West with the Night

Rating:
Summary: Wow...a beautiful heck of a book!
Review: Mere moments have passed since I closed the back cover on "West with the Night", and already I am missing its world and its voice. It is one of those rare books that can, with the simple fluidity of its narrative, pull you in and engulf you entirely.

I am not a big fan of the memoir, but Markham's (or whoever wrote it) voice is neither bombastic nor humble; she feels less a narrator or subject than a fellow traveller, along with you for the ride. Although the life she lived was extraordinary and compelling, she refreshingly views it in clipped, casual, careful terms, as unimpressed with herself as if she'd been a midwestern housewife, not a pilot and horse trainer in Colonial Africa.

Many readers will approach "West with the Night" out of a pre-existing interest in and knowledge of its era and characters, and will no doubt experience it entirely differently than I did. While a few names rang vague bells, for the most it was an engaging introduction. But I read it as literature, not as history, and enjoyed it immensely as such. I found her small personal anecdotes far more interesting than the accounts of her grand feats. The Atlantic flight that made her famous rounds out the end of the book, but is rather dry and dull compared to her African tales. Stories such as her father's pompous parrot had me in spasms of public giggles.

It is little wonder that Hemmingway praised this book, as the sparse directness of its utilitarian prose makes even the Old Man of the Sea seem a flowery romantic. Its structure can be rather meandering, but in that regard it resembles the contours of memory, which makes me believe Markham did indeed write her own book.

Rating:
Summary: The Great American Novel - Only Its A True Story From Africa
Review: Life and love, hardship and adventure, romance and history - all beautifully woven into a delightful autobiography of an unlikely heroine. The daughter of a poor white farmer trying to eke out a living in untamed and uncharted Africa, Beryl Markham rose from very humble beginnings to become a successful horse trainer, bush pilot, and the first person to fly east-to-west across the Atlantic from England. Her fantastic life seems to be one adventure after another, coincidentally commingled with the lives of Isak Dinesen (the author and heroine of "Out of Africa") and Denys Finch Hatton (played by Robert Redford in the movie, OOA). On this level alone, that of an adventure-packed historical tale, this book is compelling. But the absolute poetry of the narrative makes it inescapable.

Ms. Markham's inimitable flair for description and metaphor are enchantingly powerful. One could truly open the book to any random page and find a treasure. No previous knowledge of plot or precedence would be vital to the enjoyment. That such extraordinary prose also reveals an incredible life provides a rich dividend. Savor the following corsage randomly plucked from the bouquet:

"Arab Ruta... is of the tribe that observes with equal respect the soft voice and the hardened hand, the fullness of a flower, the quick finality of death. His is the laughter of a free man happy at his work, a strong man with lust for living. He is not black. His skin holds the sheen and warmth of used copper. His eyes are dark and wide-spaced, his nose is full-boned and capable of arrogance.

"He is arrogant now, swinging the propeller, laying his lean hands on the curved wood, feeling an exultant kinship in the coiled resistance to his thrust.

"He swings hard. A splutter, a strangled cough from the engine like the premature stirring of a sleep-slugged labourer. In the cockpit I push gently on the throttle, easing it forward, rousing the motor, feeding it, soothing it."

My first encounter with this charming book was accidental but fortuitous. I found the paperback in an airport bookstore, and stayed engrossed and enchanted by the lyrical meanderings for the entirety of my three-hour flight. A few years later I discovered the audio version which springs to an even greater life in the voice of Julie Harris. Her reading of the horse race that proved to be a watershed moment for Ms. Markham, still has the capacity to choke me to tears, though I have listened to it many times.

A few reviewers here have given less than laudatory reviews. This book is absolutely among the top five I have ever read, and I must pity those unfortunate souls who are tone-deaf to the rhapsodic music playing among its pages. Never mind my glowing endorsement. Never mind that Ernest Hemmingway said that Beryl Markham "has written so well, and marvelously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer." Just find this book and open it randomly to any page. You will quickly discover that this book is an extraordinary encounter. Don't miss it!

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Life, Well Told
Review: I read this book when it first came out in the early 80s and have never forgotten it. I love Beryl Markham's language; and the story she has to tell is better than any fiction. She was an independent spirit, living an amazing life in an immense and beautiful land.

Rating:
Summary: Wow...a beautiful heck of a book!
Review: Mere moments have passed since I closed the back cover on "West with the Night", and already I am missing its world and its voice. It is one of those rare books that can, with the simple fluidity of its narrative, pull you in and engulf you entirely.

I am not a big fan of the memoir, but Markham's (or whoever wrote it) voice is neither bombastic nor humble; she feels less a narrator or subject than a fellow traveller, along with you for the ride. Although the life she lived was extraordinary and compelling, she refreshingly views it in clipped, casual, careful terms, as unimpressed with herself as if she'd been a midwestern housewife, not a pilot and horse trainer in Colonial Africa.

Many readers will approach "West with the Night" out of a pre-existing interest in and knowledge of its era and characters, and will no doubt experience it entirely differently than I did. While a few names rang vague bells, for the most it was an engaging introduction. But I read it as literature, not as history, and enjoyed it immensely as such. I found her small personal anecdotes far more interesting than the accounts of her grand feats. The Atlantic flight that made her famous rounds out the end of the book, but is rather dry and dull compared to her African tales. Stories such as her father's pompous parrot had me in spasms of public giggles.

It is little wonder that Hemmingway praised this book, as the sparse directness of its utilitarian prose makes even the Old Man of the Sea seem a flowery romantic. Its structure can be rather meandering, but in that regard it resembles the contours of memory, which makes me believe Markham did indeed write her own book.

Rating:
Summary: First aviatrix in Africa
Review: The rule is, I found, that females can't write. I am staying away from what my own gender writes. Beryl Markham is a wonderful exception to my rule. Ernest Hemingway felt dwarfed by the authoress.
Beryl wrote in 1936, and Africa were she grew up was obviously different than now. She describes first hand encounters with lions and elephants, very interesting observations on animal behavior. She also describes the natives, and I wished she would have even gotten more into them. I love her philosophy on life and often I got the feeling she is writing right now, not 70 years ago. A great book for people curious about Africa! Put it into your collection, because you want to read it again!
Addendum April 30, 2004: After writing the above review I have learned from the biography "The Lives of Beryl Markham" by Errol Trzebinski that Beryl did not write "West with the Night", but her third husband Raoul Schumacher, a Hollywood ghostwriter. I learned that Beryl herself could only write aviation log books and horsebreeding stable accounts, but could not write herself out of a telephone booth if her life depended on it. Nevertheless, the book deserves 5 stars, and sorry to say my conviction that my gender has no literary talents is proven once more. The acclaim for this fine literary jewel needs to go to Raoul Schumacher.

Rating:
Summary: Companion piece to Out of Africa. Should be read together
Review: From the age of 4, Beryl Markham lived in East Africa and spent her childhood with native Maruni children as her only playmates. She was there during the same era as Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen), author of Out of Africa, and reading these two books together gives a lyrical, poetic, and heart-full-of-love picture of the Africa they both knew. But it wasn't only Africa they loved; they both shared a passion for the same men: Bror Blixen (Dinesen's husband) and Denys Finch-Hatton (Dinnesen's lover), so, inevitably their paths collided at times.
Although Dinesen is more well-known and respected as a writer compared to Markham, better known as an adventurer, Markham rises to heights of poetic imagery and her writing style was praised highly by many other writers of her era, including no less than Ernest Hemingway.

Rating:
Summary: A Special Book
Review: I read this book on the recommendation of my husband, who had read it twice over the years, and various comments and adulations from others. I had not heard that there was controversy over the authorship of this magnificent work - but it would not have made any difference. It is a beautifully written book about a beautiful life. What more can one wish for? Whoever wrote this book had a style very little seen today. She writes with care and attention and humour, so that we can experience not only the mechanics of her exciting life, but also the self realisation she developed. The author makes me want to be alone so that I can share the silence of the soul and the environment that she describes so acutely. I have been enthusiastic with my recommendations of this work to my friends and I am sorry to read the rather sad "one star" reviews on this site.

Rating:
Summary: An elegant glimpse into a by gone era
Review: Shocked by the sexist comments of a previous reviewer, I had to voice my opinion. Hemmingway expressed his admiration of Markhams abilities as a writer in a letter to a friend. His were reserved expressions of compliment regardless of gender.

A wonderful grouping of short stories that give most readers a glimpse into an era and a culture we wre totally ignorant of. Markhams ability to paint a verbal picture and escort you through that painting is exceptional. I am sure it appeals to men and women alike who have tasted the thrill of life in one form of adventure or another. It encourages one to see the poetry in lifes adventure, whether it be our life or another.

The thought of this book being less enjoyable if the authors name was "Bernard" instead of "Beryl" is simply a comment steeped in jealosy and bitterness.

MCL

Rating:
Summary: Overrated and then some
Review: This is a pleasant book and well written. It tells the story of female aviator in Africa, and the tone is cultured and somewhat reserved. The silly gushings this book has inspired sound more like the chantings of a cult than real reviews. I think this book sneaks up on folks as it was written by a woman, an aviator, not known to be a writer. Had it been written by a man, and a known writer, it would produce more level headed, less fevered, reviewing.

Rating:
Summary: descriptively deceptive and beautiful
Review: With the ambiguous endorsement of Hemingway and an ability to evoke a place that many of her readers would never experience, Markham created a minor masterpiece of European settlements on the African continent. Markham left out anything that (primarily in her personal life and personality,) would detract from the narrator's ability to tell the story of this somewhat absurd period whereby the technological and political maneuverings of the whites were witnessed by a bemused animal and human populations. That they are inevitably wiser and more prudent than their European settlers is never directly stated but effectively implied.

Markham led, by the telling at least, a charmed and unfettered childhood on a farm that was a mill and bred horses. She joined the Masai hunts that only boys could traditionally participate and she learned some of the secrets and humors of her neighbors and instructors. Her own abilities with horses were legendary, but the experience, though beloved, was overtaken by the thrill and the money brought by flying. This is not a political or ecological cautionary book as anything written today would rightly be. Markham merely discusses with unusual clarity and poetry the lives of horsetrainers, white farmers and the bemused African tribes who witnessed the arrogant rise and fall of these settlers who were unnatural horders of riches and natural splendor.
Definitely read this book for a personal historical rendering as well as a study of a determined woman and writer- if you do not believe, as many have expressed, that the book was written by her husband. And if that were true, it does not matter a bit as the product is what is standing the test of time brilliantly.