A review by juliana_aldous
Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen
5.0
Out of Africa is a memoir and collection of stories about Isak Dineson's time running a farm in Kenya in the early 20th century. Dineson was the pen name for Danish Baroness Karen Blixen who wrote other novels and story collections including Seven Gothic Tales and Babette's Feast.
The book was published in 1937 and details her time on the farm from 1914-1931 and portrays her life and that of her African workers, local tribes, the local animals, and a few visiting Europeans.
"I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills. The equator runs across these highlands, a hundred miles to the North, and the farm lay at an altitude of over six thousand feet. In the day-time you felt that you had got high up, near to the sun, but the early mornings and evenings were limpid and restful, and the nights were cold."
So begins the book, and those words, "I had a farm in Africa..." could as well be "Once upon a time..."
You may know the story from the Meryl Streep film of the same name (with Robert Redford as Blixen's lover Denys). There is that story--but combine that with the other stories, vignettes, and the philosophies of the Natives. I would say characters in the book are treated with more empathy. Dinesen has an anthropological eye with the heart of Schezerade. Her stories will draw you in and keep you on her pages. Like Denys, you will want to sit by her fire and hear her tales.
This was my third time around with the book and I will read it again and again. If you like books about ex-pats living and discovering other countries, this is one of the best. For a twist on the "white person on an African farm" try instead An African in Greenland by Tété-Michel Kpomassie a memoir detailing his travels from Togo to northern Greenland.
The book was published in 1937 and details her time on the farm from 1914-1931 and portrays her life and that of her African workers, local tribes, the local animals, and a few visiting Europeans.
"I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills. The equator runs across these highlands, a hundred miles to the North, and the farm lay at an altitude of over six thousand feet. In the day-time you felt that you had got high up, near to the sun, but the early mornings and evenings were limpid and restful, and the nights were cold."
So begins the book, and those words, "I had a farm in Africa..." could as well be "Once upon a time..."
You may know the story from the Meryl Streep film of the same name (with Robert Redford as Blixen's lover Denys). There is that story--but combine that with the other stories, vignettes, and the philosophies of the Natives. I would say characters in the book are treated with more empathy. Dinesen has an anthropological eye with the heart of Schezerade. Her stories will draw you in and keep you on her pages. Like Denys, you will want to sit by her fire and hear her tales.
This was my third time around with the book and I will read it again and again. If you like books about ex-pats living and discovering other countries, this is one of the best. For a twist on the "white person on an African farm" try instead An African in Greenland by Tété-Michel Kpomassie a memoir detailing his travels from Togo to northern Greenland.