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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
Incredible book, loved it, so insightful into African culture— makes you appreciate the things you take for granted. Charming characters too
I started reading this soon after we came home from our first trip to Kenya. The imagery helped with my homesickness and I appreciated her tales of life on the farm. it dragged a little in the middle with some random journal thoughts about incidents onb the farm. I enjoyed the other story parts more.
I would say this is 3 1/2 stars. It started off so interesting and then I just lost interest. I feel like this would be a better read to physically read then listen to.
If this is supposed to be an African classic - it hasn’t aged well. From her use of the word Native to describe the local people as well as the condescending manner in which it comes across to her delight and excitement t at killing lions on her property in case they were responsible for cattle killings is just disgusting. It’s just an all round no for me.
I found it hard to go back to because it didn't captivate and I didn't really like the language that was used.
This has some beautifully imagery of Blixen's life in Africa, and it pairs well with my reading of Paula McLain's CIRCLING THE SUN earlier this year. Interestingly to me, Beryl Markham is never mentioned in Blixen's book, so I'm interested in reading her own memoir, WEST WITH THE NIGHT, to see what the story is there, since CIRCLING THE SUN was, after all, fiction.
Still, despite all that, this is most decidedly a book of colonialism. My edition is from the 50s and has a foreword attached to it that proclaims OUT OF AFRICA to be one of the best "African" books ever written and goes so far as to imply that it always will be, which seems a bit presumptuous and also patently not true. An excellent memoir of colonialism, sure--but it consequently includes all of the problems that colonialism entails. But if we're talking about excellent books about Africa in general, there are MANY excellent books that are FAR superior to this in writing quality--and by African authors to boot.
Still, despite all that, this is most decidedly a book of colonialism. My edition is from the 50s and has a foreword attached to it that proclaims OUT OF AFRICA to be one of the best "African" books ever written and goes so far as to imply that it always will be, which seems a bit presumptuous and also patently not true. An excellent memoir of colonialism, sure--but it consequently includes all of the problems that colonialism entails. But if we're talking about excellent books about Africa in general, there are MANY excellent books that are FAR superior to this in writing quality--and by African authors to boot.
adventurous
emotional
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
adventurous
reflective
slow-paced
A nice bed-time read: nothing intense, but still interesting and artful