Author: Paula McLain
Length: 400 pages
Circling the Sun
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Description
“This powerful novel transports readers to the breathtaking world of Out of Africa–1920s Kenya–and reveals the extraordinary adventures of Beryl Markham, a woman before her time. Brought to Kenya from England by pioneering parents dreaming of a new life on an African farm, Beryl is raised unconventionally, developing a fierce will and a love of all things wild. But after everything she knows and trusts dissolves, headstrong young Beryl is flung into a string of disastrous relationships, then becomes caught up in a passionate love triangle with the irresistible safari hunter Denys Finch Hatton and the writer Baroness Karen Blixen. Brave and audacious and contradictory, Beryl will risk everything to have Denys’s love, but it’s ultimately her own heart she must conquer to embrace her true calling and her destiny: to fly.”
Janet Dore –
“I’ve sometimes thought that being loved a little less than others can actually make a person, rather than ruin them.”
Before reading this book, I only knew that Beryl Markham was a record-setting pilot in the 1930s. By the time I finished, she was part of my literary sisterhood.
We share many traits…
She was physically and emotionally abandoned by both of her parents.
She even resisted the “typical” life lived by the whites living in Africa.
She was fiercely independent, proud, and determined.
She both loved and was frustrated by men.
She did what she wanted despite the face that people tried to stop her.
Rather than choose victimhood, she rose.
This was my first read about English colonial life in Africa. I could see the stunning beauty of Nairobi based on Paula’s vivid descriptions—and totally understood the desire to live in such an untamed place.
What an interesting peek into the lives of some of the rich white people living there at this time in history. The issue of classism was not addressed in the story, so much was left unsaid, but you definitely get a sense of the rampant hedonism of the crowd and times.
On behalf of all women, I was totally disgusted by the massively misogynistic behavior of most of the men and women’s forced reliance on their good will. (I’d like to say we’ve significantly evolved in 100 years, but we haven’t come anywhere near far enough.)
On behalf of Beryl, I was sickened that despite being exponentially smarter, stronger and savvier than most of the men in her life, they were often successful in holding her down. She was forced to fight for her dreams and survival until the very end.
I’ve added Out of Africa and West With the Night to my reading list to learn even more. The former was written by one of Beryl’s friend about her love affair with the man Beryl also loved; the later is Beryl’s memoir.