West with the Night | Beryl Markham | Hardcover is out-of-print, however...

West with the Night | Beryl Markham | An amazing book, no matter who wrote it!

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West with the Night

	West with the Night Beryl Markham North Point Press, 1982 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 117 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

West with the Night is the story of Beryl Markham--aviator, racehorse trainer, beauty--and her life in the Kenya of the 1920s and '30s.

Hardcover is out-of-print, however...

The hardcover is the illustrated (with photos) edition of one of my favorite re-reads. Hemingway loved it, too. It is memoir that reads like fiction and it doesn't matter to me who wrote it (Beryl or her husband, as the scuttlebut goes). As a bookseller, I sell this one with a guarantee that if my customer doesn't like it they can return it for a full trade credit. None have been returned but many customers have dropped by to say that they have shared their copy with family or friends.

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An amazing book, no matter who wrote it!

Fantastic! I don't care if Beryl Markham wrote this or not (it is rumored that her third husband, a Hollywood ghostwriter, wrote the book). Beryl Markham's story is fascinating: from growing up in East Africa on her father's horse farm, to training race horses, to her time in Africa as a pilot tracking wild game from the air ... all culminating in her historic solo flight across the Atlantic from east to west. This book brings the ultimate forms of praise from me: (1) I could not put it down; and (2) I am now seeking out anything I can find out about this amazing, daring woman. No matter who wrote the book, the use of imagery is astounding. Highly recommended.

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More than a memoir

Much more than a memoir, Beryl Markham's work is a means of transport, not dissimilar to her beloved plane. It took me back to the Africa I lived in as a young bride, to its stark beauty, its dignified and desparate people, the language of its silences. Her tale of matter-of-fact mercies, and of cruelty equally unremarkable, is the stuff of life, as full of hope as of despair, for its millions of people. Her sensitivity instructs us in things as disparate as a young zebra's personal quirks, or the way the setting sun reflects off a downed plane creating an illusory lake in the dry Serenghettti. We learn of the hunger of a dying man for news from the city, and of the joy of friendship restored, but mostly, we learn of the heart and mind of a brave, independent woman for whom Africa is, eternally, home.

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West with the Night

As a child growing up with her father in Africa, Beryl Markham faced down lions and wild boar. As an adult she trained race horses before learning to fly airplanes and becoming a bush pilot. Eventually she became the first pilot, female or male, to fly west with the night and cross the Atlantic ocean solo from Europe to North America. Markham brings the African bush to life with stories of boar hunts and elephant hunts. Of horse races and airplane flights over desert terrain. She lived a courageous life in a time when girls were only supposed to wear dresses and play with dolls and flying airplanes was a man's job. Highly inspirational to read!

There's so much to talk about in mother-daughter book clubs or any book club. How was Markham's life different from so many of the girls in her time? How would her life have been different if her mother was also in Africa raising her?

This book is beautifully written; I've read it three times and each reading I glean more and more from it. I highly recommend it for anyone in high school or older.

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Far far better than I anticipated. Great writing.

Absolutely captivating personal account of times and places long gone. As a fan of "Heat of the Sun," this book was a treasure.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

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