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Title: The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African Childhood by Elspeth Huxley ISBN: 0-14-118378-0 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 31 January, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.46 (13 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: breathtaking, unforgettable.
Comment: This book is a real literary treasure. I read it first as a teenager. It astonished me then, with its unique portrayal of Africa. Who could fail to love the African wilderness and its diverse people after reading The Flame Trees of Thika?! Africa seen through Huxley's youthful eyes is given a magical quality I have never again encountered (though BBC came close to portraying it in their rendition of this book). And it continues to astonish me now, twenty years later (oh dear, I have dated myself). The spectacular visual imagery from that book are a treasured keepsake, and the book itself is nothing less than a 20th Century masterpiece. It is a priceless gem and well worth the cost.
Rating: 5
Summary: Embers from the age of empire
Comment: This book is on the same sort of rank and the same genre as Out of Africa. A literary autobiography set in Kenya during an uncertain and enterprising colonial era before the First World War.
It's strongest elements include a deep sensitivity to the travails of animal life up against white hunters and farmers, very full accounts of the Kikuyu people and their rivalries with other Africans and it also paints a vivid portrait of pioneering planters and their servants in the shadow of the Great War.
The vantage of the book is greater than that of Out of Africa by Blixen being a less personal tale. it is a faithful, sometimes harrowing tale culled from an excellent store of memories representing times and scenes gone by. Huxley is not short on romance and tragedy.
This book is an ideal companion to those interested in the British Empire and African anthropology. For naturalists it provides breathtaking accounts of white hunters and their quarry as a retrospective commentary on man's abuse of Africa's wild heritage. Huxley writes quietly, sensitively and impartially providing philosophic insights in a heuristic and magical narrative. Always compelling, this is an important primary text.
Rating: 4
Summary: Entertaining and tedious, both
Comment: I enjoyed the first two-thirds of this book, but after awhile found all the tiny details tedious. Every noun has six adjectives.
My basic quibble is that it is supposedly from the point of view of a seven year old child, but her thoughts and observations are those of an adult. Is this Huxley remembering at age 46, or is this supposed to be what a seven-year old observed?
At one moment we have a child, playing in the yard with chameleons and the next a child who understands the love affairs of adults.
Well, that's the problem with a memoire that tries to be a novel, and fails, I might add.
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Title: West With the Night by Beryl Markham ISBN: 0865471185 Publisher: North Point Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 1983 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: I Dreamed of Africa by Kuki Gallmann ISBN: 0140287442 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Out of Africa and Shadows on the Grass by Isak Dinesen ISBN: 0679724753 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 October, 1989 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood by Alexandra Fuller ISBN: 0375758992 Publisher: Random House Trade Pub. Date: 11 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Elspeth Huxley: A Biography by C. S. Nicholls, C.S. Nicholls ISBN: 0312300417 Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books Pub. Date: 01 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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