| Genre: Memoir Main characters: Corinne Hofmann, Lketinga Summary: This is the second sequel of a book that has kept me amazed throughout the years (I keep being amazed every time I think of it actually), called The White Massai. The hero of that book is a Swiss woman, Corinne, who is visiting Kenya with her fiance when she notices a local guy, Lketinga, a Samburu. She finds him so dashing that she instantly falls in love with him, abandoning her fiance and her life in Switzerland in order to go live with Lketinga in the bushes. The two marry and she bears him a daughter, but he starts treating her badly so after a while she takes her daughter and moves back to Switzerland. Fourteen years have passed between that moment and the beginning of this book, and Corinne has now decided to go back to Kenya to pay a visit to the African branch of her family and this book is her account of the trip. |
First of all, let’s get Lketinga out of the way. I have never understood how Corinne could see him so beautiful, I have always seen him as ordinary at best. Now he’s fourteen years older and at times he looks like a really old man (though he’s not). As for his behaviour… I have always thought of him as “stuck in the tradition”. He never went to school so there are a lot of things that he doesn’t understand. The word that comes through my head on thinking about him is “wariness”, as one always has to be wary around him, he gets annoyed quite easily. Nevertheless he did his best to make a good impression on Corinne this time around — but I somehow never trusted him enough not to spoil everything though (I was wrong, he behaved sort of okay until the end). A character I have really liked in both books is Lketinga’s mother, Corinne ’s mother-in-law. I can only imagine how surprised she had been at first on seeing that her son wanted to marry a white woman, a woman that knew nothing of the language and habits of the Samburu. Nevertheless Lketinga’s mother has grown to love the stranger and she and Corinne ended up really close. It’s sort of strange seeing the pictures of the woman, as she looks so… primitive — she sure is in a lot of ways, but she does know how to love and make herself loved. Yep, I have really liked her and looked forward to each of her appearances in this book.
As for Corinne… she is now in a sort of pilgrimage to her strange past, a past that she looks back at with fond eyes though it hadn’t been quite easy on her at the time. I liked her simplicity again — the way she just told the stories without trying to over embellish them. I think of her as a very brave woman — I heard some people referring of her as crazy, leaving Europe behind in order to go live in Africa, but I can only think about her as very brave, and I really admire her for that. Of course, the trip in this book had been nothing compared to what she did before, as she wasn’t alone now and she was sort of a minor star — I still admire her and think of her as brave, in the light of her past.
A lot of things have changed in this fourteen years. Modern life is starting to make itself felt even in the middle of the huts in Kenya (there are a lot of plastic bags everywhere now, a lot of stores, a lot of children now go to school). So much so that Corinne started feeling sorry (and I with her) that the people there are going to eventually lose all their wonderful traditions, everything that made them special (not that they have only wonderful traditions, mind you; for example they are still circumcising both boys of a certain age and girls before marriage). I know that eventually they’ll be forced into civilization as there have been others before them — and I cannot help being sorry for everything Corinne has known and found utterly beautiful all these years ago, such as the beauty of girls costumes or the impressiveness of warriors’ getups. The world will probably be a little less colorful place without them.
What I liked most: The changed way Corinne sees Barsaloi (her ex-husband’s village) now. She finds it beautiful but she sees it with the eyes of an European — this had never happened before. She had loved Lketinga so much she ended up disliking her home country and loving the dung houses village, where whole families lived in a hut no larger than a simple room. But now her love had passed and she sees everything like it is, like we the readers of her book saw it back then: different, interesting, beautiful at times but very hard to live in. And you get to realize: oh my God she really loved that guy.
What I liked least: The fact that…well, nothing actually happens in the book. There’s no intrigue, there’s no tension. Sure I was curious to see how Corinne’s family will treat her after all these years, but still. I would be hard pressed if I actually had to narrate the book, as it’s only a string of visits to formerly known places. While we still get to find out some facts about the Masai (such as the adults are never called by their name in their presence — after they have the first child they are called Mama name-of-child and Papa name-of-child; before that some generic words are used, “mparatut” (wife) and “lepayian” (husband)), there’s nothing as fascinating as there was in the first book.
Recommend it? Only if you have read the first book.
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This sounds guite good. I haven’t read ‘The White Massai’, but I added it to my TBR.
I have read all three books written by Corinne and, to tell you the truth, her simplicity, which was so attractive to you, irritated me all the time ;) I was impressed with her determination to stay in Africa with the man she loved, but at the same time, I could not believe that she, despite all differencies between two cultures, thought that everything will be ok. I think she was not fully aware of the risk she took. To everyone else, it was obvious that this fairytale will not have a happy ending but, unfortunatelly, not for her ;)
(Btw Greetings from Poland :)
Having seen the movie prior to reading the book I have known all along how it was going to end :(
Other than that, what can I say, I am an eternal optimist and I really would have hoped it was going to be ok (perhaps it would have been too, if Lketinga wouldn’t have become addicted to that miraa plant). I don’t know, she gave up so much already, I would have thought the hard part was already over and there actually was a possibility for them to end up together forever :(
I know, I know, I am the head-in-the-clouds kind of person :D
In that way, I must be more sensible than sensitive ;) Living happily ever after would be possible for them if Lketinga was more, hmm… involved in their relationship? ;) She was the one who sacrificed, she gave up everything, because she felt that Lketinga and his love are the most precious things in her life. At the same time, Lketinga hasn’t done anything in return. He only… was ;) His addiction to miraa was a crucial moment in their story, but I think that the most important was the fact, that Corinne and Lketinga have never talked about their feelings, they have never defined what love is and how a perfect marriage should look like ;)
I love romantic stories and I’m still dreaming that one day I will find my knight on the white horse ;) But Corinne’s behaviour, in my opinion, wasn’t romantic. It was a little bit stupid, because she wanted to overcome something that was totally insurmountable ;)
You are very right about her being the only one giving and the only one involved in that relationship. I think that she realizes that too after all these years.
But who knows, back then she had probably felt her love was strong enough to overcame absolutely everything. I cannot say I agree with her, but I admire her for having the courage to try and follow her dream — a lot better than sitting around and ending up wondering “what if” :)
[...] Reunion in Barsaloi / Corinne Hofmann Genre: MemoirMain characters: Corinne Hofmann, LketingaSummary: This is the second sequel of a book that has kept me amazed throughout the years (I keep being amazed every time I think of it actually), called The White Massai. The hero of that book is a Swiss woman, Corinne, who is visiting…… [...]
[...] Reunion in Barsaloi / Corinne Hofmann Genre: MemoirMain characters: Corinne Hofmann, LketingaSummary: This is the second sequel of a book that has kept me amazed throughout the years (I keep being amazed every time I think of it actually), called The White Massai. The hero of that book is a Swiss woman, Corinne, who is visiting…… Related Websites [...]