Author: Beryl Markham
# of Pages: 294
Star Rating: ☆☆
Review:
Beryl
Markham writes a very personal rendition of her own life in West with the Night. Her story begins
with a basic background story of how she ended up coming to Kenya in the
continent of Africa, and then gets straight into the main story. She finds that
one of her good friends, him also being a pilot, has gone missing and that
other people aren’t specifically going out and trying to find him.
Unfortunately, once this problem of finding Woody is eventually resolved, this
is where the main story ends; the story itself still continues, but it is
horrifically boring and never returns to the characters in the beginning,
making me wonder why they were there in the first place.
Although
I really do not care for this book or this author, it was a unique book. I
thought that the title was unique and that the writing style was unique as
well. West with the Night sounds
exactly how you would expect it to in a book about a pilot. Unfortunately, the
book never truly goes into the meaning of why it is called West with the Night. I wish that the book went into more detail
about the title of the book and even the aftermath of finding Markham’s friend,
Woody. To me, the book itself is just missing so much with details and
resources for a literary non-fiction story. And the writing style of Beryl
Markham is alright, but leaves a lot to be desired. Her writing is filled with
run-on sentences which is personally annoying to me, and she put in so many “details”
that had nothing to do with what I thought was the storyline.
I
would see how some people would like this book, but only if you were into
pilots, planes, friendship, horses, and pure-hearted adventure (all combined
into one single storyline, of course). But I am personally only interested in
some of those things, and certainly not all together in one book. I hope that
if you’re reading this, and if you are interested in reading this book, you
either turn away or feel very strongly about reading this book. I truly believe
that you will need it.
I liked how you were honest about your experience reading this book. I know that I have read books before that have nothing to do with the title, and also where the author neglects to put in the crucial details needed to tell the story. Does the title "West of the Night" mean anything to you personally (outside of the book)?
ReplyDeletePiloting in Africa sounds like it should be a good read- maybe the personal details about her life got in the way. I would be interested to read it if only to get information about what it would be like to fly planes in Africa at this point in aviation history.
ReplyDelete