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West with the Night [Paperback]

Beryl Markham
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (292 customer reviews)

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Book Description

1983
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.
Regarded by many as one of the best adventure books ever!

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West with the Night + Out of Africa and Shadows on the Grass
Price for both: $23.94

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

One of the most beautifully crafted books I have ever read, with some of the most poetic prose passages I could imagine, such as the following, resonating with a stately and timeless quality so absent in our modern life:
There are all kinds of silences and each of them means a different thing. There is the silence that comes with morning in a forest, and this is different from the silence of a sleeping city. There is silence after a rainstorm, and before a rainstorm, and these are not the same. There is the silence of emptiness, the silence of fear, the silence of doubt. There is a certain silence that can emanate from a lifeless object as from a chair lately used, or from a piano with old dust upon its keys, or from anything that has answered to the need of a man, for pleasure or for work. This kind of silence can speak. Its voice may be melancholy, but it is not always so; for the chair may have been left by a laughing child or the last notes of the piano may have been raucous and gay. Whatever the mood or the circumstance, the essence of its quality may linger in the silence that follows. It is a soundless echo.
Born in England in 1902, Markham was taken by her father to East Africa in 1906. She spent her childhood playing with native Maruni children and apprenticing with her father as a trainer and breeder of racehorses. In the 1930s, she became an African bush pilot, and in September 1936, became the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

From Library Journal

Markham's West with the Night was originally published in the early 1940s and disappeared, only to be rediscovered and reprinted in the 1980s when it became a smash hit. This latest incarnation is a lavishly illustrated edition. Though Markham is known for setting an aviation record for a solo flight across the Atlantic from East to West-hence the title-she was also a bush pilot in Africa, sharing adventures with Blor Blixen and Denys Finch-Hatton of Out of Africa fame. Hemingway, who met Markham during his safari days, dubbed the book "bloody wonderful."
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 294 pages
  • Publisher: North Point Press; 1st edition (1983)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0865471185
  • ISBN-13: 978-0865471184
  • Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (292 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #203,410 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
156 of 161 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars The Divided Heart March 8, 2002
Format:Paperback
No less a writer than Ernest Hemingway said about West with the Night, "As it is she has written so well, and marvelously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer. I felt that I was simply a carpenter with words, picking up whatever was furnished on the job and nailing them together and sometimes making an okay pigpen. But she can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves as writers." Coming from an author who was renowned for his ego and lack of respect for other writers, this is high praise indeed, and West with the Night deserves it.

The story opens with the author being called in the middle of the night to deliver a tank of oxygen to a dying man. The reason she has been called is because her business is flying a small bi-plane through the wilds of Africa on delivery errands such as these. The flight and subsequent visit with the dying man and his doctor are used to introduce us to Africa - the rich black nights, the stories of her native peoples, the harsh reminder with the appearance of a jackal that "...in Africa there is never any waste."

In this first section we also begin to know and wonder about the author, a native of Britain who was transplanted to African soil at the age of 2 and raised by her father on his farm at Njoro. There her primary playmates were the children of the Nandi Murani tribe and her principle schoolroom the African landscape itself. As Markham puts it, "Africa was the breath and life of my childhood. It is still the host of all my darkest fears, the cradle of mysteries always intriguing, but never wholly solved. It is the remembrance of sunlight and green hills, cool water and the yellow warmth of bright mornings. It is as ruthless as any sea, more uncompromising than its own deserts. It is without temperance in its harshness or in its favors. It yields nothing, offering much to men of all races."

It is Markham's misfortune, but also her gift, that she could never be fully assimilated by the native people and the landscape. Her father insisted on sending her to school, relatives and friends did their best to expose her to European culture, and in the end Africa itself conspired to force her out of the fold and into the larger world. The end result is a woman who walks a fine and complex line within herself between two radically different perceptions of the world.

Although Markham's story is remarkable based on facts alone - taking us from her childhood haunts to her historic flight across the Atlantic Ocean - it is the elegance and depth of the writing that sets this book apart. When she talks about the horses she and her father bred and raised, for example, it's as if she is stepping into the animals' skins. When she discusses her hunt for a fellow pilot, lost in the bush, it is with total absorption in the moment. This is the kind of book that can make you forget you are reading a book, drawing you into the subtleties of life as Markham knew it - engaging all the senses and ultimately your heart as well.

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39 of 39 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Wow...a beautiful heck of a book! September 29, 2002
Format:Paperback
Mere moments have passed since I closed the back cover on "West with the Night", and already I am missing its world and its voice. It is one of those rare books that can, with the simple fluidity of its narrative, pull you in and engulf you entirely.

I am not a big fan of the memoir, but Markham's (or whoever wrote it) voice is neither bombastic nor humble; she feels less a narrator or subject than a fellow traveller, along with you for the ride. Although the life she lived was extraordinary and compelling, she refreshingly views it in clipped, casual, careful terms, as unimpressed with herself as if she'd been a midwestern housewife, not a pilot and horse trainer in Colonial Africa.

Many readers will approach "West with the Night" out of a pre-existing interest in and knowledge of its era and characters, and will no doubt experience it entirely differently than I did. While a few names rang vague bells, for the most it was an engaging introduction. But I read it as literature, not as history, and enjoyed it immensely as such. I found her small personal anecdotes far more interesting than the accounts of her grand feats. The Atlantic flight that made her famous rounds out the end of the book, but is rather dry and dull compared to her African tales. Stories such as her father's pompous parrot had me in spasms of public giggles.

It is little wonder that Hemmingway praised this book, as the sparse directness of its utilitarian prose makes even the Old Man of the Sea seem a flowery romantic. Its structure can be rather meandering, but in that regard it resembles the contours of memory, which makes me believe Markham did indeed write her own book.

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51 of 53 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
I visited Kenya last year and saw this book all over the shelves, and I picked it up. Little did I know, I was picking up one of the best written and most evocative books of all time. I was swept away immediatly by her involving narrative and descriptions. And let me tell you, the descriptions capture the Kenyan landscape and people remarkably well. It is just as wonderful and mysterious as Markham writes. This book transported me to the dazzling age of the 1920's and 30's in Kenya--which is full of fascinating trailblazers. I read a lot of the novel outloud, and her thoughts seemed to become my thoughts. Her anecdotes and experiences are so poignant that they seem to shoot me right through the heart. I want to reread this novel again and again, it is wonderous. Hemingway was right when he said " it is a bloody wonderful book." If you like Markham, you should read Isak Dineson's classic Out of Africa. However, Markham does more soul-searching and delving into herself than Dineson does. You'll recognize some familiar charactars as well. Both are true stories!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars very good autobiography
very interesting and captivating CD about a time when things were being accomplished for the first time, and changes in gender barriers were being broken for the good.
Published 3 days ago by trav s
1.0 out of 5 stars Booring
I was so bored that I could not get into this book. It was probable a well written not for me.
Published 5 days ago by Gary Herndon
3.0 out of 5 stars Unique
Unusual person, unusual story, but very interesting. I enjoyed learning about life in Africa in the early part of the 20th century.
Published 6 days ago by susan seaman
4.0 out of 5 stars West With The Night Review
I had seen recommendations on the nature of this book so tracked down a used copy. This woman led a very unusual life in Africa in the 1920's and 1930's. Read more
Published 7 days ago by Gary L. Staton
5.0 out of 5 stars WOW!!!
Hemingway is completely right. Markham can write circles around all other authors. Which is even more impressive considering she wasn't an author by trade. Read more
Published 7 days ago by Sean Smith
5.0 out of 5 stars No ground bound author
No ground bound author could ever describe the loneliness of flight above solidly closed deck of cloud, or hanging at night in a velvet void, watching for a reassuring beacon to... Read more
Published 8 days ago by Frank
4.0 out of 5 stars Very Good
There are sections that seem to drag a little. Get through them, the story is worth it. She tells the story well.
Published 9 days ago by Gary Agenbroad
5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous use of language
One of the most beautifully written books I've ever read. Very unique use of language and terrific imagery. What an inspiring woman!
Published 12 days ago by Terri D. Castellanos
5.0 out of 5 stars and Eden's gates rattle when the lion roars...
Such an exquisitely written story of a life, one keenly self-assured woman's life told in her own words. Beryl Markham was a soul too large to closet in modern feminist terms. Read more
Published 12 days ago by RocketDog2
5.0 out of 5 stars West with the night.
The beginning of the book was alot of geographical information that gives you the setting for the story. Once you get past that the story is really enjoyable.
Published 13 days ago by cindym
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