hemingway's reputation as a hunter and adventurer. Though non-fiction it has the organization of a Hemingway novel and reads much like his other works. His descriptions of the landscape, local people, other hunters, and especially animals, hunting, and killing are superb. Hemingway also shares, mostly as dialogue, his thoughts on life, war, fate, and notably literature and the literary life. His often-quoted idea of all American literature being descended from one book by Mark Twain is presented here, as are his thoughts on how America destroys its writers. Some knowledge of Eastern Africa (such as a basic history, a guidebook, an encyclopedia article) might be useful as Hemingway often does provide much introductory material. With "Green Hills of Africa" Hemingway follows in the footsteps of Theodore Roosevelt's "African Game Trails"; both did much to popularize among Americans the idea of recreational travel in Africa. Hemingway went on to write two fictional stories set in Africa: "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" and "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber". A good book, moreso for fans of Papa and those with an interest in Africa.

Hem is hunting both big game and big literature in "Green Hills." On this 1933-34 African safari, his jovial, Socratic drinking pal "Pop" is actually Phillip Percival the famous white hunter who conducted Theodore Roosevelt on his first African safari. As a young man, Hemingway owned a copy of TR's book "African Game Trails," and it is undoubtedly one of the reasons he went on this safari, which was financed to the tune of $25,000 Depression dollars by his wife Pauline's uncle Gus, part owner of Richard Hudnut cosmetics. Further evidence of Hem's fascination with Africa can be seen in the way Jake Barnes teases Robert Cohn in "The Sun Also Rises." In chapter two, Jake says, " Did you ever think about going to British East Africa to shoot?" Cohn's lack of enthusiasm for an immediate trek to Mombassa seals his fate as a jerk. "Green Hills" vindicates Hem's real aficion for hunting--filled with long descriptions of the arduous and sometimes futile tracking of game, not just celebratory "kills." Finally, the best preparation for reading "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" and "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" is to hike and sweat through these 300 pages of African "country." The long, crescent-horned sable which Hem was painstakingly stalking at the end of "Green Hills" never turned up. But instead, the experience of his African safari, was distilled into those two incredible stories--one about a coward who gets a chance to redeem himself and the other about a washed-up writer whose approaching death stimulates him to dream about--and the reader to enjoy--the fiction he never got to actually write. Unless you've got a rich uncle or wife, this is as close as you'll get to an East African safari, and it is very, very fine.

Indispensable Hemingway. I had read other books and for many years not picked anything of his up. I'm truly glad I did. Not just about hunting, though it has that in spades, this book is about Africa, more specifically an Africa which is a ghost now. This book is a fine time machine and will let you go back to experience viscerally. In my not so humble opinion, it is the finest writing of Hem's career. Settle back in your favorite place with your favorite beverage and find out what sensuous pleasure in reading is.

Green Hills of Africa is set (surprise) in Africa, and it primarily concerns hunting for Kudu and Rhino. Hemingway draws you into the realm of the physical; he draws in precise detail the machinery of the rifles, the approach of the rhino, the canvas of Africa's deep and beauteous terrain.

There are passages in here of remarkable grit and beauty:

"It was a hot place to camp, under trees that had been girdled to kill them so that the se-se fly would leave, and there was hard hunting in the hills, which were steep, brushy, and very broken, with a hard climb before you got up into them, and easy hunting on the wooded flats where you wandered as though through a deer park" (136).

This book was published in 1935, and Hemingway's prose had (sadly), already begun to degenerate from the peak of cold and simple beauty that made his early short-fiction classic literature. However, unlike his latest writing, his obvious exuberant happiness and excitement about life and nature seeps onto the page. He employs the ice-berg technique; we get little information about the characters and their lives and situations. Hemingway entices the reader with a miniature portrait of place, and time. It is about man and nature and redemption through physical activity and danger.

This is the first Hemingway I read and it remains the best. People who think Hemingway only writes in short sentences haven't read "Green Hills of Africa." He uses the longest sentences he can use and there isn't a paragraph in the whole book that isn't magical. After this I read "For Whom the Bell Tolls," a big disappointment, the prose bored me half to death, except for one absolutely brilliant section: the brutal execution of the village fascists by the village commies, as told in flashback by 'the mujer of Pablo.' Then I tried "the Sun Also Rises" which put me to sleep; couldn't finish it, eventhough a third grader could read it. So skip those two "classics" and read "Green Hills," if you want great prose and then start on "African Stories" by Doris Lessing if you don't mind being blown away.

Hemingway once said that a writer needs a built-in- B.S. detector. He forgot to take it along on this safari, though he is willing to stand corrected occasionally by his then- wife Pauline for errors of 'diarrhea of the mouth'. In any case the old Hem style is truly at work here, and it supplies us with some truly beautiful and moving passages. It also supplies us with a capsule survey of American Literature as provided by the great Hem in which he finds Emerson, Thoreau and Whittier all mind and no body, Melville all rhetoric and and an imagined mystery not really there, and only Crane, Twain and James worth keeping. His most famous riff is of course the one in which he says all American Literature derives from a book called Huckleberry Finn which he then says is great to a certain point only. Old Hem in a wonderfully snobbish way tells us that America really has no literature and that we need someone with the discipline of Flaubert and the something else of Stendhal if we are to have one. No doubt he is the one who intends to supply the product.

With all the posturing and the big - game hunting shtantz and the bull which accompanies it( And with it too the morally objectionable chest- beating at cutting down unarmed rhinos, lions, kudu etc. Hemingway is at times here at the top of his game. He was young and strong and relatively happy and had already made it as a writer though perhaps not in the way he ultimately wanted to.

The dialogue between him and the other hunters is to my mind over-mannered stylized pretentious crap.

But there are passages in the book which remind you that this is one of the truly great American writers, and one of , in my judgment, the best short story writers of them all.

I want to cite a passage just to give the feeling of how good old Hem could be when he was good.

" What I had to do was work. I did not care, particularly , how it all came out. I did not take my own life seriously anymore, any one else's life , yes, but not mine. They all wanted something that I did not want and I would get it without wanting it, if I worked. To work was the only thing , it was the one thing that always made you feel good , and in the meantime it was my own damned life and I would lead it where and how I pleased. And where I led it now pleased me very much. This was a better sky than Italy. The hell, it was. The best sky was in Italy and Spain and Northern Michigan and in the fall in the Gulf off Cuba. You could beat this sky; but not the country."

The below is a review of the unabridged CD audiobook version of this work.

The New York Times critic John Chamberlain, in his review of this work cited in the Wikipedia entry for The Green Hills of Africa, wrote: "Green Hills of Africa is not one of the major Hemingway works. Mr. Hemingway has so simplified his method that all his characters talk the lingo perfected in The Sun Also Rises, whether these characters are British, Austrian, Arabian, Ethiopian or Kikuyu." This reviewer agrees. The book’s main weakness is the application of almost the same dialogue structure used, by his characters, in The Sun Also Rises. In that book the dialogue works. In this it does not. The primary reason, in this reviewer’s opinion, is that nearly all the characters, whether they be black porters or European hunters, very unrealistically speak in this manner. This lack of credible believability, for lack of a better term, greatly undermines the work. In addition, the book, unlike so many of Hemingway’s other works lacks pathos and emotion. Also, the dialogue itself, as opposed to just the style of dialogue, is not realistic. The main protagonists spend far too much time discussing literature as opposed to “manly” topics that one would expect these Marlborough men to actually discuss. Lastly, although the audiobook is not too bad, it could have been better. The reading of the CD also is not as pathos filled as it should be. This combined with the fact that the book itself is weak in this regard further undermines it.

In short this is a book only for the most die-hard of Hemingway fans. Still not bad but definitely not one of his better books.

Green Hills of Africa is a repetitive narrative about big game hunting in Africa, with occasional swipes at other writers and critics, some now long forgotten. Occasionally Hemingway rises above the level of monotony of his "story," as he seems to contradict some of what he relates in the narrative. He has ambivalent feelings about the natives, and often expresses them (and in modern terms, this mars the book irrevocably). For instance Max Perkins would not allow this book to be published with certain expletives, but the N word abounds.

Some parts rise above the rest, offering some redemption. On page 284 of my text, Hemingway says that "[a] continent ages once we come. But the foreigner destroys, cuts down the trees, drains the water, so that the water supply is altered and in a short time the soil, once the sod is turned under, is cropped out and blown away as I had seen it start to blow in Canada. The earth gets tired of being exploited. A country wears out quickly unless man puts back all of his residue and that of the beasts...'

GHoA is not going to satisfy readers of For Whom the Bells Tolls or The Sun Also Rises who are seeking more classic Hemingway storytelling. First off, this is not fiction, and it is not, in any sense, a story. It is a travelogue - a vivid and "truly written," often tediously slow diary of Hemingway's African safari in '33 with Pauline. Don't expect Nat'l Geo-like portraits of African spledour either - this is a book about HUNTING. KILLING ANIMALS. However, if you are, like myself, researching Hemingway, this is a wonderful piece of autobiography that draws from his past, his views on other writers, his marriage, his writing and, most of all, his love for hunting. It's not his best writing, but Hemingway on a bad day still beats most anyone. ...only for the non-vegetarians here.

Hemingway's talent for stark literary realism ironically yields a sort of unromanticized romanticism. In pulling no punches, he correctly points out that an animal instantly slain by his bullet does not suffer the agonizing death that otherwise ultimately awaits: being eaten alive by lions and hyenas. Mother Nature is no Romantic.

Hemingway takes a trek through an Africa still largely ruled by "burdoned" white men. He tries to explain why assaulting the native creatures of the dark continent is acceptable (he ate what he killed after all!) But the most intriguing parts of "Green Hills" were not stalking wildlife through tall grass. Rather, Hemingway's most poignant recollections lie in describing the interpersonal relations, the ups and downs, between American and European hunters.
Throughout the entire quest for game, Papa stresses that time is limited by an impending rainy season as well as available funds. He goes on then to remark that hunters are not the only people whose life plans are upset by capitalism. He points out that artists and writers also fall victim to a world whose interpersonal works ravage most of us.

"Green Hills of Africa" by Ernest Hemmingway in a nonfiction, journalistic style biography. It's a day-to-day or event-to-event synopsis of his journey in Africa with his wife Pauline in 1933. We soon learn that Hemmingway has a keen interest in hunting kudu and he's fascinated with the sport of it. He tries to exemplify the luring of hunting and the grace and revival of African grounds. He captures the beauty of the landscape-the essence of Africa-, how it's being threatened by mankind, and how he's a part of it. Hemmingway uses a series of rich descriptions, he identifies rarety and strangeness and promotes the passion of a personal experience and the joy he got out of it at its depth. By transforming his journals into a novel, Hemmingway attempts to unveil the great game of hunting and the great name of literature. The issue is that any Hemmingway reader, expects to mature through the strength of his fictional literature. "Green Hills" is Hemmingway's experiment presenting the exact opposite: his biography is a depiction of who he is including his passion: the African hunt. Of course he's renown for his usual fictional literature, and in it comes success, unlike his non fictional biographies of which audiences have a difficult time relating to. The day-by-day synopsis of his experience and travel is headed more so toward the game of hunting. This seems controversial in the way that "Green Hills" now becomes the story of a hunter, when, in fact, Hemmingway is nothing of the sort, nor has he any experience at it. It is therefore hard to succeed in something outside the realm he's created for himself. Although, as a good writer of literature, Hemmingway captivates the individuality of his tracking of the game as opposed to a sole dedication to the famous `kills'. His enthusiasm towards this evokes the potential for him to dream what he could never write as a fictionist.
I could not attempt to predict one certain target audience for `Green Hills". It's, essentially, a story written by a man about his won personal passion and hobby. It is not directed as good literature, towards hunters or followers of the game, for it is not as sharp as a hunter's biography; its author is simply a writer. But similarly nor is it targeted toward classic literature readers, for it's a simple story and it's not fictional, of which his accustomed audience has a trained mind. Hemmingway was only in Africa once and for a month at length. He may have had a good deal more of content to satisfy his targeted hunters audience, or a better understanding of Africa to relate more efficiently to those of literature, had he have written as a lifelong experience. Much like how Frenchman could explore a Parisian lifestyle more closely than say a tourist of Paris or a temporary resident of the city of Romance.
Aside from depictions of it's purpose and style, Hemmingway gives a good portrayal of the lands, his mates Karl and Pop and his wife Pauline and their travels across a safari jungle. The simplicity of his writing gives an appropriate presentation of the relaxed lifestyle they led, simply to track and hunt the kudu and spend each day in a superb country, feasting, relaxing, reading, strolling and living.

I am a huge fan of Hemingway. For whom the bell tolls is among my favorite books ever. But this one just didn't come close to Hemingway's greatest books. The green hills of Africa is a book about hunting. A team of hunters go to Africa to hunt kudu. And we follow in the teams tracks as they search for prey. It manages to capture the reader's interest, but unless you are a hunter yourself, it will not be a great book. There is not enough going on. But the book isn't bad, it's a good book. Just not one worthy of Hemingway. If your're a huge fan of him, read it, but if your're not don't! Read for whom the bell tolls instead, if you haven't already.

There is little plot, other than the hunting, which I just didn't care about. I liked his analysis of his contemporaries, and American writers in general, but that was a high point that came too early. If you want Hemingway greatness in a hunting story, check out The Snows of Kilimanjaro.

Only true Hemingway enthusiasts would enjoy this. The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms are great starters if you're just getting introduced.

i really enjoyed reading this book beacuase i think that it is very well written. Hemingway uses clear depictions of not only the setting but also the characters whom are involved in the story. the details of the setting clearly lay out a picture of what he and his wife saw while on their safari in Africa. i also enjoyed the dactual aspect of the novel beacause it remind me of africa.

This book Green hills of Africa is a story written through the journal entries of its author, Ernest Hemingway. It tells of the journey he and his wife, Pauline took for one month in Africa. this safari journey took place in kenya and its surrounding areass in 1933. Hemingway describes through his writings the beauty of the the African savannah. Large portions of his writing are also devoted to numerous kinds of animals life that roam Africa and their behaviors

Although i did thoroughly enjoy this novel, there are some who maybe not like the story behind it. this is a very lively and adventurous, no fictional story that would need an equally adventurous person to really get into the story. therefore, i would recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys the outdoors, especially the beauty of the Africa, and also soeone who could appreciate the animals and species of Africa. However, the reader must also be aware that the story surrounds itseft with the hunting and gaming of Africa.

Hemingway's terse but descriptive style is intriguing and provocative as usual, but something is here. The book appears to be nothing more than a journal, and in this case looks are not decieving. This is merely an account of a hunting binge in Africa that captivates the reader but leaves him with virtually nothing to take away. It wouldn't be nearly as successful if it didnt tote the name of America's literature leviathan. All in all, its a quick, easy, fun read.

Much credit is given 'Papa' for his writings on Africa. I can only attribute this to the fact that he is a famous author and more people have read his Africa books/two short stories more than any others. Much like Roosevelts game trails this book is a chronicle of Hemingways two month safari. And like Teddys book comes across as just that. After all they only both went on one safari. If you are really interested in reading about African big game hunting there are two books that communicate the vibrancy and feel of hunting dangerous game in Africa better than Hemingway or Roosevelt. Death in the long grass by Peter Hathaway Capstick and Pondoro by John Taylor are my two favorites. Both are men who spent their lives living and hunting in Africa. Capstick as a Proffesional hunter and game warden in the latter half of this century until 1975, and Taylor as an Ivory poacher from the 1920-30's(?) to the late 40's. If you are anti-hunting forget it but if you are in-between and looking for something more on Africa then Please take a look. I am not saying that Hemingway is bad, it's just that in my opinion Taylor and Capstick bring African hunting alive in a way Hemingway can't touch in the best parts of Green Hills. Hemingway may be the master when it comes to other types of literature, but when it comes to describing hunting dangerous game in Africa Taylor and Capstick reign supreme.

Hemingway would have been better served by including more narratives than the ramblings of his characters. He seems to believe that it is important to capture what they actually said since they are real characters and not imaginary, but how realistic is that? Obviously, he couldn't write while hunting so undoubtedly he paraphrased their conversations when he was able to write - possibly days or weeks later. So if he's going to paraphrase then he should polish up the dialogue. And, perhaps exclude much of the pointless dribble. Some of which might not have been pointless if he had done a better job of developing the characters.

I do not recommend this book. Instead, I would rather point a potential reader of African safari stories to the works of Peter Capstick.

I believe this is Hemingway's only non-fiction book, but it is very similar to his others. At times it talks about his views on the world and literature, but mostly it captures the ups and downs of his hunting trip in Africa. If you like this book, you'd probably like The Sun Also Rises or Hunter S. Thompson's The Rum Diary.

One of our masters takes you on a journey that only few can imagine. I felt as if I were right there with the khakis and bag full of books and local guides...sitting at a well stocked camp each night. One of his lesser known works, no doubt, but quite enjoyable nonetheless. (For a twisted experience, try reading "Snows of Kilimanjaro" immediately afterward, as I did by accident!)

Like trying to pull teeth with tweezers. The only reason I finished this book is because I paid money for it. Had I been on this safari I would have used them all for lion bait. Boring people way out of their element. If you want an entertaining account of a real safari, read "Horn Of The Hunter" by Robert Ruark. This book is a real snooze fest, avoid it.

This a unique Hemingway, in that it is primarily a travel diary of sorts. Of course, being Hemingway, the descriptions of people, animals and the land in general are inspired. This is a must read for anyone interested in what the African bush looks like to a visitor. Since there is no plot, it is not dark like much of Hemingway.

this book is annoying. hemmingway's ego is out of control as he tries to make a big man of himself by shooting his way through an array of animals that of course mean him no harm at all. though i love much of his early work, this book makes him seem a truly horrible person. no wonder he had a long string of failed relationships and ultimatley killed himself. who could live with a jackass like this. in the end, he couldn't even stand to live with himself. this is an almost worthless book.

this book is annoying. hemmingway's ego is out of control as he tries to make a big man of himself by shooting his way through an array of animals that of course mean him no harm at all. though i love much of his early work, this book makes him seem a truly horrible person. no wonder he had a long string of failed relationships and ultimatley killed himself. who could live with a jackass like this. in the end, he couldn't even stand to live with himself. this is an almost worthless book.