Paula McLain sure knows how to keep a reader glued to the pages, as most of the world already discovered with her previous best seller The Paris Wife. Not being a Hemingway fan, it wasn't until I heard Paula McLain speak at our local BookMania! event that I found out for myself just how mesmerizing she can be both in person and in print. I could not put down her novel about horse trainer and aviatrix Beryl Markham, Circling the Sun (#561).
Ms. McLain had ample materials available with just a simple recounting of the real-life Beryl Markham's notorious career. I suspect it was probably more difficult to decide what not to include! Much of the novel pertains to her relationships with Denys Finch Hatton, the legendary big game guide and his lover, Karen Blixen, of Out of Africa fame. Just how the closed society of Kenya managed to juggle marital relations while staying within certain bounds of propriety was a mystery not often negotiated well by Beryl, but fascinating to observe from the outside.
The descriptions of the African landscape, and Beryl's connection to her work as a horse trainer and ultimately, as a flyer are breathtaking. A wonderful read!
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