Ernest Hemingway's Green Hills of Africa: The Library Edition

Gregory P. Smith: Questionable literary value. After reading Green Hills of Africa, I question Hemingway's literary reputation: I really don't think its as good as decades of scholars have claimed it to be (at least based on this one story). Sure, he weaves a tale as if he were speaking to you around the fireside, so it is easy to understand. But superior prose? Don't buy it.
As for the content of this book, the question kept arising: how much slaughter and killing of beautiful, innocent animals does one man need to engage in, and how many readers want to be told about it, over and over and over.
Even accounting for the era (c. 1930s), the rampant killing of animals (at times wounding them to hunt down as they suffer) is egregious.
Finally, the validity of some of the stories embedded in Green Hills become questionable when Hemingway write - at the very end - when he states "at Haifa, were sitting in the sun against a stone wall by the Sea of Galilee". What claptrap: the Sea of Galilee is 60km inland Israel, while Haifa is on the Mediterranean coast, so there is no way they were enjoying the sun in both those locations at same time!!!

Canada on Dec 20, 2023

Jens: Quick delivery, product as promised

United States on Jul 31, 2023

S.J.W.: The book was everything the description said. It said "good" condition, but it was actually in "perfect" condition. I couldn't have gotten a cleaner book at a bookstore. I would definitely deal with this distributor for future book searches.

United States on Apr 29, 2023

mr nigel dabbs: Brilliant excellent read

United Kingdom on May 31, 2021

Stringer: I love Hemmingway. However, this book was written for hunters. It's about travelling around Africa and yes,
shooting big game, mostly that they just stumbled onto. They spend three-fourths of the book trying to
find Kudus and finally get two big Kudu trophies. They also end up with a Rino, a great male Lion and a couple of
other trophies. It's also about stumbling around in the intense heat and lots of dust with guides and bearers during the mostly dry season in Africa...and also African forests and a few villages they chance upon.
If you're not a hunter it's a tedious book. I loved the rest of Hemmingway's books. His Biography is also a great read!

United States on Nov 09, 2020

Luis Mon: Me regalaron la versión en castellano hace muy pocos días y quise tenerla en kindle y en inglés lo antes posible.

Spain on Feb 10, 2017

Paddington Bear: I read this book in an attempt to understand the motivations of the safari hunters of the 20th century. After travellling through Kenya and being overwhelmed by the beauty and drama of the safari animals, I wanted to know more about why so many Western men were seduced by the idea of killing them. Unfortunately Hemingway in this book doesn't provide many answers apart from a predictable desire for an image of tough masculinity. While it contains some great lyrical descriptions, the book quickly becomes simply a list of his 'triumphs'/killings and his petty competitiveness with other males in the pursuit of trophies. It does not compare with other Hemingway texts but is still worth the read.

Australia on Dec 02, 2015

5 handicap: Hemingway's memoir of a two month trip in Africa is filled with literary allusions about the plight of the writer dealing with himself and his demons, both personal and creative. It needs to be read with a guide for full appreciation. I am still not sure what a "Hippo" represents, but it might be his early novels. "Lions" could be short stories. "The Old Man in the Sea" is likely the "kudu" he sought.

His writing is all pyschological landscape throughout the extended metaphor down to the "odors" to make you more aware. There are no pretty mountains painted with a romantic brush. "Green hills" might be piles of money he sought to maintain his austere lifestyle and heavy drinking habit. He is conscious of his "Soul" and cannot ignore it until he blacks out. The "salt lick" could be the local bar that sustained his feeling of comfort, at home with a few conscious notions. His conscience beckons and bedevils him and reminds him of a Higher Power he chooses to out drink. Women are on a pedestal and often with good aim making pleasant company. His alter ego stands as the person he strives to be, modest, friendly, charming, sociable and talented. His boastfulness and outspokeness...

United States on Nov 19, 2012

Norman1949: Je ne savais pas quîl sagissait d'un produit Audio alors que je le voulais en Livre en Anglais, tant pis pour moi....

France on Oct 09, 2012

Eddie Wannabee: I wanted to like Green Hills of Africa by Ernest Hemingway but I found it more boring than exciting. I have read Death in the Afternoon by him and it was a brilliant book in the whole sense of the word. This one lacks the entertainment value I was hoping to find reading about safari life in Africa. Surely has its moments but mostly they are all sitting by the fireside and long blocks of dialogue with Papa?, back and forth, forth and back, and less and less describing the wild life of the immense region that is Africa. I do not contest the fact that Hemingway has been in more exotic places than most of us can ever hope to be, for he strikes me as even royalty in some cases the way he thinks and acts. I am glad I bought this book used together with another book on the subject of safaris. The other one was heads and tails so much full of life and situations compared to this one. I guess he earned a living even while on vacation and documenting his itineraries was profitable enough. When he was on Africa he wrote of the place, when in Spain he wrote some masterpieces about that place as well. He gets started with dialogue that seem to me self aggrandizing, too full of himself and that...

United States on Nov 15, 2011