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4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
adventurous
tense
slow-paced
Rating a little harsh for personal preference. I am not a huge fan of memoirs, books written in the past, or books written from the proprestive of British aristocrats. I thought this book might change some of those perspectives and it just didn't. Did generally like the writing style, but not the voice. Wish that she hadn't left out so much of her life. Hated the parts about elephant hunting.
Audible version: Wow! Just wow! I can see now why Ernest Hemingway said he was ashamed of himself as a writer after reading her work. She writes beautifully and the book is made even more perfect by Julie Harris's narration.
adventurous
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
Really interesting and adventurous book! Markham has a beautiful voice and her life is fascinating.
“We fly, but we have not ‘conquered’ the air. Nature presides in all her dignity, permitting us the study and the use of such of her forces as we may understand. It is when we presume to intimacy, having been granted only tolerance, that the harsh stick falls across our impudent knuckles and we rub the pain, staring upward, startled by our ignorance.”
As noted at the start, Markham grew up in Africa, with Kenya and its native people in her soul. She started as a horsewoman, but Markham became enamored by the machines of the air after a fortuitous encounter with a famed pilot, who sat beside his broken down car on a dusty Kenyan road. She writes:
“It will be found, I think, that all the science of flying has been captured in the breadth of an instrument board, but not the religion of it.”
The beginning of the book, though, starts on a different scene: Markham brings us right into her atmospheric world with a stirring description of a night flight to deliver oxygen to a man who was badly injured in a mining accident. The dark sky—darker than dark, the faint and homespun lights of the runway, the stress of a dangerous landing. I was immediately hooked by not only the story, but the lyrical and yet readable prose.
Beyond her escapades in the air, we’re treated to all kinds of anecdotes from the entirety of her life. Being bitten by a lion, run-ins with fierce warthogs, her first race as a horse trainer.
It’s only at the very end, the last few dozen pages, in fact, that Markham gets to what she’s most famous for: the first solo east to west crossing of the Atlantic ocean by any pilot, man or woman.
On every single page, Markham writes vividly—masterfully, beautifully—about all of these episodes of her adventurous life. I took a ton of notes from West With the Night; her prose was just irresistible.
I’m stingy with my 5-star ratings, but this was an easy choice. Hemingway, in fact, sums it up best, in one of the great literary endorsements of all-time:
“she has written so well, and marvelously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer. I felt that I was simply a carpenter with words, picking up whatever was furnished on the job and nailing them together and sometimes making an okay pig pen. But [she] can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves as writers ... it really is a bloody wonderful book.”
As noted at the start, Markham grew up in Africa, with Kenya and its native people in her soul. She started as a horsewoman, but Markham became enamored by the machines of the air after a fortuitous encounter with a famed pilot, who sat beside his broken down car on a dusty Kenyan road. She writes:
“It will be found, I think, that all the science of flying has been captured in the breadth of an instrument board, but not the religion of it.”
The beginning of the book, though, starts on a different scene: Markham brings us right into her atmospheric world with a stirring description of a night flight to deliver oxygen to a man who was badly injured in a mining accident. The dark sky—darker than dark, the faint and homespun lights of the runway, the stress of a dangerous landing. I was immediately hooked by not only the story, but the lyrical and yet readable prose.
Beyond her escapades in the air, we’re treated to all kinds of anecdotes from the entirety of her life. Being bitten by a lion, run-ins with fierce warthogs, her first race as a horse trainer.
It’s only at the very end, the last few dozen pages, in fact, that Markham gets to what she’s most famous for: the first solo east to west crossing of the Atlantic ocean by any pilot, man or woman.
On every single page, Markham writes vividly—masterfully, beautifully—about all of these episodes of her adventurous life. I took a ton of notes from West With the Night; her prose was just irresistible.
I’m stingy with my 5-star ratings, but this was an easy choice. Hemingway, in fact, sums it up best, in one of the great literary endorsements of all-time:
“she has written so well, and marvelously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer. I felt that I was simply a carpenter with words, picking up whatever was furnished on the job and nailing them together and sometimes making an okay pig pen. But [she] can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves as writers ... it really is a bloody wonderful book.”
adventurous
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I enjoyed this book so very much. Ms Markham's prose is like poetry. I was captivated by her vivid and lyrical descriptions throughout the book
Such a beautiful book, about British East Africa, horse racing, flying, beautiful, beautiful writing.
A great story of a truly pioneering and thoroughly modern woman, all circa 1930's Africa. Fascinating!
