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Summary: Thank you for reading of Africa.
Review: Here I have come across readers comments to my first book and I am grateful.The most touching and rewarding thing of all for me, over the years, has been receiving letters from parents who, like me, lost a child and through my pain and renewal have found some peace. Africa is healing, because it still has what most of the world has lost, and in its ancient beauty and wisdom, in the mystery of its nature and extraordinary people, one can find a purpose. If Africa was to me a childhood dream that became reality and eventually a nightmare, in the end it was transformed in the environmental crusade to which , quite simply, I have dedicated my life. Thank you for choosing to share in this voyage of discovery. Africa needs goodwill ambassadors and a positive approach.
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Summary: Absolutey Awful
Review: This was one of the most boring, badly written, self serving, pieces of garbage I have ever read. This woman should definitely have had a ghost writer. This priviliged Italian woman, marries her best friends widower, moves to Africa, dotes on her son (from her first marriage) who dies. I am sorry her son died, BUT ENOUGH ALREADY! There is VERY little mention of any other family member, including her other daughter and two step daughters. Her African "Staff" might as well have been furniture, and she gripes about the elephants eating her landscaping! She talks about how Africa "called her". She doesn't have a clue! It is a short book, but it took me forever to read because it frustrated me so much I couldn't stand it.
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Summary: This is poignant story of triumph from great loss.
Review: Kuki Gallmans "I dreamed of Africa" is one of the most beautiful love stories I have ever read. Her love of her husband, her son and of Africa will move your own heart to dream of Africa too. This is by far my most favorite book. I recommend it whole heartedly.
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Summary: Life on the Lakipia Plateau
Review: Having read the book and visited Kuki's ranch, I realize that the book though well written does not describe the awe inspiring beauty of the ranch. Kuki is an amazing woman who is working hard at educating visitors, as well as local Kenyan children about the wonders of the Eastern African Wilderness. The images inspired by this book are real and the desire to visit after reading is overwhelming.
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Summary: Remarkable tale of a courageous, gifted and privilidge woman
Review: Title was read by a Melbourne bookgroup. Discussion affirmed the power of Kuki's tale of love, loss and rebirth. Her image of the Kenyan landscape was evocative and her tale inspiring. We were dumbfounded by her overt statement of privledge and egocentricity...the book generated an audiable sigh for times gone by. .. We listened to Boccherini's Quintetto, floated red hibiscus blooms and supped on champagne in front of Karen Blixen's "Out of Africa" [video]...wondering what had become of Gallman's Ol Ari Nyiro dream ...The latest report found was from Global Concerns, 25 March 98 who were planning to take SE Asian students to the Ol Ari Nyiro Ranch, Northern Kenya, run by Kuki Gallman, on an educational study/work camp in 1996. END
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Summary: One of the Most Touching
Review: I was sitting on an airplane as I read "I Dreamed Of Africa" - and found myself retreating to the restroom to allow the tears to flow freely. Gallman's story involves such tragic losses - and anyone who's ever lost a loved one can't help but be touched by her story. It's not the loss, however, that elicited the tears - it was Gallman's undying ability to find (and so eloquently express) the beauty that life still holds, even after such suffering, if only we look. And Africa - the detailed dreams her words elicited of Ol Ari Nyiro and Kenya...this book is for anyone who's ever dreamed or visited a new, foreign place and known immediately that it was home. The epitome of inspiration.
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Summary: Life and death in an African Eden
Review: Kuki Gallmann knew she had come home for the first time when she visited Africa with her husband Paolo in 1970. She was recovering from a car crash, and with the brave resignation that characterizes her throughout I Dreamed of Africa, she returned to Europe to endure surgery before realizing her childhood dream of living in Africa. In 1972, Kuki, Paolo and their children moved to a ranch named Ol Ari Nyiro in the highlands of Kenya. This poignant and heroic book revisits Karen Blixen's Out of Africa 70 years later. Though the descendants of the families Cole, Delamere and others remain, things have changed. Airplanes are no longer toys but necessities in the interior. People now go on safari with cameras instead of guns, and global concerns of conservation have promoted land owners into caretakers of the vanishing African wildlife. Denys Finch Hatton's attitude now prevails among Europeans in Africa. Finch Hatton told Blixen, "We are not owners here. We are only passing through." Now Gallmann signs the guest book at the entrance to her own ranch and wildlife preserve. The quintessential reality for Europeans in Africa has not changed. They have chosen a life finely balanced between beauty and peril. As an aristocrat, Gallmann could have chosen an uneventful and comfortable life in society. Instead, she lives a life as full and varied as the rugged terrain of Ol Ari Nyiro. Gallmann beautifully imparts in her book what it is to love life with the throttle open. Her life overflows with both joy and sorrow. To say more would be telling -- don't even read the dust jacket. Read the book.
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Summary: Great love story of a woman, child, husband and a country.
Review: This book touched me deeply and as a result am considering it for my nonfiction chose for our book club. There were times that I sobbed openly while reading it but felt uplifted nevertheless
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Summary: Up there with Out of Africa
Review: There's something to be said for a love story that includes the love that one feels for a country, landscape and the people living there, as well as the love a woman feels for her husband and child. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I recommend it for anyone interested in Africa or harboring any desire to follow in the footsteps of Mark and Delia Owens
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Summary: I Dreamed of Not Having Read This Book
Review: I am utterly stunned that this book got so many positive reviews from readers. I got about two-thirds of the way through it before I finally let myself quit reading it.Gallman has lead an interesting life; there's no question of that. The only trouble is, she's not a good writer. She tends to tell the reader things--like that her son was a special person--rather than showing us. And she tries way too hard to add mystical foreshadowing. Example: her son was killed from a poisonous snakebite. Years before, when he got his first pet python, she said that she felt uneasy. This is supposed to show us, the readers, how in tune with the world she is, how she's probably psychic. Excuse me, but I think any mother would be a little uneasy about their child having a lethal pet. Do not waste your time with this boring, painful book.
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