This ISBN is out of print. Please refer to ISBN 9781879384781 for the new paperback edition.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
" A beguiling, frank and unpretentious memoir ..." --From Kirkus Reviews
From the Inside Flap
What is it about Africa that casts such a mysterious hold on its visitors? Even Melinda Atwood, a sophisticated New Yorker with a practiced ironic view, came under its spell on a 1985 safari. Falling in love at first sight with Kenya's beauty, this person who had only "roughed it" on the QE2, found herself inexplicably drawn to both the country and its challenges.
When three arduous years as caretaker for her dying mother ended, Atwood found herself adrift. The son she had raised as a single mother had left home for school leaving her all the more saddened and alone. An acrimonious lawsuit filed against her by family members was the last straw. Atwood decided to run away from home – to return to Africa. Planning to spend only one year, she remained for six.
Told with refreshing honesty and incisive wit, Atwood's memoir of her years in Kenya covers a wide range -from continual adjustment to life in Africa, to adventures in remote and dangerous areas. Along the journey she takes over a native carpet business, builds a house, and survives a tempestuous love affair.
You will laugh at her tales of finding her way and cry just as readily at her sensitive and unforgettable portraits of the people she took to her heart. Many of the colonial rules about the relationships between the races get broken along the way.
When Atwood says her last "taonana," to Africa it is bittersweet; you too will be sorry she is leaving and this wonderful story is over.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
33 of 34 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
It was in search of information about Africa I first stumbled across the pages of a travel agency. Available on their pages was Jambo Mama. For free. Why not, I thought, and downloaded the piece. After I had read the three first chapters, I had to find out if the story was true or fiction, but the travel agency didn't provide much information about either author or the book itself. What was provided, though, was ms. Atwoods e-mail adress. Contacting her personally, I asked about the story's validity. She could confirm that all was taken from her own first-hand experiences of the country, people and culture of Kenya. Wow! Talk about a major adventure...
Her story is the story about a girl who, upon returning from a vacation in Kenya, finds that the easy, urban life of America is not satisfactory. A yearning for the warm African nights and all that goes with it builds to an irresistable urge to move for a longer period of time. She thinks things over, and decides to pack up her entire life and leave. She rents a house in suburban Nairobi and begins a life almost from scratch. It is the story of a girl who experienced African life up close. Some of the challenges she faces include surviving rough safari's (not designed for the average tourist), running a small-scale business (the African way) and maintaining a social life. As any good story, it also includes some good romance...
Melinda Atwood writes with an easy language that is full of life. Even though you won't find the most profound metaphors in her all over elegant sentences, you start imagining yourself in her situation after a couple of paragraphs. Her book gives a great description of the many moods of that which lies under the African sun. You can even expect to pick up a couple of phrases in Swahili. I can recommend Jambo Mama to everyone who wants to know more about Africa, and especially Kenya, but also to anyone who enjoy a good story. If you, after reading this review and others, find the book unworthy your time and money: pole sana! (don`t understand? read the book)
Reviewed by Stian Rein Andresen and Øystein Tøsse Larsen
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I thorougly enjoyed reading this book! Melinda is a wonderful and entertaining writer whose description of her life in Kenya was written with complete honesty and candor. I am afraid vanity would not have allowed me to be quite so honest. Her detailed accounts of her trials and triumphs kept me turning the pages. Since I have visited Kenya several times, and especially the Masai Mara Game Reserve, I felt as if I were right there with her. She wrote with compassion towards the people she knew and loved there, and best of all, she wrote with a sharp wit and an incredible sense of humor. I found myself laughing out loud often. It wasn't an easy thing she did, moving to Africa by herself for an extended period of time, for Africa and New York are as different as night and day. Melinda did, however, what so many others only think of doing...she followed her dream. For the reader who wants to learn more about modern Kenya, this book is for you. For the reader who wants a fun, interesting, informative, romantic, and heartfelt book to read, then don't miss this one. I highly recommend "Jambo Mama."
23 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Just finished reading this wonderful book this week-end! It's about a middle-aged woman with a dream to throw herself into "once-in-lifetime" adventure and fulfill a long time fantasy.....to live in Africa. I found her descriptions of Kenya and the other places she visited via Safari, to be informative and insightful yet at the same frightening and exciting. She describes her day-to-day life struggling to live out her dream. There are the cultural differences, language barriers, dangers, and the ever present lonliness but when she looks out at the vast beauty that is Africa, it is all worth it. She embraces each challenge with dogged determination to prove to herself that she can overcome the sometimes seeming insurmountable obstacles. I've never been to Africa and don't know if I'll ever get there in view of the dangers surrounding travel outside this country, but I was able to live vicariously through this magical memoir and dream.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Jambo, Mama -- A New York Diva Goes on an Extended Safari in Kenya!
Speaking first from a technical standpoint, I found Atwood's story to be mediocre at best. There wasn't much meat or substance to it, she had no distinct style to speak of and,... Read more
Published on June 23, 2009 by Contessa
A wonderful adventure
I received Jambo Mama as a gift from Melinda Atwood herself. It was several years ago where I worked at a Calif. destination resort. Melinda was a guest there. Read more
Published on January 18, 2009 by Tammie Suppipat
Living in Kenya, but avoiding Kenyans
I live in Kenya for 6 months out of each year. My experiences there are both wonderful and difficult, and I am always looking for books written by other foreigners who have lived... Read more
Published on June 8, 2007 by J. O'Leary
AMERICAN REALITY IN KENYA
AFTER TRAVELING IN KENYA ON TWO SEPERATE OCCASIONS, THERE WAS ALWAYS A DREAM IN THE BACK OF MY MIND--"WOULDN'T IT BE WONDERFUL TO LIVE HERE" THIS IS A STORY ABOUT AN AMERICAN... Read more
Published on January 3, 2007 by AFRICAN TRAVELER
Throughly enjoyable! I didn't want it to end!
I really enjoyed this book from the first page through the last. It took me on an incredible journey of life in Kenya, Africa with all it's mishaps, adventures, safaris, and real... Read more
Published on June 27, 2006 by J. Roggow
As We Evolve
Allured by the introductory chapters accessible on the net, I was enticed by the backbone of her solo mission to a place with an almost contrary rhythm to the West. Read more
Published on July 11, 2005 by Zihan Kassam
not convincing...
although descriptions of her native carpet factory employees were interesting, much more of the book is devoted to the author's many personal problems: a discordant sibling... Read more
Published on July 11, 2005 by K. Villard
Self-absorbed memoir
Having read the mostly favourable reviews of Melinda Atwood's "Jambo Mamma" I decided to buy it. There is only one reviewer with whose opinion I would concur, that of "Reader" who,... Read more
Published on July 7, 2005 by Pandora
The book to read...
This was a wonderful book. This book tells an amazing story about life in Africa for an American woman. The writer is truly gifted. Read more
Published on April 10, 2004
Jambo Mama
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Melinda Atwood
Published on November 19, 2002 by Melinda Atwood
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