Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely Superior writing
Review: Beryl Markham's writing is nothing short of beautiful, and this alone is reason to read West with the Night. Add in that the stories she tells transport you into another land and time, a world of adventure and you have a true pleasure. The words she chooses to describe her experiences and the world around her are fantastic. Take this example "The trees that guard the thatched hut where i live stand in disorganized ranks, a regiment at ease, and lay their shadows on the ground like lances carried too long." Or this one about her airplane: "To me she is alive and to me she speaks. I feel through the soles of my feet on the rudder-bar the willing strain and flex of her muscles. The resonant, guttural voice of her exhausts has a timbre more articulate that wood and steel, more vibrant than wires and sparks and pounding pistons. She speaks to me now, saying the wind is right, the night is fair, the effort asked of her well within her powers ." This book which was published in 1942 was somewhat lost to the world for many years until an Earnest Hemingway researcher found his letter to a friend describing her writing as marvelous and saying she could write rings around him. It was republished in 1983. Worth adding to the collection!
Rating:
Summary: One Trick Pony; but What a Trick.
Review: First let me say that I was disappointed reading this book, because I knew Markham was a one trick pony, that this book was the be all and end all of her literary endeavors. As I thumbed through the(pages slower and slower to prolong the experience)I was being alarmed by the rapidly growing thickness of the left half and the shrinking of the right. When this is over it's over, and such delightful language deserves a prolonged run far beyond the confines of two covers.
This book is a memior, not a novel, not an autobiography. As such Markham gets to pick and choose anything she wishes to include or anything she chooses to leave out. She is in no way responsible in creating a history of her life, just a few memories which crowd her thoughts and beg to be reassigned to the written page.
Released from this constrictive expectation, the reader can just settle in and allow her words to rub the pleasure points in the brain with the reassurance that these little anecdotes can be read again and again, for their strength lies not in the novelty of situation but in the delightful turns of phrases and word choices which combinations delight our senes.
While everything is about her, nothing is about her. She happens in her story only to tell her story and of the profound lessons that the plains of Africa can teach. She is the central witness in her life not the star.
Some slight compensation rests in the fact that we can go over these gemlike anecdotes repeatedly without dulling the glow of her burnished words. Whether we reread the story of the hapless parrot ot the phrase which has a spider contemplating a blueprint hanging on the wall only to return disgustedly to his own perfect web, the prose sparkles anew with each reading.
This is a book which has you wondering the order of friends with whom you must share. Thank you Penny and Frank for pressing this into my hands.
Rating: 
Summary: It is the worst novel I ever had the displeasured of reading
Review: This may be a shocker compared to the other reviews but I had disliked the book the moment I read.
The book , I feel, had no memoriable characters and none that you could connect to. If better written I feel that it would be an exciting book.
My entire honors English class will agree to this as being a very dull book.
If Africa , in the eyes of a British , seems intresting, well it may be so. But not as this book.
The main charcter I feel does not show her real self. There is not major plot or theme to this at all. Besides the main character and a few others , it is hard to keep track of who they are. They all seem to be the same person. It goes back to no memoriable characters.
Rating:
Summary: Lost in Time...
Review: The language/writing, the story, the lost time and places made this book grab and keep my attention - it took me a while to read this book, but I think that mostly has to do with other things going on in my world and also, I really found that this story was like three different stories in one - and the least important part of the book seemed to be the actual flight across the Atlantic.
"The essence of elephant-hunting is discomfort in such lavish proportions that only the wealthy can afford it."
Beryl was [I agree with Ellen] a woman before her time and [as Ellen pointed out] I also think it had everything to do with her being in Africa where everyone had a possibility in that time and place and because she leapt onto the next thing and learned it skillfully, outstripping other men at their own craft. She must have been a tough person - a tomboy in effect. And love seems to be strangely absent from all tales in this book, although at moments I think that she felt strongly for Arab Ruta.
"Human beings ... drew from Mr. Darwin's lottery of evolution the winning ticket and the stub to match it."
The very glimpse into this "lost Africa" from the colonial/empirical period is fantastic. I immediately was reminded of THE GREEN HILLS OF AFRICA - the Hemingway book we read back in the early rounds. The version of the book I had from the library has a frosty, austere picture of Beryl on the cover, a snapshot of the grounded plane on the back, and a recommendation by Hemingway to "get it and read it because it is really a bloody wonderful book." I couldn't find the illustrated version - wish I could have seen more pictures.
The descriptions of the Siafu ants gave me the creeps. Not a fan of the crawling, biting, stinging, poison-injecting type critters. Maybe that's just me. :) On the other hand, the tail of the vain little parrot Bombafu had me laughing in spite of the poor bird's demise. The strong dog, Buller, and his many adventures... right to the end a fighter.
Beryl's relationship with her father was a respectable thing to read: "In view of this and other things, I demand forgiveness for being so obviously impressed with my own parent."
Her understanding and intelligent wording surrounding death and loss hit me at a very crucial time. Kibii's story of the Egret and the Chameleon bringing to man their messages of the presence or absence of Death, cremation, the eventuality of Death but the need to live and laugh regardless of this knowledge - all very wisely put.
Rating: 
Summary: Slight Turbulence
Review: I picked this up thinking it was a travelogue, only to find that it is actually a memoir by an Englishwoman who grew up in Kenya in the early 1900s, inhabiting the same world as those other female memoirists Isak Dinesan (Out of Africa) and Elspeth Huxley (The Flame Trees of Thika). Her youth, as recounted here, sounds rather magical: living on a massive farm with her father, a native boy as playmate and boon companion, being attacked by a lion and a baboon, learning to hunt with the natives, and as she moves from girl to woman, mastering the finer points of horse training and eventually flying in the '30s. Markham certainly comes across as one of those remarkable Englishwomen of the Imperial age, who succeeds at whatever she puts her mind too, breaking the gender barrier left and right as she does so. However, her memoir is totally absent any mention of her missing mother, or indeed almost any other of the women she must have interacted with. A friend, who's read her biography tells me that she apparently didn't get on with many women, due to her iconoclast ways and alleged promiscuity. And, apparently, it's highly suspect as to whether she actually wrote this book-many believe it was written by her third husband! In any event, the book is full of descriptions of the majestic landscape and the the wise, noble natives who lived there. Of course, like virtually all colonialists of that time, there's a naive assumption that her (white) people should be ruling over these benighted natives. Indeed, she exhibits a remarkable talent for doublethink, deriding the enterprise of big game hunting for pages, only to to on to describe her own exploits in aerial scouting of elephants for hunters and her close friendship with the most famous of these men. The book ends with an account of her transatlantic solo flight in 1946, the first time it had been done from east to west. Now, some sixty years after the memoir's publication, it's still worth reading as a romantic account of growing up in colonial Africa, and the early years of aviation, however many readers may find some of her offhand commentary on Africa cringeworthy.
Rating:
Summary: West With the Night
Review: After reading this book, it quickly landed on my short list of favorites and I sent it to several friends and family members because I though it was that good (they all loved it too). The writing was beautiful and this woman's life experiences are incredible--for anyone, much less a woman in her time. I felt completely drawn into her life and the lives of those she was close to. I wish I could give this book more than 5 stars--I HIGHLY recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: a memoir not to be missed
Review: Aldous Huxley has written: ...To be well informed, one must read quickly a great number of merely instructive books. To be cultivated, one must read slowly and with a lingering appreciation the comparatively few books that have been written by men who lived, thought, and felt with style .... Huxley may have missed the boat by not including women in his
thought; however, had he known Markham, I am sure he would have. The life she led, the style with which she approached it and her perspective on it are not to be missed. There are initimations in her writing of Bruce Chatwin who was to come along much later. Wonderful stuff. 5 out of 5 stars. I don't think memoirs get better than this.
Rating:
Summary: THIS IS A TERRIBLE BOOK
Review: This is one of the worst books i've ever read. I'm sorry i ever picked up this book. The only reason i wasted my time with this book is because it was a requirement for a class. Apparently Markham forgot she was writing her biography because the book does not contain a single line about her emotions. It is is just an all around awful and dreadful book. Do not waste your valuable time with this...
Rating:
Summary: west with the night-audio cassette
Review: Julie Harris does a delightful reading of these stories. Her vocal portrayals of each of the characters provides fully half of the entertainment in this enjoyable tape. Take it on a trip for the family!
Rating: 
Summary: A fine biography
Review: Beryl Markham recounts her life from a childhood in the highlands of Kenya to her amazing feat of flying non-stop from England to Nova Scotia, Canada, as the first woman in history. In the interim she tells of a life of horse racing and flying, including rescue missions, game scouting, and elephant hunting. Her stories include such personalities as Denys Finch-Hatton and Baron Bror Blixen (oddly, both were also intricately connected with the life of Isak Dinesen). Beryl Markham writes a beautiful narrative, and seems to master a wide variety of literary techniques. The book ranges from poetic passages that appear conceived from a great height, to fast-paced, parge-turning hunting sequences. It is thoughtfully and very professionally structured. It seems strange that only a single work should emerge from an author of such remarkable ability. Also remarkable is the fact that Kenya (or East Africa) has produced such a string of excellent women authors, e.g. Isak Dinesen, Beryl Markham, and Elspeth Huxley. Surely there must be something in that country that inspires creativity.
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