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A review by jacki_f
Circling the Sun by Paula McLain
4.0
I had never heard of Beryl Markham before picking up this book, but what a fascinating life that woman lived! Born in England but raised in Kenya by her father who was a horse trainer, Beryl rubbed shoulders with the Happy Valley set, was close friends with Karen Blixen (the author of Out of Africa), possibly had an affair with Queen Elizabeth's uncle and was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic from East to West. Add to this colourful life some truly intoxicating descriptions of Kenya and you have a "can't put down" book. I loved reading it and now I am dying to read more about that period in history and of course to re-watch Out of Africa (although Beryl does not figure in it).
This is an immensely readable book - we are swept along by Beryl's eventful life and if anything, the flaw is that so much happened to her that it might have been better to leave some for a sequel. The book only focuses on 11 years of her life. Her aviation career only takes shape very near the book's end and adds little to the story. Wikipedia also tells me some tantalising facts about her life which didn't make it into the book - for example several affairs, including one with Antoine de Saint Expury. Instead, Circling the Sun is centered on the great love of her life (and also of Karen Blixen's): Denys Hatton.
While Beryl is fascinating, I didn't always feel that I fully understood her and I couldn't quite decide if I liked her or not. Apparently Ernest Hemingway described her as "very unpleasant and we might even say a high-grade bitch", and there is enough suggestion in here about why he might have felt that way. She seemed to be someone who used and discarded the people around her and she didn't exhibit much loyalty to her friend Karen. Her relationship with the Duke of Gloucester is written in an ambiguous way, which I thought was a cop out of the part of the author - this isn't a biography, so make a decision about what you think happened!
This is an immensely readable book - we are swept along by Beryl's eventful life and if anything, the flaw is that so much happened to her that it might have been better to leave some for a sequel. The book only focuses on 11 years of her life. Her aviation career only takes shape very near the book's end and adds little to the story. Wikipedia also tells me some tantalising facts about her life which didn't make it into the book - for example several affairs, including one with Antoine de Saint Expury. Instead, Circling the Sun is centered on the great love of her life (and also of Karen Blixen's): Denys Hatton.
While Beryl is fascinating, I didn't always feel that I fully understood her and I couldn't quite decide if I liked her or not. Apparently Ernest Hemingway described her as "very unpleasant and we might even say a high-grade bitch", and there is enough suggestion in here about why he might have felt that way. She seemed to be someone who used and discarded the people around her and she didn't exhibit much loyalty to her friend Karen. Her relationship with the Duke of Gloucester is written in an ambiguous way, which I thought was a cop out of the part of the author - this isn't a biography, so make a decision about what you think happened!