“I had a farm in Africa at the foot of the Ngong Hills.”
So opens the movie that led me to read this book and then
this one. These of course led me to read Circling the Sun by Paula McLain.
Having read McLain’s The Paris Wife about Hadley Richardson, Hemingway’s first wife, I was eager
to read her take on Beryl Markham.
Although the book opens and closes with Markham’s historic
flight, the book focuses on her childhood and early adulthood and explores her
relationships with both men and horses. McLain takes us back to Karen Blixen’s
Africa, not through the eyes of an ex-pat, but through those of a native. As a
young girl, Markham grows up alongside the children in a neighboring Kipsigis
tribe. However, social conventions soon
intervene, and she has to leave behind her childhood in the wild and find a way
to support herself.
Whether fighting off lions, or wrestling with expectations
of women in her time and place, Markham’s life is a struggle. McLain’s
passionate and thrilling depiction of the struggle draws the reader in with ease.
And when she has read the last page, she’ll turn back to Dinesen and Markham
to read the story all over again.
No comments:
Post a Comment