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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
One of those rare occasions when I liked the movie better than the book. Blixen/Dineson is a farmer first, not a writer. The series of vignettes she tells of her years running a farm in Africa are certainly interesting, and provide some insights into central Africa (near Nairobi) in the first half of the century (particularly for a European living among the native Africans), there is no real thread to the story, other than her love for the place and the people. Would have worked better with a plot line, but real lives have no such luxury, I reckon.
Time of death: page 328
I tried, I really tried with this one, but I saw absolutely no point in reading the last 50+ pages. I have rarely abandoned a book early on, but never this far in. So this book deserves one star just for that.
The second star is for the fact that I have been having sleeping issues and waking up at 3am most evenings and this book has successfully helped me fall back asleep, often within pages.
I did appreciate the descriptive passages about the coffee plantation and surroundings in Africa. It was also interesting to read the colonist telling of the relationship with the natives; however, I simply could not gain traction with the broken and almost childish narrative.
I hate reading reviews of books that I enjoyed and it was obvious that those people just “didn’t get it”. I am that person today.
I tried, I really tried with this one, but I saw absolutely no point in reading the last 50+ pages. I have rarely abandoned a book early on, but never this far in. So this book deserves one star just for that.
The second star is for the fact that I have been having sleeping issues and waking up at 3am most evenings and this book has successfully helped me fall back asleep, often within pages.
I did appreciate the descriptive passages about the coffee plantation and surroundings in Africa. It was also interesting to read the colonist telling of the relationship with the natives; however, I simply could not gain traction with the broken and almost childish narrative.
I hate reading reviews of books that I enjoyed and it was obvious that those people just “didn’t get it”. I am that person today.
adventurous
reflective
slow-paced
Heartstoppingly beautiful glimpse of a vanished world. I especially loved the first section of the book, with its gorgeous descriptions of nature.
I could say a million things about this book. But I won't, I'll just add some of the points that struck me most.
First of all it is just a pure literary pleasure to read. It is filled with a world so colourful and sparkling that you can get completely lost in its pages. And the literary talent Blixen shows here - as in her other tales - is exceptional, an often disregarded.
About this edition: It is the first unabridged German translation of the original Danish version of the book. (There are two distinct original versions, an English one and the Danish one, which have significant differences that do seem to alter the tone of the book a bit.) And it is a very thoughtful and skilled translation by Gisela Perlet. My Manesse edition has annotations (mainly explaining the numerous literature quotes and references) and a very perceptive after word.
This after word by Ulrike Draesner mentions some of the things that I noted while reading.
One one hand it puts things in perspective about the line between fact and fiction in the narration. Because, of course, the book, filled with stories, is, in my opinion foremost, a work of fiction. While the biographical facts are there, and probably also many of the sentiments expressed by the first person narrator in the book coincide with the authors, the narrating voice in the book represents a multitude of characters.
I was please to find an episode mentioned in the after word that I noted especially while reading. It is one of the incidents that the narrator relates which reflect on an abstract level on how the book itself tries to catch this "Africa" which in fact does not exist either in reality, and even neither in the literary fiction of the book. While on the subtextual level showing how the protagonist in turn tries to capture the beauty of the land.
One can without a doubt (as illustrated in the after word) criticise Blixen on a ex-literary as well as on a literary level. But simply stating the book shows only a white colonist's view on Africa is not doing the work justice (especially considering how this is mostly expressed by people sharing a white and ex-African point of view). Aside from the fact that Blixens view on things would have been considered progressive at the time, it is today a window into this past.
What the book transports without effort is the longing, the unfulfilled passion about Africa (her own Africa) that Blixen feels. That is the romance going on in the book.
And again: It is, over all, just a very artful work of literature.
reflective
slow-paced
At first I was looking forward to reading this because I usually enjoy memoirs a lot. My enthusiasm was quickly snuffed out when I dived into a long, descriptive 400 pages of what sometimes felt like a whole lot of nothing. I very much enjoyed the parts where she describes her dealings and relationships with the native african people who surrounded her and worked for her coffee farm. I really liked the safari bits, and the fact that she only mentions having a husband once, because the story she wanted to tell simply wasn’t about him. But about her and her experience in Africa. I got through the book but it took me forever to give the two and a half hour movie a chance.
The film won 7 Oscars, including Best Picture so it had to be good, right?
They weren’t kidding when they said that this movie was LOOSELY based on the book. Which makes it quite hard to understand how it also snatched Best Adapted Screenplay.
With nowhere to go but up, I found myself enjoying the film way more than the book.
Africa is gorgeous! And the safari scenes where all there. Meryl Streep was amazing as always, and the Kikuyu do become family, just as depicted in the book. The catch is that they made it into a love story!! And since they strayed so much from what I had read, I had no idea where the story was going or where it would end up. So I was surprised (but not really) when they did sorta take her friend crashing his airplane in the book into a SHOCKER of a finale where her lover is the one who crashes and dies. Also, she got syphilis at some point?! Why?!
Overall I did like their relationship or moreso, his view of what love should be.
Love is not about possession.
Love is about freedom.
It’s not about getting married to be able to to call someone your own.
It’s about letting a person be free and have them choose to come back to you every single time, not cause they have to or because it’s what’s expected. And at the end of the day that should speak louder than anything.
So, I’m gonna have to go with the movie for this one. And that’s a plot twist on itself.
The film won 7 Oscars, including Best Picture so it had to be good, right?
They weren’t kidding when they said that this movie was LOOSELY based on the book. Which makes it quite hard to understand how it also snatched Best Adapted Screenplay.
With nowhere to go but up, I found myself enjoying the film way more than the book.
Africa is gorgeous! And the safari scenes where all there. Meryl Streep was amazing as always, and the Kikuyu do become family, just as depicted in the book. The catch is that they made it into a love story!! And since they strayed so much from what I had read, I had no idea where the story was going or where it would end up. So I was surprised (but not really) when they did sorta take her friend crashing his airplane in the book into a SHOCKER of a finale where her lover is the one who crashes and dies. Also, she got syphilis at some point?! Why?!
Overall I did like their relationship or moreso, his view of what love should be.
Love is not about possession.
Love is about freedom.
It’s not about getting married to be able to to call someone your own.
It’s about letting a person be free and have them choose to come back to you every single time, not cause they have to or because it’s what’s expected. And at the end of the day that should speak louder than anything.
So, I’m gonna have to go with the movie for this one. And that’s a plot twist on itself.
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced