as read by Charlton Heston.
The battle of the sexes, the action anti-hero male, a major life challenge, man alone against Nature, resolving memory and the long past.
Harry, the protagonist, is an American writer and an African big-game hunter, dying absurdly of a self-inflicted gangrenous leg infection.
He quarrels constantly with his most recent, “rich bitch” wife. ( There aren’t too many modern women readers who would likely get very far with suspending judgement on misogynist Harry). But I will point out that he does apologize and appreciate her despite his early nasty moods as he literally dies on the plain. He later objectively and sympathetically reviews her character and the choices she has made . She is loyal, loving, as well as a good shooter and mutually keen lover.
But the main thrust of this story is about Harry’s memories about many past events (many of them dramatic and violent) that he wanted to get into fiction and never had. Ironically, as he thinks about these events, Hemingway is, in fact, capturing them and preserving them for posterity in this story. He is immortalizing Harry’s past and honouring his major life choices. (I should, incidentally, mention that Harry’s memories are presented in memorably sensuous detail.)
There is also some of what Hem called “grace under pressure” as Harry stoically meets his fate head-on as he waits for a plane to arrive to rescue him. The last two story segments and surprise ending are a perfect completion of the story complete with irony, transcendence, and fulfilment. Amazingly, the whole rich, complex story takes place within a mere 47+ minutes it takes to read or listen to it being read.
“The Snows of Kilimanjaro” is a brilliant tour-de-force story about impending death and taking stock; it works well for older, mature readers (especially men) to read and ponder as they mull over their own respective pasts. And it is easily Hemingway’s most powerful, moving, significant short story.