That’s how it was for me, too. I didn’t know anything about the subject matter and enjoyed the read, in spite of the cheesy love triangle.
Although the writing style in West with the Night is very different from Circling the Sun, there is a lot of overlapping content. Now that both books are behind me by a few weeks, I’m starting to forget which incident was described in which book—or whether the same scene appears from different perspectives in both works. Anyone else going through that or should I just chalk it up to advancing age?
I agree with you on this – and I believe it was mentioned earlier that the Beryl of Circling the Sun doesn’t come across as very likeable. I should rephrase that—perhaps she wasn’t very likeable—so let me say instead that she doesn’t come across as being very impressive. And she was impressive, no matter her personal flaws. It’s surprising Paula McLain couldn’t really capture the greatness of Beryl, especially when it’s clear from interviews that McLain has a great deal of respect and admiration for her subject.
For those of you who are experienced with horses—or planes, or both—why do you think these two occupations were the primary focus of Beryl’s life? That is, do you think that horse-training and plane-piloting require similar skills or share particular characteristics? Those two life-long pursuits seem rather different from each other, at least on the surface.
I don’t fly a plane or ride horses. Beryl trained race horses, so she didn’t just like to ride, she liked to ride fast. I think both careers need a thrill seeker personality. Both give the feel of freedom, excitement, and danger.
From West with the Night, I get the impression that Beryl wanted to have another adventure. She loved the horses and loved training them but she wanted more for her life. From Circling the Sun, it seemed like she was trying to impress her male friends. It was less about her being daring and more about trying to get attention. That makes me a little bit sad for her. She went from being a bold courageous figure from the first reading to a somewhat lost individual.
Yes, getting attention…and getting funding. In Circling the Sun, I felt like Beryl annexed herself to men who could finance her adventures, whether horses or planes. I thought this was especially true of her relationships with Mansfield Markham and with Frank (the latter relationship made me uncomfortable—definitely had a cash-for-sex vibe to it).
I think it was economics- her father was an owner and trainer- so that was what she knew.
The horse racing business is VERY male dominated and to her credit she broke the glass ceiling.
She crashed through that glass ceiling as a pilot, too. She was a pioneer.
It’s most impressive how well she did in these endeavors, and as noted above MCLain diminishes those achievements with the muck of her personal life. Truly sad.
I’m so glad I read these books, like mary13, I knew nothing about Beryl.
You play the cards you are dealt with. I got the impression she worked hard for her successes and if sex made it easier for the guys to finance her adventures that was fine with her, but I don’t think she prostituted herself. She appears to have had a fairly casual attitude about sex and a pretty jaded one about marriage in any event, and after her experiences who could blame her?
Why do you think she never achieved the notoriety of Amelia Earhart? Beryl Markham slipped into obscurity for many, many years (until the re-issuance of her memoir). Like SouthJerseyChessMom, I knew nothing about her. Is it Amelia Earhart’s mysterious fate that sealed her fame–as opposed to Beryl Markham’s rather unromantic drift into old age?
That was part of it, I think. Amelia Earhart kept on flying until the end of her unfortunately short life. Beryl stopped. She had some plans for other aviation challenges, but they fell through, and then WWII came along and disrupted a lot of people’s plans. Also, Tom Black was not around to impress any more.
Beryl coasted on her fame for a while, then took up horse training again.
I do remember when her book was republished in the 1980s. It was lauded and discussed, and I always meant to read it but never did until now.
(Edited to add:)
Good question as to why Beryl wasn’t mentioned in a list of notable woman aviators.
It seems that her most notable achievement was not her flight, but her book.
Take a look at the “Celebrity Image” section of the Amelia Earhart Wikipedia page. She seems to have been pretty famous from about 1928 until her death.
^ I just found out from the Wikipedia page that Amelia Earhart had crew member Fred Noonan with her when she disappeared. I never knew that – just assumed it was a solo flight. Poor Fred – he “left a much smaller mark in popular culture than Amelia Earhart’s.”
Does anyone know why the movie version of Out of Africa used the created character Felicity to represent young Beryl? Perhaps respecting Markham’s right to privacy because Beryl was still alive, or because Beryl had refused to let them use her name? Or was a fictional Felicity a creation of Karen Blixen in her book. I do not remember.
There is no one remotely like Felicity in Out of Africa the book. And no mention of Beryl either. Not a peep.
I think they put in Felicity for a bit of contrast, to show her being motherly even though she didn’t have children herself.
Well my Dad liked Africa, flying planes and riding horses and hunting (mostly for variety in eating, not to collect animal trophies) - for whatever that’s worth. I have no desire myself to fly planes, but I can see the attraction, I’ve been up in fairly small ones a few times - it’s quite different than being in a giant plane packed with people.
The one time I was up in a small plane (with a guy who was a friend of friends), it was so marvelous and overwhelming that I was practically in tears. Then the pilot switched on the a.m. radio to a pop station. I wanted to smack him…here I was having a religious experience, and he was playing a stupid pop song!!
Once, years ago when my allergies were not so bad, I went horseback riding, in Texas, and we didn’t stick to a trail but just set out over open country. I loved that.
I think flying a small plane would be similar, in a way – you could fly where you wanted to, within practical limits. I’m super attracted to the idea of flying a plane, but lessons would be too expensive and I’d be afraid of not being able to watch carefully enough for other aircraft in the sky, and of landing.
We’ve talked about Mom. What’s the verdict on Dad?
In some ways, he was an amazing parent—quite ahead of his time in that he allowed his daughter the freedom to do all the things daughters weren’t supposed to do in those days. However, I think he diverged from this sort of non-traditional parenting was when he nudged Beryl into marriage with Jock Purves.
I did wonder about the complete lack of supervision when Beryl was a child. I was especially aware of it in chapter VII of *West with the Night/i when Beryl is hunting for wild boar with Arab Kosky and Arab Maina. Although I am sure that Beryl’s father believed she was in good hands with her warrior-babysitters, it’s amazing that she was permitted to be routinely part of such a dangerous activity.
!!!