Green Hills of Africa

4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars | 1,134 ratings

Price: 12.46

Last update: 01-05-2025


About this item

His second major venture into nonfiction (after Death in the Afternoon, 1932), Green Hills of Africa is Ernest Hemingway's lyrical journal of a month on safari in the great game country of East Africa, where he and his wife, Pauline, journeyed in December of 1933. Hemingway's well-known interest in - and fascination with - big-game hunting is magnificently captured in this evocative account of his trip.

In examining the poetic grace of the chase, and the ferocity of the kill, Hemingway also looks inward, seeking to explain the lure of the hunt and the primal undercurrent that comes alive on the plains of Africa. Yet Green Hills of Africa is also an impassioned portrait of the glory of the African landscape, and of the beauty of a wilderness that was, even then, being threatened by the incursions of man.


Top reviews from the United States

Pamela Blackwell
5.0 out of 5 stars Takes You to Africa
Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2024
I read this before going to Tanzania and loved it. After seeing the Serengiti and the area near where Hemingway was on safari (shooting all those animals!!), I appreciated his descriptions all the more. He takes you with him as he tramples through the brush with his guides and his guns, his booze, and his wife.
Mike B
5.0 out of 5 stars The book was in excellent condition
Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2024
Not the best Hemingway story but the book is excellent for a library collection.
SebastianU.S.
4.0 out of 5 stars Not my favorite Hemingway, but one of the best
Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2011
With books like The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms, I think it's hard for even Hemingway to compete with Hemingway. That being said, Green Hills was a fantastic read; it's a vivid portrait of an Africa long-since vanished and a very charming story. You really get a sense of Hemingway, the man, rather than just the storyteller. He's quick tempered and a little rough around the edges. All in all, great read.
5 handicap
5.0 out of 5 stars Not for Engineers
Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2012
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 are troublesome to the real him.

He is also observant of the toll the imperialists have taken on Africa during their periodic marudings, especially the British. He is not kind to the Americans either, but sees virtue in hunting as an expression of man's unique place on Earth and of his free will. Man is man; God is God; we live most naturally in conflict even in the Garden of Eden (Africa).

The trip to the "plateau" is an important journey for Hemingway and anyone seeking to understand the duality of the human mind. I don't know that young readers will understand his experience, but he was only 35 when he wrote "Green Hills.." and was already aware of an inner struggle between his conscious and subconscious mind. It may have been the theme of most of his writing, which he may have resolved at the end. We pray that is so.
Eddie Wannabee
3.0 out of 5 stars Too full of himself, little excitement!
Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2011
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 is when is time to tune in to animal planet. Average reading for an obviously talented writer, a powerhouse of world wide recognition. I thought this book was going to be quite a book but I found myself skipping more and more pages. Don't have time to admire the name of a famous writer if the the story does not merit it. 3 Stars.
LDM
5.0 out of 5 stars Books
Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2024
Appear to be great, but I have not had time to read at this point, service shipping the books was great.
Hope A Cannaday
5.0 out of 5 stars Love the book!
Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2024
It’s in like new condition
Stringer
4.0 out of 5 stars A hunting trip through Africa
Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2020
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!

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