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West with the Night
West with the Night
Author: Beryl Markham
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. — Markham is often described as "the first person" to fly the Atlantic east to west in a solo non-stop flight, though most now dispute this claim. When Markham decided to take on the Atla...  more »
ISBN-13: 9780865471184
ISBN-10: 0865471185
Publication Date: 1/1/1982
Pages: 320
Rating:
  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
 128

4 stars, based on 128 ratings
Publisher: North Point Press
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover, Audio Cassette, Audio CD
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed West with the Night on + 9 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
the most wonderful book I ever read! I love Africa, am a female private pilot and her words put other authors to shame. My husband, who seldom reads female authors, highly recommends this 5 star book to anyone who loves to read!
reviewed West with the Night on
Helpful Score: 3
Beryl Markham writes beautifully, so well that it is like remembering something you had forgotten. She writes about Africa, horses and flying in a mostly non-technical way. It is filled with descriptive prose and philosophical musings. My favorite part: "No map I have flown with has ever been lost or thrown away. I have a trunk containing continents." I think her accounts are true, but at the end of the book you are not left a detailed timeline and an factual account of Africa as much as an impression of what Africa was like while she lived there. This is one of my favorite books.
allister avatar reviewed West with the Night on + 13 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
This is perhaps my favorite book I've ever read. Plot-wise, it is the autobiography of a woman who grew up in East Africa in the early 20th century. It is marvelous -- the quote from Hemingway should sell it if we can't. There are some racist undertones that are probably appropriate for the time and place of this book, albeit shocking now.

Scholars debate whether this book was actually written by Hemingway himself. He was her lover, and so seldom praised other writers' works. Markham, after penning this masterpiece, never wrote anything else. The book does have a Hemingway flavor to it.
mrsotey avatar reviewed West with the Night on + 10 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
This book was so lovely to read, it earned it's place on my shelf of "All-Time Favorite Books To Be Read Again and Again".

Ms. Markham is an excellent story-teller, at the same time self-effacing yet with a beautiful, poetic turn of phrase. Her remarkable adventures as a flyer in 1930's Africa are astounding.
reviewed West with the Night on + 334 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Ernest Hemingway himself praised this memoir as so well written: "She (Beryl Markham) can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves as writers." This is a stunning memoir of her life as an aviator in Africa. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Read All 30 Book Reviews of "West with the Night"

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reviewed West with the Night on + 667 more book reviews
This memoir contains some of the most vivid writing about animals in the wild that I have ever read, anywhere, in 60+ years of reading. I loved the style, insights, narration and characterizations in this book, which recounts her growing up in East Africa, hunting with native and Indian men, learning to become a pilot and having various other adventures. Strongly recommended!
reviewed West with the Night on
A book I adored in my childhood, still sweet and wonderful now that I'm thirty. Really naturally gifted author, amazing life-story. The treatment of race in the book raises ambiguous feelings in the reader.
meggiez avatar reviewed West with the Night on + 2 more book reviews
wonderful adventure book full of stories about flying, horse racing, Africa, wild critters and her faithful dog. LOVED IT!
reviewed West with the Night on + 86 more book reviews
I first read this book about 5 years ago and have reread it twice since then. It is beautifully written.

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People/Characters
Baeryl Markham (Primary Character)

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