Circling the Sun: A Novel

Another beautifully written historical novel by Paula McLain. While Beryl Markham's life was filled with ups and downs, and complicated relationships with men ( in and out of marriage) McLain brings this adventerous spirit, and 1920s Kenya to life. While some would argue McLain could've inserted more historical details, scenes to peel back the layer of British colonialism, remind readers -at least!- that this was a land teeming with life, & tribes of native born peoples long before the British arrived. Her childhood friend, Kiibi, boy to a nearby tribal village, eventually grows up - withdrawing from her world- as he must, but returns long after they are both in adulthood, to "help" her with her endeavors: first to establish her own horse ranch/racing stock, and then as she pursues airplane flying. It was a moving friendship, but one that McLain doesn't even let Beryl be uncomfortable about... but she ran w/that set of colonial settlers & "the rich & idle" who saw the world, no matter how wild or far from London, as their domain. Nevertheless, it was compulsively readable.

I had recently read and very much enjoyed West with the Night, Beryl Markham’s memoir, so I decided to follow it up with this historical fiction based on her life. While the plot of Circling the Sun follows the events of Beryl Markham’s early experiences, the primary focus is on her love life. I think the emphasis on romantic relationships detracts from Markham’s remarkable achievements. I kept waiting for more about her interest in aviation. It is included near the end almost as an afterthought. There are many positive reviews of this book. I think it will appeal to those that enjoy historical romances, but for me it was just ok.

I started this audiobook but couldn't get into it. Not for lack interest in Beryl Markham.

Beryl grew up in Kenya in the early 20th century. Her mother left when she was only 4-years old, and took Beryl’s brother with her, home to England. But, Beryl and her father wanted to stay in Kenya on their farm. Beryl grew up quite independent (though she married a few times). She went on to train horses and eventually she learned to fly.

I listened to the audio and missed parts of the book. I have no idea where her second husband came from, but I didn’t like him, nor her first husband (first husband was worse, but the second husband – though seemed better initially, really wasn’t). I didn’t like Beryl much, either - particularly the sleeping with a friend’s (or acquaintance’s?) husband. I guess there weren’t really any characters I liked. The first chapter started off with something about the flying, and it took ages to get back to it. I began to second-guess that Beryl had even done that, but they finally came back around to it almost at the end of the book. And I don’t think she ever came back to what happened with the “ornery” horse. I wanted to know! What happened!? Overall, though, I’m rating the book ok.

Paula McLain is good at bringing historical figures to life through fiction. She has a knack for capturing the person's essence and the time period and she does it so smoothly it is easy to take it all as fact. Here she writes from the viewpoint of Beryl Markham, British transplant to Kenya as a child during the waning years of the Empire, but most solidly fixed in the 1920s. Beryl has had an unconventional upbringing, allowed to run free on her father's horse farm after her mother abruptly quits colonial life and returns to civilized London with her son, Dickie, the brother Beryl loses at age 5. Beryl is accepted by the local tribe and grows up with one of the boys, later re-named Ruta, and has his undying loyalty well into adulthood which is a beautiful story in itself. He tells her with tribal wisdom: "A new thing is good, though it be a sore place." She breaks a lot of boundaries, professionally -- becoming a licensed horse trainer and winning prestigious races with her horses, of course her flight across the Atlantic in 1936 -- which is rather tangential here, and socially, refusing to be "tamed" by conventions, marrying young, taking lovers, and divorcing, and then becoming involved with Denys Finch Hatton, Isak Dinesen's (Karen Blixen) lover. Kenya is a character in itself, brought to life with vivid description and worshipful appreciation. Beryl's ties here are really another of her love relationships. The depiction of the 20s, out of the shadow of the crown is fascinating in that clearly "anything goes" and the rich are above social constraints and morality. Beryl mostly keeps to herself, intent on doing the work (horse training) she loves and lives a pretty bare bones existence until her love for Denys makes her realize what she is missing. "Whatever suffering has come is the necessary cost of such wonders....the beautiful thrashing we do when we live." She absolutely lives life to the fullest, close to the earth and with intention, even if that is sometimes selfish abandon. She says: I had forged myself out of brokenness, learning to love wildness instead of fearing it. To thrive on the exhilaration of the hunt, charging headlong into the world even -- or especially -- when it hurt to do it." (351) Like her other novel, The Paris Wife, and in the tradition of Nancy Horan's Loving Frank and Melanie Benjamin's Alice I have Been, social history comes to life in compelling story-telling.

Let me first begin by saying that Paula McClain is a very talented author. Her diligence in research and her ability to set the reader in a different time and place is showcased in Circling The Sun. Kenya of the early 20th century came alive to me. And I felt that I knew and understood the characters well. I just didn’t like them very much. ? That’s not the fault of McClain — this is a biographical novel, after all, and the warts are very much in evidence. Beryl Markham was an amazingly independent and progressive woman for her time, yet she continually makes the same mistakes in her relationships with men. Some of that can be chalked up to her hands-off upbringing and her parents’ negligence, but sometimes we just need to learn from our mistakes. Colonial Kenya seemed to be a place for those who bucked the norms of the day or the misfits who just didn’t fit in their home societies. The portrayal is fascinating. So I guess I shouldn’t have really expected a lot of high ground from the people who populated Markham’s life. Much of the novel features her early life and loves; less focus is put on her flying acommplishments. While I thought the book was very well-written, I’d recommend reading Markham’s memoir West with The Night if you only have a limited time to devote to the subject. It may be a little more biased, but I liked Markham more in it. (Please note: this is a general market novel — adult language and situations.)

Audience: adults.

(I downloaded the audiobook from my local library through Libby. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)

Paul McLain has a lovely way with prose, but I really, really disliked her book "Circling the Sun."

The root of the issue, for me, is that it's historical fiction... and generally, if I'm interested enough in a topic to read about it, I'd rather just read nonfiction.

Beryl Markham's book "West with the Night" is one of my most read books -- it is so well written that there's plenty of debate about whether she was the person who actually wrote it. I didn't feel like McLain's vision of Markham really fit in my with vision of her.

I find Markham fascinating and I am very intrigued by her relationship with Denys Finch Hatton (and his relationship with Karen Bixon (aka Isaac Dinseon.) But "Circling the Sun" just grated at me, because so much of it was a reflection of "West with the Night" and other books -- why read about what an author thinks Markham was feeling when you can just read what she was actually thinking in her memoir.

This historical novel is about the remarkable life of Beryl Markham. Born in England in the beginning of the 20th century, she moved at a very young age with her family to Kenya, a place that became her home. Her father ran a horse farm and taught her the business.

Never one to shirk from challenges, the novel follows Beryl though her desire to achieve in the man's world of horse training. Along the way we learn of her passions for animals and men - one man in particular - and, eventually for flying. McLain gives Beryl these words, after many years on her own and many trials in work and love:

"... We can only go to the limit of ourselves. ... Anything more and we give too much away. Then we're not good for anyone."

Beryl certainly always strove fearlessly for her limit! This book brings her vividly to life.

I read this book for our bookclub, it was one I picked being the least problematic of the books available in the book-club-in-a-bag scheme where there's 12 copies of a book that you can borrow from the library for 6 weeks.

So I thought this was a work of fiction, and it felt like nothing happened. A young girl, Beryl Markham, grows up on a farm in Africa in the colony that would later become Kenya. Her mother can't stand Kenya and lack of society so returns to England and this effects Beryl in some way but I thought the book never addressed how. She grows up with the animals and locals and is a free spirit not confirming to what her governess's expectations of how a young lady should behave. This is the story of white people in Kenya, it is very privileged, even when Beryl is poor she's still training racehorses which seems like a very middle class occupation. She must be an unusual and strong woman to need to have a job to have purpose in her life, she's not dependent on men for money or a role in society, in fact this independence seems to turn men away from her when she does find someone compatible.

I don't know if it was the writing that put me off this book or the lack of plot. Getting to the end and finding out she was a real person made me appreciate Beryl a lot more as a person. I'd like to hunt out her memoir and see how it compares to this book. This novelization of her life felt like the worst aspects of a movie bio-pic in print form

I'm a firm believer that how much you like a book is influenced by what's going on in your life and what you've recently read. This book is exactly what I needed. It hit a lot of high points for me. Historical fiction, Africa, well written. It has made me want to read more about Beryl Markham and I think I will.

McLain does a wonderful job of bringing early 20th-century Africa to life, attacking all the reader's senses, and the character of Markham is beautifully and believably drawn. However, the elusive Denys Finch-Hatton remains a self-centered straw man. We still don't know why two strong, intelligent, independent women were so obsessed by him. Most readers are going to want to go on, however, to read both Markham's "West With the Night" and to sample some Isaak Dinesen.

A novelization of the life of Beryl Markham - a woman who I had never heard of before. Her claim to fame is that she was the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean from east to west without any stops - which she did in 1936. The prologue to the book occurs during this flight and as Beryl goes through a crisis having to do with running out of fuel she recalls the events of her life that led her up to that point. I had never heard much about what it was like for British families who colonized Kenya and those parts of the book were pretty interesting. Beryl learned the ins and outs of tribal society and living in the wilds of Africa, and then later has to learn how to deal with British society. But she was never very conventional and her lifelong love of horses also led her to become a horse trainer at a time when women were outsiders in that field. She had many ups and downs on the romantic front as well and some of the poignant parts of the book were about her entanglements with men and how that and her father's monetary losses put her in situations where she was at the mercy of the men in her life - financially at least. I couldn't help but admire the resolve that helped her overcome these difficulties. While this book wasn't one that really stuck with me It was a very enjoyable read and I would recommend it to those who enjoy historical fiction and especially tales of strong, unconventional women.

A form of historical fiction but I had a hard time with the main character. I found her to be selfish, self-absorbed and trying everything. If she had lived in these times she probably would have followed the hippie lifestyle and then heaven knows where she would wind up. As it was she went from a lonely child in Africa to marrying a man when she was 16 (because her father was loosing their farm), to running away and being kept by someone else, to having a baby and leaving it with the man's family, to training horses and then flying. Great life but rather unbelievable although it is true.

McLain wows me again. I love this book as I loved "The Paris Wife". A brilliant writer and a beautiful pick for the audio narrating. A woman who is forgotten in many history books and should be brought into them. I just checked my daughter's copy of "goodnight stories for rebel girls" and she is not mentioned there. I am disappointed. Someone with this story of accomplishment on the time when women were property, she should be mentioned more in women's history.

Fantastic book about a figure I hadn't known about before - Beryl Markham. At first, I thought the book was about Amelia Earhart. Beryl was a fascinating person who had many lovers and adventures. She was the first female horse trainer in Kenya and the first woman to fly across the Atlantic, solo, from England to America. Paula McLain's writing was also top-notch, folding you effortlessly into the story.

I loved this book! The descriptions of Africa were absolutely amazing.

If you, like me, loved Paula McClain’s novel, The Paris Wife, I’ll bet good money that you are going to enjoy her new novel as much.
The timeframe is still the 1920s, but instead of the United States and France, McLain’s new story takes to the wilds of Africa, when it was still a remote and uncivilized country. Kenya wasn’t Kenya yet; the majority of countries as we know them today didn’t exist either.
McLain also follows suit in that she has picked a real women to portray, Beryl Markham. I didn’t know much about Markham other than she was a renowned aviator. Because of that, I must also say that, as I was reading, I often thought of Anne Morrow Lindbergh as depicted in Melanie Benjamin’s wonderful novel, The Aviator’s Wife.
The story begins in 1934 as Markham is beginning her solo trip across the Atlantic from England to America. No one, not man nor woman, had ever managed this daring feat. After leaving readers with their hearts in their stomachs, the story starts where all stories start—at the beginning, when Charles “Clutt” and Clara Clutterbacck relocate their family from England to a farm in Njoro in the British East Africa Protectorate. From there, we watch young Beryl grow into a trailblazing horse trainer.
There were lots of names of town and native tribe language that I didn’t know how to pronounce, but it didn’t get in the way of the story. The writing and plot are solid, the story intriguing and enchanting, and the characters, both fictional and real, are captivating.
I give Circling the Sun 6 out of 5 stars.

The imagery of Africa in that golden colonial period has never been so vivid as its depiction in Circling the Sun. I really felt transported and was simultaneously impressed and baffled by Beryl. Her strength and longing for independence were admirable, but as even she said in the novel, seemed to be shaped by a tragic lack of love and direction. She wandered through life essentially alone and somehow she managed to survive and sometimes thrive. I only wish there had been more narrative devoted to her flying days and the later part of her life.

Beryl Markham was quite an interesting woman. Very true to her own heart.
I thought the novel was good, but certain aspects of her life were really cut short. Marriages ended without us really knowing why, no real dirt on the scandals, etc.
The writing about the beauty of Africa was amazing.

Years ago I read "West with the Night" by Berl Markham and enjoyed it so much. The lives of European expatriates in that era is a fascinating time in social and cultural history in Africa. And of course the book and subsequent movie "Out of Africa" were a part of this culture. Again, author Paula McLain has a keen insight into the motivations and actions of the real people in this time frame and puts them into a flowing and natural story line.

Read this book in one day! Loved it. Very interesting woman of her time!

Beryl Markham had an unconventional childhood in Africa, abandoned by her mother at age 4 and raised by her horse-trainer father. She later went on to become a horse trainer and pilot, and had a string of disastrous romantic relationships. This account of her life is based on Markham's own book, incorporating other sources to fill in the gaps. Highly recommended for those who enjoy history, stories about Africa in the 1920s, and biographies of remarkable women.

I listened to the audiobook version of this book and while I very much enjoy audiobooks I do wonder if it changes my perception of the book. By the way the narrator was excellent. I admired Beryl Markham's courage and perseverance though I felt like the author, too frequently, placed her on a pedestal, that even her missteps, e.g., marrying the wrong man more than once, was not a fault. A more nuanced perspective would have been better. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book for its depiction of a strong woman so able and willing to cross gender roles in the 1st half of the 20th century. Also for the many characters significant in Beryl's life and the wonderful description of her part of Africa.

This first person narrative is a historical fiction account of Beryl Clutterbutt, a really good story which I enjoyed very much.
She spends her formative years on a horse farm in Kenya in Ngoni, near Nairobi with her father. Her mother leaves the family and returns to England when Beryl is 4 years old. She was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1931. Prior to that her life was full of unsupervised play on the farm and with her African friends. She becomes an unconventional, modern, determined, independent, liberal thinking woman, who sets out on her own as a horse trainer. She mingles and socializes with the British upper class which has settled on huge farms in the area. Their excess and social mores are an interesting study on their own, the Happy Valley Set. She becomes great friends with author Karen Blixen and then Denys Finch Hatton. After a failed first marriage, she marries English Nobleman Mansfield Markham, with whom she has a son. Markham refuses to go back to Kenya with their son, son Beryl returns alone.
It is Denys, her lover, who introduces her to flying, at which she excels.
I really enjoyed the book because it is well written, Markham's life is really interesting and she is surrounded by eccentric and conventional characters. The descriptions of Kenya are breathtaking.

Beryl Markham was the first woman to successfully fly across the Atlantic from east to west. Circling the Sun is the fictionalized story of her life, but based on many historical facts. I already knew from the book and movie Out of Africa that life among the white settlers in Kenya in the 1920s was decadent and hedonistic, and I knew that a character based on Markham appeared in the movie. I learned much more about her life in Circling the Sun. Raised by her distant father, married (for the first time) at an early age, she made her own rules because the ones that existed simply didn't apply to her. She became a horse trainer, and much later a pilot, though women weren't "supposed" to do either of those. She flitted in and out of romantic and sexual relationships as she pleased. She didn't think she always made the right decisions, but lived with the consequences. She was a writer too--although that isn't mentioned in this story. Her memoir, West With the Night, is apparently not well known, but was admired by Ernest Hemingway.

Having enjoyed Paula McLain’s "The Paris Wife," I picked up "Circling the Sun," her excellent fictionalization of the difficult and extraordinary life of Beryl Markham. If you have read "Out of Africa" ( or seen the movie) you will recognize almost all of the characters, such as the fascinating Karen Blixen (Isak Dineson ) and Denys Finch-Hatton.
Motherless, neglected and give a minimal education, Markham supports herself from an early age as a horse trainer and later as a bush pilot when small planes first came to Kenya. McLain tells of her “scandalous” love affairs and captures her feisty spirit and as well as the time and marvelous setting.

A special thank you to NetGalley and Random House for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

McLain's latest work of historical fiction spans the life of Beryl Markham, a British-born Kenyan aviator, horse trainer, and in her later years, author. She was one of the first bush pilots, and was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.

Beryl was born in England to Clara and Charles Clutterbuck (an accomplished horse trainer). When she was four, the family moves to Kenya, which at that time was then colonial British East Africa. Beryl's mother returns to England and leaving her husband, son, and daughter. It is there, on her family's farm, where Beryl develops her love of horses and applies her knowledge to become first licensed female racehorse trainer in the country. The Kenyan landscape feeds Beryl's reckless and strong spirit and she forms a live-long love affair with the country.

The story follows Beryl's life, her love affairs with men, horses, and flying. She is beautiful and electric, admired by many for her non-conformist ways, and never tamed.

McLain writes with beautiful sweeping dialogue, and her descriptions of Africa are vivid and gorgeous. I was hooked from the opening sentences which are of Beryl's Atlantic crossing. Oh and I also love the cover! If you enjoyed The Paris Wife, you will love this–McLain is at the top of her game.

This was a bio about Beryl Markham but was way too drawn out and fictionalized for my taste. Didn't finish it but it was interesting to learn about her childhood in Africa and how her mom left and she was raised by her father.

Based on the life of Beryl Markham who was raised in colonial Kenya. She was abandoned by her mother, raised by her father who trained horses, and then took up the trade herself. She made some spectacularly poor choices in men and was in a love triangle with Isak Dinesen, of Out of Africa fame. She became on the first female horse trainers and one of the first women to fly across the Atlantic. She's a fascinating woman. The book was a little too "romance-y" to rate five stars.

In a fictional biography, Beryl Markham tells her story of growing up Beryl Clutterbuck in Kenya in the early 1900s, her abandonment by her mother, and eventually becoming a most unconventional woman.

Beryl's story is quite remarkable, and I hesitate to go into too much detail in case I'd be giving away details for someone who wants to read the book and doesn't know much about her life. She didn't have much formal schooling but she's exceptionally smart. She grew up wild and independent and pretty much stayed that way. I was drawn in to McLain's sympathetic rendering of Beryl most of the time, though her choices about her relationships really frustrated me at times and the book lulls quite a bit in the middle - though it starts off with a bang and an exciting plane ride, most of it is a character study and not a fast-paced book at all. Beryl as a character left me with such mixed emotions that I'm also rather lukewarm about the book itself.