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4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
This book was a mixed bag. Most of the writing was rich and descriptive but in many places, I felt the author was arrogant with her word choices. I liked the history and the location and her description of the African bush was fabulous. I felt I was there with her. I listened to it and the reader was Julie Harris. She was wonderful!
Several GR friends read this and enjoyed it, so when it was offer on sale for Kindle I picked it up. It got put to the head of the TBR list after I read Circling the Sun by Paula McClain. McClain wrote quite passionately about the brilliant writing in this memoir, and portrayed Markham as a very interesting woman.
McClain is correct when she writes that it is a shame that Markham’s memoir is far less well known and less read than her quasi rival Karen Blixen’s Out of Africa. While both women are writing about their time in Africa, they approach the issue from different perspectives. With Blixen, I remember how well she writes about her dogs and the various tribesmen. With Markham, I remember how well she writes about horses and hunting.
And no, it’s not hunting in the usual sense of the word. Her chapter about an elephant hunt, that isn’t really a hunt, is one that any teacher should consider using in tandem with Orwell’s often used “Shooting an Elephant”.
But the best chapters, in my opinion, are the ones where she is writing about her horses –whether those she owns, rides, or trains. There is a power in those passages.
I loved listening to this book even though it was recorded back in the days of CDs! Markham's story is one that more of us should know. She lived in a community and time where she was allowed to explore her passions without being forced into female stereotypes. She trained horses and flew airplanes when women were supposed to be that daring.
I wish she had spent more time on her friendship with Denys Finch Hatton and on her groundbreaking solo trans-Atlantic flight. The books ends too soon!
I wish she had spent more time on her friendship with Denys Finch Hatton and on her groundbreaking solo trans-Atlantic flight. The books ends too soon!
It is 1902, universities are barely open to women, voting right is still up for debate and here a little girl is born who seemingly falls into a crack of whatever rigid expectations the societies across the globe have for woman. She was born in Britain and grew up to become an African aviator, professional horse trainer, hunter, writer. A female version of Huckleberry Finn in flesh but much more adventurous and daring. She respects no boundaries to her freedom.
Her writing was beautiful and particularly poetic when it came to describing Africa. Along the way Africa became a part of her and she part of Africa. Her writing also showed immense appreciation for the beauty of human’s first home and its inhabitants. So it was particularly difficult to read the later pages of the book where she accepted the societal norms dictated by the white men on the true inhabitants of Africa, even though she herself did not believe in them. The part about helping hunters massacre elephants for their ivory was so hard to read for me as well. All in all what a life.
Her writing was beautiful and particularly poetic when it came to describing Africa. Along the way Africa became a part of her and she part of Africa. Her writing also showed immense appreciation for the beauty of human’s first home and its inhabitants. So it was particularly difficult to read the later pages of the book where she accepted the societal norms dictated by the white men on the true inhabitants of Africa, even though she herself did not believe in them. The part about helping hunters massacre elephants for their ivory was so hard to read for me as well. All in all what a life.
Beryl Markham was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic, east-to-west. One would expect that to be her life's high point - but that event is merely one more exciting chapter in her almost surreal life.
Such and interesting book. I’ve never read of a life quite like Beryl’s. It’s rare that an autobiography is also written skillfully and this was.
When time seemed longer, the night still nightly dark and still, the beginning of days filled with endless adventures small and big, shallow and deep, hard and harsher to be experienced. That was the time of Beryl. Using her own words to convey what moved her at all levels. They were also other times so don’t fall into the trap of looking at her from your lenses of today.
Btw don’t read the foreword but instead find the letter in which E. Hemingway mentions her. That will put you into the right mood for this exploit.
Btw don’t read the foreword but instead find the letter in which E. Hemingway mentions her. That will put you into the right mood for this exploit.
A good story BUT written by a wealthy british white lady whose wealthy british white dad bought a farm in kenya in the 1910s and moved them there, so, there's a lot of indirect but definitely present racist (and at times sexist and fatphobic) comments that may be described as "dated" but are actually just white supremacist, which made this a difficult read.
when someone as stingy with praise as hemingway raves about a piece of writing it’s probably worth checking out. or at least that was my logic. it doesn’t hurt that beryl had a pretty incredible life, growing up hunting lions beside masai warriors, raising racehorses from age 18 and then of course the small feat of learning to fly when aviation was still in its infancy. luckily for us markham happened to be a very capable writer as well, with more than a few turns of phrase that made me chuckle. a life well lived and surely one worth remembering.