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3.63 AVERAGE
3.63 AVERAGE
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
I had previously reviewed the combined print edition of Out of Africa - and - Shadows on the Grass so this is just a follow-up to say that the audiobook reading by actress Julie Christie is excellent as well, with Christie performing the many dozens of roles with great use of accents and child-like / old-age / European / African voices/accents as appropriate. As an audiobook it proceeds at quite a leisurely pace though, taking 12 hours to be read. I found myself reading the print edition much faster than that. So this is probably best for someone who already loves the book and just wants to savour the stories again.
informative
reflective
slow-paced
I had a difficult time getting into this book. The first section wandered tremendously and was hard to follow. The author has a clear devotion and love for Kenya and her people but her existence as a colonizer is also difficult to ignore and the white saviorism is rampant. The middle of the book is the best, the stories engaging and the prose is beautiful throughout. Her mourning and sorrow as she leaves was also difficult to stomach though for while she can return to Europe and live her life the people that had come to rely on her did not have the same opportunity.
slow-paced
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
There is some truly lovely writing and story telling in this book. I found the last part, with Blixen's description of the failing of her farm and her need to leave Africa, especially poignant. One does have to remember that this is written through the perspective of colonialism and this becomes very apparent in her description of the people and events around her.
Edited Review After Second Time Reading this Book:
Okay, I am still in love with the style of the writing and how the story just holds you captive even though when I stop reading it, I keep thinking what is so appealing about it.
Now, what made me rethink the rating of this book and how I perceive it, is that this time I read between the lines. I chose this book to write my term paper on it for the course "Other Literatures in English" and I am focusing on the Concept of the Other in it. Here's what I have discovered so far: it's a long piece of othering and discriminating against the Natives.
Okay, Dinesen loves them, but what kind of love it this? It's the love a master bestows upon his animals. Also, concerning animals, this constant likening the Natives to animals is just infuriating: like a chicken that has lost its head or screams like a pig or his animal eyes.
It's a dangerous kind of love.
Also, how can anyone living in a country that is not theirs use the possessive "my" before everything in it, even the Natives: My Natives.
The language is still beautiful, some parts where she just writes about her life and what she loves are beautiful. Other than that, this is a purely colonialist and racist text.
I loved this book, it is like episodes from her life in Africa. The Narration is so beautiful, you feel while reading it that the narrator is definitely a storyteller. I've seen Africa through her eyes and I've imagined it inside my mind. It is true that there are some things which I did not like at the beginning of the book, but afterwards i forgot all about them and thought, if this book is her diaries or episodes from her life, then I ought to forget what I didn't like, she came to Africa as a European who looked upon the natives as another species of animals, but she left Africa believing that she has left a family behind. Her narrative, description and her stories are amazing and beautiful.
Okay, I am still in love with the style of the writing and how the story just holds you captive even though when I stop reading it, I keep thinking what is so appealing about it.
Now, what made me rethink the rating of this book and how I perceive it, is that this time I read between the lines. I chose this book to write my term paper on it for the course "Other Literatures in English" and I am focusing on the Concept of the Other in it. Here's what I have discovered so far: it's a long piece of othering and discriminating against the Natives.
Okay, Dinesen loves them, but what kind of love it this? It's the love a master bestows upon his animals. Also, concerning animals, this constant likening the Natives to animals is just infuriating: like a chicken that has lost its head or screams like a pig or his animal eyes.
It's a dangerous kind of love.
Also, how can anyone living in a country that is not theirs use the possessive "my" before everything in it, even the Natives: My Natives.
The language is still beautiful, some parts where she just writes about her life and what she loves are beautiful. Other than that, this is a purely colonialist and racist text.
I loved this book, it is like episodes from her life in Africa. The Narration is so beautiful, you feel while reading it that the narrator is definitely a storyteller. I've seen Africa through her eyes and I've imagined it inside my mind. It is true that there are some things which I did not like at the beginning of the book, but afterwards i forgot all about them and thought, if this book is her diaries or episodes from her life, then I ought to forget what I didn't like, she came to Africa as a European who looked upon the natives as another species of animals, but she left Africa believing that she has left a family behind. Her narrative, description and her stories are amazing and beautiful.
I hate colonization, and I hated reading about Africa from the POV of a European. I only gave it 3 stars because some of the writing was very poetic and moving. Otherwise, it's a 1 from me.