Scan barcode
A review by liralen
Reunion in Barsaloi by Corinne Hofmann
3.0
Then all of a sudden I realize how absurd and hypocritical my attitude is: on the one hand, I'm lost in rapture at how colourful and beautiful the traditional clothing of the young girls and warriors is and wish Samburu traditions could be preserved as long as possible, while on the other, I'd like to see those customs and rituals which offend my European sensibility changed.
-Corinne Hofmann, Reunion in Barsaloi, 87
I had mixed feelings about the first two books, but other reviewers had suggested that this one was easier to swallow, and it didn't disappoint. The obvious difference is in the situation -- in The White Masai Hofmann chronicled a period in which she expected to be in Kenya indefinitely; in Back from Africa she knew she wouldn't be returning to Kenya in the near future. In the period described in Reunion in Barsaloi, though, she's in Kenya only to visit. She's in a much different position than she was in the previous books -- less to prove in some senses, but more to prove in others. She also knows, in this book, that she's an outsider, in a way she didn't acknowledge in the previous two books.
Then, too, fourteen years down the line she's in a different place in life than she was when she first went to Kenya. There's less of the romantic about her this time around, even when places and people stir up old memories. More of a realist. She sees things that she might not have before, such as the quotation above or that the people she lived with had very complex reactions to her moving in.
Kind of hoping that at some point she'll write about taking her daughter back to visit Kenya, assuming that happened/happens.
-Corinne Hofmann, Reunion in Barsaloi, 87
I had mixed feelings about the first two books, but other reviewers had suggested that this one was easier to swallow, and it didn't disappoint. The obvious difference is in the situation -- in The White Masai Hofmann chronicled a period in which she expected to be in Kenya indefinitely; in Back from Africa she knew she wouldn't be returning to Kenya in the near future. In the period described in Reunion in Barsaloi, though, she's in Kenya only to visit. She's in a much different position than she was in the previous books -- less to prove in some senses, but more to prove in others. She also knows, in this book, that she's an outsider, in a way she didn't acknowledge in the previous two books.
Then, too, fourteen years down the line she's in a different place in life than she was when she first went to Kenya. There's less of the romantic about her this time around, even when places and people stir up old memories. More of a realist. She sees things that she might not have before, such as the quotation above or that the people she lived with had very complex reactions to her moving in.
Kind of hoping that at some point she'll write about taking her daughter back to visit Kenya, assuming that happened/happens.