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Summary: An Up-dated 'Out of Africa'
Review: A couple of years ago I was looking around for Internet sites on Kenya and by chance came across the first chapters of Melinda Atwood's story. I was immediately hooked and still keep dipping in to reread chapters over and over again - I grew up in Uganda and Kenya and found Melinda's story telling so refreshingly truthful about the place I still think of as 'home'. I saw Kenya again, and all the people I had known, but through her eyes, and felt so homesick. The people and the places she writes about are all very real. They do exist (from the scruffy streets of Nairobi to the open grasslands and beyond). The incidents she tells us about are sometimes touching, sometimes downright funny, and sometimes so heartbreakingly sad, especially when you know that they really did happen. Some of the incidents she recalls may even seem totally bizarre, but this is the real Africa (you won't read this story in any guide book) and by the time you've read the final page, Africa will have worked some of its magic on you as it has done on Melinda, myself and everybody who has even been there. This book should be compulsory reading for anyone who is even toying with the idea of a visit to Kenya. Melinda will open your eyes to the good, the bad and the ugly of being a mzugu in Kenya, and you'll still want to go and see for yourself! Forget Karen Blixen, this is 'Out Of Africa' updated for the next millennium!
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Summary: Review of Melinda Atwood's Jambo, Mama
Review: Africa...I have always been curious about this far away land and have longed to visit. The moment I entered Melinda Atwood's Jambo, Mama my heart developed an even stronger desire to explore this region of the world. Melinda's honest and descriptive style made me feel as though I was accompanying her throughout her entire emotional and physical journey. Her explanation of encounters with the local people, the climate, traditions and the landscape allowed me to envision clear images of her adventure while her personal narrative gave me insight into her person. Thank you, Melinda, for inviting me to "Ahfrica."
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Summary: Honest
Review: An African-American friend suggested I read this. We spent a lot of time together in Nairobi in the 80s, and this book captures the atmosphere very well, in addition to the fact that the author is very good storyteller. She ends this as if she is on the brink of a sequel and you end up really wanting to know what happens next. I read the strange comments about this book as a "colonial" account of life in Kenya. It seems to me it is more an honest account about living in a different culture. I like the author's honesty, and I would not want her to tell a different story or try to make her account more politically correct. She changes quite a bit as the story progresses, and she becomes very much part of the lives of her Kenyan staff. She tries to make friends with Africans and expatriots and it is the expatriots that she never gets to know very well. I was interested to read about her attempts to settle in Kenya, but when she began to describe the business she started there I was entirely fascinated. I own some of the rugs made in her factory, and I was impressed by what she did to run the business. She must have realized how similar her experiences were to those in "Out of Africa." The author becomes completely involved in the medical emergencies of her staff, she sees the effect of another African's curse on her cook, and she lives as a lonely woman running a business in Kenya that is inexorably floundering. She even has an affair with an unable-to-commit safari guide. I'd like to know more about the author and what she's done since she left Kenya. She seems like a Renaissance person, gifted in many ways, including writing. Her safaris in Kenya were exotic, but--as it was for many of us--the main importance of her stay there seems to have been her interactions with Kenyans. This is a far less maudlin story than that written by Kuki Gallmann, and it is better written.
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Summary: Endearingly banal
Review: Ditsy rich girl from a dysfunctional family braves the wilds of suburban Brit ex-pat community in Kenya! No threat to Dinesen or Markham. The only redeeming quality is the locale. Modest "go girl" appeal and a couple of good swahili puns. Constant reference to "Ah-frica" became very annoying.
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Summary: Great ideas, but...
Review: I enjoyed the content of this book immensely. I visited Kenya three years ago, and "Jambo, Mama" did a great job of bringing back many memories. I could really relate to what Ms. Atwood was writing about, all the way down to the constant bribery and corruption. However, reading this book drove me nuts. I am not an English major by any means, but it seems like the manuscript was never read by an editor! It is full of run-on sentences, improper English, and misspelled words. Several of the anecdotes were confusing; the author seemed to forget which person was which in the middle of the paragraph. In addition, the author contradicted herself several times. I found that reading this book was a chore, as my eye kept on jumping to the mistakes. I was bothered that no one ever took the time to proofread this book. It left me doubting the authors' abilities as a writer as well as in the English language in general.
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Summary: Hakuna Matata
Review: I have found Melinda's book by chance while browsing the net, I have to admit, that reading a hard cover book is more convenient than reading it on the screen and so I enjoyed it even more and I will always enjoy reading Jambo Mama. The fascination this book creates is because of Atwood's way of writing and expressing her feelings. You can say that "Jambo Mama" is a very personal book which takes you all the way from the U.S to Africa, and we find ourselves right in the middle of African culture, it depicts the problems a newcomer has to deal with, the charming way Africa welcomes the Mzungu ( white foreigner )and Melinda's deep love for the continent. After being in Kenya i cannot stop reading "Jambo Mama", it is a remedy for travellers, a piece of Africa which you can carry in your pocket. "Jambo Mama" is a must for those who love Africa, I can also highly recommend it for those who are preparing a trip to Kenyaand those who cannot. It even teaches you a fair amount of Kiswahili, the languages spoken in Kenya, I learnt my first wordsof Kiswahili from Melinda's book and could greet anybody with a big smile: Jambo Mama, Jambo Bwana Holger from Germany
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Summary: Habari gani ?
Review: I have found the first information about Kiswahili in Melinda's book. I am from Turkey and I always wanted to travel to Africa, and so i found Melinda's book in the net and her story triggered my wish out to travel to Kenya and start to learn Kiswahili. I love her book and will always read it, after watching the old film "African Queen" yesterday eveing on TV, I had the strong urge to read some chapters of Jambo Mama. It strangely soothed my soul which longs to be in Africa again. As I am having a baby soon, I cannot travel to Africa for the next two years, so i will keep Melinda's story next to my favourite chair and looking forward the long cold winter nights. I can absolutely recommend to buy this book, if you want to travel to Kenya or Africa or if you prefer travelling in your mind with Melinda to this wonderful country. with love from Turkey Asiye
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Summary: the colonial's africa
Review: I have travelled to Africa, exstensively, and particularly in Kenya... I found this book to be pedestrian in thought and content, and very colonial in attitude. here is a woman who seems to want to find something new and different in her life, and so travels to Kenya to find it.. and what she does there is recreate her old life that she was looking to escape, and not only that, begins to wonder why she is so depressed. She chooses to live in a white enclave surrounded by white attitudes, and never submerges herself into the bush, the people, the land or the wildlife.. all things that truely make Africa, and Kenya the incredible experience it can be. Terrible book, in it's sadness and the extremes one will go to recreate it- when all one really needs to do to find a new life is be open to new experiences.
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Summary: Wonderful Book!
Review: I just finished reading Jambo,Mama. I loved it! This last summer I went on a three week trip to Kenya. I enjoyed it tremendously. I will never be the same after being there and I long to go back. Reading this book brought back the feeling of being there. Ms. Atwood portrays the feeling you have when your there perfectly. I hated for the book to end because I wanted to know what happened to the people. Kenya is a very special place and this book is a very special book. I would recommend it to anyone who is planning to go to Kenya or who has been there. I would also recommend it to those people who long to go to Kenya. It is a book I will read again!
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Summary: Jambo Mama
Review: I just loved Jambo Mama. I read the prologue and the 1st chapter on the internet and was hooked. I had to know more about this brave (or is it insane?) woman who left her family, friends and all that was familiar to her to set up a life in Kenya. The Kenya of the 1980's that Ms. Atwood writes about is part small town, part wild jungle, part exotic tourist trap and never ever boring. She paints the picture of the place and the people she encountered so well that, by the time I finished Jambo Mama, I felt that I too had had an adventure in 'Ahfrica'. In the first chapter, after squeaking through the somewhat unconventional customs at the Nairobi Airport, Ms. Atwood, instead of finding herself in the Karen Blixen house of her fantasies arrives at her new rental to find gold bedspreads and the walls painted forest green. That first experience of fantasies crushed is just the first of many in this book about starting over and reinventing yourself. But despite countless disappointments and endless tussles with the culture Ms. Atwood just kept on going, kept on showing up and manages to have a sense of humor through the whole bloody thing. She writes with wit, and honesty about the journey she went through, on many different levels, during those six years. This book manages to be sweet and irreverent at the same time. Right up my alley.
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