Brilliant Writing!
When I ordered this book, I thought that I had previously read it and was simply replacing a lost volume. Apparently, I had confused Dinesen's work with that of Markham's "West With the Night", another excellent chronicle about the same time and place. As much as I loved Markham's book, this one is better!
The book not only offers sensitive portraits of a range of characters who played a role in the daily life of Blixen (Dinesen)when she lived on her famous farm (at the foot of the Ngong Hills), but it also reveals, thereby, the surprising depth of Blixen's empathy with the people around her. Blixen, a Danish baroness, gives us a truly remarkable rendition of West Africa in the era of early European colonialization, as the traditional lives of the Somalis, the Masai and the Kikuyu were just beginning to be impacted by "modern" civilization. Her language is beautiful.
This fond and poingnant look into the past gives one a new and expanded insight into the condition of Africa and its sons and daughters in today's world, as well as an appreciation for the complex personality of at least this one specimen of European aristocracy. The book is so VERY much better than the movie.
Out of Africa
It arrived promptly and was in excellent condition. The picture of the book didn't match the book cover I received, but that's no big deal :)
"the African Native has not handed over his country to the white man in a magnificent gesture..."
Several years ago, I'd read Beryl Markham's WEST WITH THE NIGHT. As taken as I was with her account - Dinesen's story punctuated by her recollections "From an Immigrants Notebook" and the closing "Farewell to the Farm" were as different in perspective and place as imaginable. The entire era in which Dinesen lived and - well - subscribed is difficult to fathom. The casual attitude of right by birth - purely by being European - over the 'Natives' even as Dinesen observes with a stunning clarity the strengths and, in some cases, triumphs of the Natives over the Whites - she holds herself separate. As if she is a scientist and is the spirit of neutrality but her tone betrays her and her off-the-cuff manner of equating Natives to monkeys speaks volumes. Still - her recall is powerful and her craft in writing is as well. She deftly and unobtrusively grafts history, language and poetry into a singular product. Some favorite examples: "A medal is an inconvenient thing to give a naked man..."; "'Let us drive as far as our graves.'"; "Here the great trackers had lost the track, and sat immovable." Her earthquake experience brought to mind Emily's from A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA. And her use of Shakespeare as a measure of character struck a chord: "All my life I have held that you can class people according to how they may be imagined behaving to King Lear." An amazing account of a deservedly lost age.
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