Out of Africa Audiobook (Unabridged)

" Was a wonderful reading. "

" the best audiobook. "

" Out of Africa is less a single story than a series of vignettes arranged thematically to form the whole. It is like a collage of beautiful images of life on Karen Blixen's coffee plantation. Clearly Blixen loved this land, its people, and its wildlife. She embraced the opportunities that her life there presented. She attended the tribal ceremonial dances. She brokered resolutions of of conflicts among her workers, using accepted tribal methods, but also with a written and signed contract. She hunted lions, and left a tea party she was hosting to go flying and see a nearby buffalo herd. She tells tales of cultural differences and interactions among the local and immigrant tribes. The language in the book is lush and beautiful. Blixen has a lovely eye for details and skill for drawing wise and witty conclusions from them. She must have been an amazing woman to know. You have to love a woman who writes things like "we had great adventures with lions." You can picture her bravely heading out to take on the lions hunting on her farm or taking flights over the beautiful countryside, which would have terrified many others. On the other hand, she was certainly a creature of her time and her native Scandinavian culture. At times she seems sincerely connected to the Africans, but at other times, she seems to view them from a superior distance. Her comparisons of Africans to wildlife would be less annoying if she made similar comparisons about Caucasians. The fact that there is no central underlying plot means that, as with The Arabian Nights: Tales from a Thousand and One Nights, there is a sense that you could stop reading at any point and feel that you've essentially "got" the book. If I fell asleep listening to this on audio, I'm not sure that I would care enough to rewind and hear the pieces I missed. For these reasons, despite the beautiful writing, I am giving this only 3 stars. "

" Impeccable writing with a spiritual flare. Kenya in the early 1900's complete with native lore, incredible safari details and every day life on Karen Blixen's large coffee plantation. Would have liked to learn more about Karen's extended family in Denmark and her relationships with her husband and Denys. Overall a very enjoyable biography. I remember the movie in the mid 1980's and enjoyed that as well. "

" One of my favorites. Sadly though, I couldn't get Meryl Streep's voice out of my head. "

" i haven't seen the movie, but i guess i had heard such great things about it that i had really high expectations for the book. i was a little disappointed with it. "

" time and again, a book one never gets tired of going back to. "

" Ok ok, I didn't finish it. And I fell asleep watching the film. "

" Hypnotic. I read a lovely Modern Library version that I bought for $1. Somehow it made reading this so much more pleasurable than reading the dinky old paperback version. Filled with long stretches of noble descriptions. A fine, good book. "

" It's hard to swallow the needless killing of animals just for sport, but times were different then. Overall, an okay read...wish there weren't so many lines in Danish, French and German. "

" I started listening to this on cassette, but could not get through the entire thing. It moves a little bit too slowly and I got lost with many of the African names. Parts of it were good though, especially the descriptions of colonial Africa in the 1920's. "

" This book made me feel that I had moved to Africa and was reading my own memoirs. A classic. "

" An elegy to a life in Africa. Lyrical and frank. "

" I really enjoyed this book... the descriptions were fabulous, the people and place so real. The only thing I found disconcerting was the movement from one subject to another with no apparent attempt at tying them together.... no real storyline or chronology until the very end. "

" This was such a random book. "

" It always amazes me when I pick up this book and read the first sentence. Some much is conveyed by that one line....Love this book! "

" Long but interesting book- not written chronologically but by theme. "

" My Very Favorite!!! "

" Fascinating experiences while living in Africa. Her writing style is beautiful. "

" Even though it is dated and polictically incorrect, the story has some nostalgic charm. "

" While the 1985 film version does a better job at portraying the relationship between Karen and Denys, I found the book more informative regarding life in Africa. I even liked the vignettes in the middle of this work. "

" Never I imagined that one day I would say that the film is much better than the book! "

" The movie was better...... "

" Further whets my appetite to visit Africa...but makes me sad that this Africa of the early 1900s no longer exists. "

" Good, but not great. Maybe it's just our current society, but it honestly was a little boring to read. "

" This is one of my favorite books because of the animals and the beautiful writing. It's not at all a love story about Dennis Finch Hatton. It's a love story about the Africa that used to be. "

" a beautifully painted story... "

" one of the most beautiful books I've ever read.......... her descriptions and stories are spectacular. "

" it didn't finish as strongly as it started, but still worth the read. "

" This is one of my all-time favorite books. "

" Excellent memoir about the author's life in Kenya. The writing is beautifully descriptive and the book comes alive in so many ways because of it. "

" Beautiful sad bittersweet book. Dinesen's descriptions of the "Natives" (Kikuyu tribespeople), Somalis, and Masai can be hard to read, given their political and historical context, but she writes of the land and her servants and squatters with such love. "

" This book is a long string of striking metaphors. That is pretty much all. There is no plot or storyline to speak of. Once I quit wondering when something was going to happen, I liked this book. I was able to enjoy the beauty of the language...and vicariously, of Africa. "

" Awesome. This lady was badass. "

" I felt as if I was on the farm in the Ngong Hills with the author. Pretty low key memoir about her life in Africa, most excitement revolves around her lion hunts. Most of the african memoirs I've read revolve around genocide so it was nice to hear about the beautiful countryside of life in Kenya. "

" Not at all like the movie and beautifully written ... in my mind's ear, I could hear Meryl Streep speaking each word. A beautiful book, just beautiful. My husband bought my copy at the William Faulkner bookshop in New Orleans, so I'll treasure it all the more. "

" I read this after seeing the movie and just loved Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, back when I was a hopeless romantic ;)The book is very good, ethereal almost, I can understand why Isak Denisen aka Karen Blixen became a celebrity. "

" Não consegui acabar o livro, infelizmente. Achei tão aborrecido, que não me deu alento para continuar. Certamente, não o vou tentar novamente tão cedo. "

" This was a nice read while I was in Africa, particular for her beautiful descriptions of the African highlands, which I was lucky enough to visit. It stands as a nice piece of colonial literature. "

" enjoyed the film more.... the book was very dry and didn't go into much detail. "