A Danish socialite marries a Swedish baron and they start a coffee farm in Kenya. What sounds like a Masterpiece Theater limited series, is a memoir about Danish socialite, Karen Blixen, (nom de plume Isak Dinesen) living and working in Africa from 1914-1931. It is never discussed in the book, but by most accounts, the Baron liked the ladies, and being married did not get in the way. While he was out cavorting, hunting, and spreading STDs all over the continent, Karen ran the plantation which was always on the brink of collapse. Isolated on the land and shouldered with all of the responsibilities it entailed, Blixen tried to keep it all together through illnesses, too much rain, not enough rain, tribal disputes, and a World War.
I did initially come to this book hoping for some tea on all of the gin-soaked get-togethers and torrid extramarital affairs. I fully admit to crushing a little on McClain’s historical fiction version of smoldering big game hunter and devout bachelor, Denis Finch-Hatton. Having dipped my toe in the pool of his romantic shenanigans, I figured the memoir of one of his paramours was a good next step. While Finch-Hatton’s death bookends Dinesin’s life in Africa, (she leaves Africa shortly after burying him) she divulges little about their relationship in her memoir.
What she did share is their love of Africa. The title of the review here is Dinesen reflecting on Finch-Hatton but the same quote could be applied to her. Her love of the land is palpable, and the descriptions of it border on poetic, but the writing style was a bit off-putting. It reads more like a series of essays strung together with notes, jumps time and theme, and gets a bit repetitive. Also, Blixen often writes about the indigenous people that work for her in a way that you would expect a post-Edwardian white European socialite to do. It’s pretty cringe. In all honesty, it made for some difficult reading in parts. In the end, however, it paints an interesting picture of a woman determined to keep a business and way of life running, not just for herself, but out of a love for the land and a sense of responsibility to the people who live on it.
I think I am making it sound better than my experience of reading it. I did enjoy some of the passages about the land, but it was a bit of a slog. It was difficult to get into because it meandered all over the place and was an uncomfortable product of its colonial time.