Rating:  Summary: It's all a dream, now isn't it? Review: Never have I read and seen such hypocracy as in Kuki Gallman's books. She considers herself the Joan of Arc of the Masai Plains, not keeping in mind that she was a colonist and not Jesus Christ. The western world has a completely different idea about the life in Kenya. Was the movie to be shown to the people who lived the colonial times, they would spit right in her face. The land that she today calls her own and made herself a fortune out of belongs to the Masai and their cattle. I am a Kenyan and I know what life was like during the colonial times. Kuki Gallman really needs to humble herself, at least to the people whom she and her husband have been feeding off of. Please, get a life!
Rating:  Summary: An awesome read! Review: I bought this book for my mother who loved the movie. She enjoyed this book greatly, and found the four sets of 5 pages of pictures enjoyable. She said that the pictures added to the overeall feeling of the book and the story behind it. I'm tempted to buy the book for myself, but I'm more into topics like psychometry and such. She stated that this is one book that is always going to remain on her living room bookshelf.
Rating:  Summary: Left me a bit uneasy Review: I have to admit, I did enjoy both the movie and the book both a great deal, as a sort of escapist fantasy. Despite the tragedies, it seems like fantasy because it is, in fact, a wealthy and aristocratic person's reality. (Who does one purchase an African ranch from and what was it before it was a ranch, anyhow?) I am most uneasy when the author describes how wonderfully accepted she is by the native people and how much good she has done for them, when it seems like the primary role they had in her life was as her servants.
Rating:  Summary: Tragical..........but hopeful Review: This novel was very depressing, but the end leaves you with a sense of hope and happiness. I think Kuki Gallmann can write very well, because, after all, she writes from her experiences. The detailed descriptions of Africa make you want to read the book over and over. I got it from the library first and ended up buying it, so that says something! Anyway, if you don't mind a depressing book, this one would be great for you.
Rating:  Summary: A powerful and moving read! Review: I read this book while I was living in the Middle East,over 2 years ago. This book moved me deeply and I still often find myself thinking about it. I am amazed how Kuki Gallman contiued to move forward in her life, after losing her husband and son. She truly is an inspirational women of great courage and compelling wisdom. I have lent this book to several people and each of them have been equally moved by it.
Rating:  Summary: Classic Annoying Colonialist Review: One must not forget that Kuki Gallmann is first and foremost a colonialist, and an annoyingly unrepentant one at that. The most annoying - though hardly surprising- fact that comes out in the book is her virtually non-existent links with real Kenyans. Not to mention that the vast lands she claims to have owned were pasture lands for the Massai for hundreds of years before her aristocrastic chums hearded them off into reserves.The European fantasies of Africa begin and end with our continent's scenery and wild-life, never extending to the people. Where Kuki pretends to have links with real Kenyan's she comes out as irredeemably and infuriatingly patronizing/racist. While Gillman was shuttling about the country as if it belonged to her and her aristocrastic buddies, real Kenyans were waging a fierce campaign to kick out her lot. One must not forget that. For those westerners ready to give their superficial fantacies about Africa a break, there are few recommendations better than Jomo Kenyatta's "Facing Mount Kenya", which discusses at least a genuine subset of the continent.
Rating:  Summary: A book for the soul Review: It is not very often that another person's life can be experienced so completely through the written word that it can effect your own.....that is my experience with I Dreamed of Africa........there are some people who get it....and others that dont....and I am sure the majority of readers of this book will share my own feelings of awe, sorrow,admiration,and above all.......hope.......I think of this woman often.....the book stays with me always.....
Rating:  Summary: Exciting, deep- a great book to read Review: This book was very intruging and wonderful to read. It let you into Kiki Gallman's personal life and her thoughts. I don't know of any other author that has done this kind of thing so deeply. It is like she has bad luck with all the mishaps which I wouldn't spoil for you but she learns so much and you see how wise she becomes. This book is a bit spiritual but realy really GREAT! Some of what happpens to her and the people around her is ironic. Her writing is beatufull. This book at first sat around in my room because i thought it would be pretty boring but when I read it I couldn't let it go. I feel bad for not reading it sooner! One of the greatest books I have read! Packed with adventure, feelings and excitment! Enjoy it!
Rating:  Summary: Hard to finish Review: I'm in the middle of this book and am seriously considering not finishing it, which doesn't happen all that often. The book is written in a very banal and trivial style, which doesn't engage the reader at all. All the dramas and traumatic experiences are portrayed as simple facts along the story. There is also no reference to where she had all the money from to live such a high-life in the middle of nowhere and afford to go on frequent vacation to Greek islands and the Caribbean which is mentioned in some part of the book. Generally - a very shallow book.
Rating:  Summary: Skip the book, see the movie; there's more of Africa in it Review: If you want a book about a privileged woman who has suffered Kennedyesque family tragedies (mostly brought on by exotic, expensive, reckless pastimes), who tells her story with a lot of nonsense about premonition and reincarnation, and by-the-way, lives on an huge estate-cum-private wildlife preserve in Kenya, then here it is. For the most part it seems the people who love this book are people whose experience of Africa is limited to movies or maybe a four-star safari lodge in a Kenyan game park. People who have spent some time in Africa with Africans or have studied Africa seriously are more reserved in their praise. Nothing about Africa in this book is incorrect (as far as I can tell), there's just not much of it.
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