Transition

Finished "Out of Africa" and was left wanting more. I had found a only sightly worn first American edition for nothing and so I had a feel of a solid book in my hand and the very real prose drew me in. There really wasn't any fiction in the book. The plan was to continue on with "Under Kilmanjaro" Hemingway's last book- the version published by The Kent University Press that has the entire version. The transition from the very womanly voice of Blixen who saw and felt everything and felt responsible to 30 years later to a very male voice concerned with perfection of his behavior in a very romantuc world of chivalry and honor and old man little boy silliness was a bit drastic, but about 30 pages into it, it starts to warm up. It is Hem writing without editing, so the prose is very different from a lot of the other books. They had published an abridged verison called "True At First Light" which tried to make this into a "Hemingway novel" and while it did have moments, it really wasn't a Hemingway novel. He had given up mostly shooting things by the early 50s which does bring it into a modern sensibility a little. Mary is still trying to bag her lion though. I grew up where the men went rabbit and squrrel and deer and quail hunting and did myself until my mid-twenties. The descriptions are a bit wooden so far, none of Blixen's poetry or metaphor, though Hem can get on a very good roll himself sometimes. I know too much about Sherwood Anderson and Ezra and Gertrude not to see the influence in Hem's style even late in life. Blixen was written for herself on her dining room table on the farm. Hem was writing for his audience me thinks. He is still a master and I plan to steal from him still. I'll keep you posted about the good parts.