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A fascinating life - biographies are not my genre, but the craziness of the life of Idina Sackville and the wanton lives that members of their circle lived was riveting.
Book Club gave 6/4/6/6
Book Club gave 6/4/6/6
What a fun, quick read! I'm always down for reading about women who break the rules. Added for it being partially set during that crazy transition period from Edwardian to the modern era. I am fascinated by how much the western world changed from pre WWI to the post war years. It's like everyone had a collective nervous breakdown.
I'm also partial to books chronicling the "bright young things" of 1920's England. Idina Sackville was a part of that hedonistic, self destructive scene. Really one of the ringleaders. Once she had burned all her bridges in England, she moved on to Kenya, where she was one of the founding members of the Happy Valley set. Wife swapping didn't start with key parties in suburban 1960's! Idina and her gang used feathers to pick partners instead of keys. The whole lifestyle was one of purposeful, almost forced debauchery. Personally, I wouldn't have minded more specific stories about all those shenanigans but Osborne's recounting is brief and factual rather than detailed.
Idina comes across, for all her hyper gaiety and endless partying, as a sad lonely person. I really felt for her. In her quest for affection and love, she ended up with nothing at the end. I agree with Idina's assessment towards the end of her life that she should have never left her first husband. Don't get me wrong, he was horrible to her, abandoning her when she was sick and having sex with EVERY woman around. Idina didn't want to look foolish as a jilted wife so she retaliated by leaving. She should have acted more like that great Loretta Lynn song, You Ain't Woman Enough.
Women like you they're a dime a dozen you can buy 'em anywhere
For you to get to him I'd have to move over
And I'm gonna stand right here
It'll be over my dead body so get out while you can
'Cause you ain't woman enough to take my man
Sometimes a man start lookin' at things that he don't need
He took a second look at you but he's in love with me
Well I don't know where they leave you oh but I know where I'll stand
And you ain't woman enough to take my man.
She kept her pride - I guess - but she lost her children and her country and her home(s) and her set of friends. Seems a high to pay.
#popsugar reading challenge/a book published the month of your birthday
I'm also partial to books chronicling the "bright young things" of 1920's England. Idina Sackville was a part of that hedonistic, self destructive scene. Really one of the ringleaders. Once she had burned all her bridges in England, she moved on to Kenya, where she was one of the founding members of the Happy Valley set. Wife swapping didn't start with key parties in suburban 1960's! Idina and her gang used feathers to pick partners instead of keys. The whole lifestyle was one of purposeful, almost forced debauchery. Personally, I wouldn't have minded more specific stories about all those shenanigans but Osborne's recounting is brief and factual rather than detailed.
Idina comes across, for all her hyper gaiety and endless partying, as a sad lonely person. I really felt for her. In her quest for affection and love, she ended up with nothing at the end. I agree with Idina's assessment towards the end of her life that she should have never left her first husband. Don't get me wrong, he was horrible to her, abandoning her when she was sick and having sex with EVERY woman around. Idina didn't want to look foolish as a jilted wife so she retaliated by leaving. She should have acted more like that great Loretta Lynn song, You Ain't Woman Enough.
Women like you they're a dime a dozen you can buy 'em anywhere
For you to get to him I'd have to move over
And I'm gonna stand right here
It'll be over my dead body so get out while you can
'Cause you ain't woman enough to take my man
Sometimes a man start lookin' at things that he don't need
He took a second look at you but he's in love with me
Well I don't know where they leave you oh but I know where I'll stand
And you ain't woman enough to take my man.
She kept her pride - I guess - but she lost her children and her country and her home(s) and her set of friends. Seems a high to pay.
#popsugar reading challenge/a book published the month of your birthday
This is a great book. Im not usually a non fiction fan, but this tome reads like fiction. Frances Osborne, in trying to discover her own roots, uncovers a vibrant, flawed, recklesss and quite hedonist heroine in her great grandmother Idina Sackvile. Is there enough love to ever fill the void in Idina? Does Idina ever realize that her own choices only deepen that chasm? Those questions are posed and turned over in this extremely well written biography.
Lady Idina Sackville was a desperately lonely person, who made a lot of poor decisions out of either desperation or profound loneliness. The moniker “Happy Valley” that was given to her group of friends in Kenya in the ‘30s wasn’t accurate. They were having drug and alcohol fueled parties that led to debauchery, spouse-swapping, and countless affairs, but many of those people were also desperately lonely, trying to fill their empty lives with drugs, sex, and booze, which led to several suicides, many divorces, and at least one murder : none of them were happy. The intertwining lives were interesting, many times I was more intrigued with another person’s life, I may have to pick up some more biographies/memoirs of this time period. The author obviously did a ton of research, but the writing didn’t always live up to the subject matter, some of the chapters could have flowed better, but overall I thought she did a good job. I’m very glad I picked this book up on a whim.
what am i learning? divorce laws in England were barbaric!
6-15-09: I heard the author on NPR, saw her at The Strand, fascinating tidbits but unfortunately that's all there is. Tidbits. She comes to conclusions with flimsy supporting evidence, one line from her great-grandfather's diary "dined with Dina tonight." And then opines on that meal and what transpired, the end notes provide no further foundation.
Her great-grandparents failed marriage is not deeply explored, was it simple immaturity, faithlessness (which she tells us was rather de-riguer for the day, so why did Idina want a divorce and bolt to Africa?)
I'm continuing to read it, hoping there is some insight as the years go forth since the author was able to interview some people who actually know Idina--but I'm 1/2 way thru, 1st & 2nd marriages are over and i only have a hint that Idina is intolerably shallow -- given that she abandoned 2 children in an age when her husbands infidelity was known, surely eventually she could've eventually sued him for divorce--(the law was changed 1 year after he divorced her--which she wanted).
Things just don't add up. The author doesn't have enough insight. She should've keep digging or explored more the "era" or forgotten about it.
6-15-09: I heard the author on NPR, saw her at The Strand, fascinating tidbits but unfortunately that's all there is. Tidbits. She comes to conclusions with flimsy supporting evidence, one line from her great-grandfather's diary "dined with Dina tonight." And then opines on that meal and what transpired, the end notes provide no further foundation.
Her great-grandparents failed marriage is not deeply explored, was it simple immaturity, faithlessness (which she tells us was rather de-riguer for the day, so why did Idina want a divorce and bolt to Africa?)
I'm continuing to read it, hoping there is some insight as the years go forth since the author was able to interview some people who actually know Idina--but I'm 1/2 way thru, 1st & 2nd marriages are over and i only have a hint that Idina is intolerably shallow -- given that she abandoned 2 children in an age when her husbands infidelity was known, surely eventually she could've eventually sued him for divorce--(the law was changed 1 year after he divorced her--which she wanted).
Things just don't add up. The author doesn't have enough insight. She should've keep digging or explored more the "era" or forgotten about it.
I didn't enjoy this as much as I thought I would. Idina just seemed so shallow and I couldn't stand the way she left her kids. It didn't quite work for me, although I can see why others would like it.
This book actually had a different, more misleading subtitle when I bought it: The Chief Seductress of Kenya’s Scandalous “Happy Valley Set.” It was recommended to me by former coworker at a museum, and I was expecting a light-hearted and historically-interesting read. In actuality, this is simply the sad story of a woman who would be an obvious candidate for SLAA - Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous.
Contrary to what I’d expected, Idina was not an unconventional free spirit who embraced sex positivity and healthy polyamory before its time; she was a broken person searching for LOVE (essentially the form she thought a sense of meaning/purpose/safety would take), under the false impression it would finally bring her satiety. Love obviously isn’t enough to provide a meaningful sense of self, purpose and safety, so this never happened for her.
Osborne is not a bad writer, but the way she uses certain words are technically correct but awkward (particularly in descriptions)- the effect is as if she’d randomly replaced words using the synonym word application. And at times she seems very new to storytelling. Some of the history surrounding Idina’s story (copious and tedious name-dropping aside) was very interesting; additionally, I continued reading because Osborne had piqued my interest and I did want to see what happened to Idina. In spite of this, I wouldn’t recommend this book. If you’d like to read a sad story, I can recommend many better others.
Contrary to what I’d expected, Idina was not an unconventional free spirit who embraced sex positivity and healthy polyamory before its time; she was a broken person searching for LOVE (essentially the form she thought a sense of meaning/purpose/safety would take), under the false impression it would finally bring her satiety. Love obviously isn’t enough to provide a meaningful sense of self, purpose and safety, so this never happened for her.
Osborne is not a bad writer, but the way she uses certain words are technically correct but awkward (particularly in descriptions)- the effect is as if she’d randomly replaced words using the synonym word application. And at times she seems very new to storytelling. Some of the history surrounding Idina’s story (copious and tedious name-dropping aside) was very interesting; additionally, I continued reading because Osborne had piqued my interest and I did want to see what happened to Idina. In spite of this, I wouldn’t recommend this book. If you’d like to read a sad story, I can recommend many better others.
Nothing like a good, scandal-laden bio, this about Idina Sackville (cousin to Vita) which takes us back to the wild milieu of pre-WWII colonial Kenya's Happy Valley (described in White Mischief). Template for Nancy Mitford's novels and Michael Arlen's , Idina lived life on her own terms, flaunting her five marriages and many more lovers while she successfully farmed at the edge of the Rift Valley.