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readingwithclaire 's review for:
The Bolter: Edwardian Heartbreak and High Society Scandal in Kenya
by Frances Osborne
This book actually had a different, more misleading subtitle when I bought it: The Chief Seductress of Kenya’s Scandalous “Happy Valley Set.” It was recommended to me by former coworker at a museum, and I was expecting a light-hearted and historically-interesting read. In actuality, this is simply the sad story of a woman who would be an obvious candidate for SLAA - Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous.
Contrary to what I’d expected, Idina was not an unconventional free spirit who embraced sex positivity and healthy polyamory before its time; she was a broken person searching for LOVE (essentially the form she thought a sense of meaning/purpose/safety would take), under the false impression it would finally bring her satiety. Love obviously isn’t enough to provide a meaningful sense of self, purpose and safety, so this never happened for her.
Osborne is not a bad writer, but the way she uses certain words are technically correct but awkward (particularly in descriptions)- the effect is as if she’d randomly replaced words using the synonym word application. And at times she seems very new to storytelling. Some of the history surrounding Idina’s story (copious and tedious name-dropping aside) was very interesting; additionally, I continued reading because Osborne had piqued my interest and I did want to see what happened to Idina. In spite of this, I wouldn’t recommend this book. If you’d like to read a sad story, I can recommend many better others.
Contrary to what I’d expected, Idina was not an unconventional free spirit who embraced sex positivity and healthy polyamory before its time; she was a broken person searching for LOVE (essentially the form she thought a sense of meaning/purpose/safety would take), under the false impression it would finally bring her satiety. Love obviously isn’t enough to provide a meaningful sense of self, purpose and safety, so this never happened for her.
Osborne is not a bad writer, but the way she uses certain words are technically correct but awkward (particularly in descriptions)- the effect is as if she’d randomly replaced words using the synonym word application. And at times she seems very new to storytelling. Some of the history surrounding Idina’s story (copious and tedious name-dropping aside) was very interesting; additionally, I continued reading because Osborne had piqued my interest and I did want to see what happened to Idina. In spite of this, I wouldn’t recommend this book. If you’d like to read a sad story, I can recommend many better others.