Kat Gordon: The Hunters, 9780008253073, Harper Collins, paperback

(German Edition: Kenya Valley, 9783455002775, Atlantik Verlag, gebunden)

 

Vacation time, time to escape, to dream and relax. 

Ever since visiting Kenya for the first time in the late seventies have I held a special affection for Kenya and Africa which has affected many of my reading choices over the years.   To name only a few,  Karen Blixen’s classic and famous “Out of Africa”, Beryl Markham’s “West of  Sunset”, Kuki Gallman’s “I dreamed of Africa”,  Paula McLain's “Circling the sun” and James Fox's “White Mischief”. My latest pick, Kat Gordon's “The Hunters”  which is set in 1925-1938 in what was then British East Africa borrows heavily from the characters in “White Mischief”, also called “The Happy Valley set” but giving them new identities and using the liberties of fiction.

The beauty, wealth, drinking and sexual activities of members of the Happy Valley Set during wild parties were talked and frowned upon by the mostly conservative white East African community. Theo Miller is fifteen when he and his sister Maud arrive in Nairobi with their parents, their father is to oversee the building of the new railroad in Kenya. Theo with his good looks immediately catches the attention of Sylvie de Croy and Freddie with their circle of heavily partying friends.  He has his first introduction into drinking and watching their scandalous behavior very soon, feeling strangly attracted in particular to Sylvie, her husband Nicolas, a French Count and Freddie, Sylvie’s lover. Theo and Maud fall in love with their new life considering Kenya their true home, fascinated by the wilderness, the animals and native tribes. The life of the British settlers from mostly wealthy backgrounds and their life style is something completely foreign to us today as was their paternising behavior towards the Kenyan tribes using them as cheap labour to afford their life style. Theo has a complex relationship with his mother who is at first less than enchanted with her new home, distancing herself from her children and husband with volunteer work chosing to live mostly in Nairobi and not in their Riff valley house in Kiboko.

The novel is told from Theo's perspective over 13 years of his life, from his coming of age into adulthood, his destructive passion for Sylvie and admiration for Freddie, his love for his sister Maud which lasts through all the unexpected turns life holds in store for them . “The Hunters” makes for a great holiday read, an entertaining page-turner with many colorful characters painting a very atmospheric portrait of Kenya up to WW II. I found the ending a little too predictable but this did not diminish my joy reading "The Hunters".

William Boyd: Love is Blind, 9780241295946, C format Paperback, Viking / Penguin Random House UK, publication date: September 2018  

(no German edition announced yet)
 

Whenever I have the privilege of reading the proof of an upcoming novel by William Boyd, I know hours of reading pleasure lie ahead of me.  “Love is Blind” was no exception, in fact I felt downright sad when I finished the novel and could not stop thinking about it. The ending had something to do with it but I will not say anymore.

There is no other living British author, to my mind at least, who pulls you into the life stories of his main characters describing the affairs of the human heart quite as intensely as William Boyd. He did this with “Any Human Heart” and “Sweet Caress”, both on my shelf of all-time favorite books and he does it again with “Love is Blind”.

At first I found it more difficult than usual to strike up a relationship with Brodie Moncur, the Scottish piano tuner whose life unfolds over the next 370 pages.  But this changed quickly and I was hooked.  The novel spans from 1894 until 1906 which is probably the reason why I sometimes felt like reading a classic but Boyd's superb use of language is another reason to select this category.

The tragic love between Brodie Moncur and Lika Blum, a seductive Russian opera singer of lesser talent but of greater beauty has an almost Chekhov like character.  They first meet when Brodie left his native Edinburgh for Paris to work for the Scottish piano manufacturer Channon, a once in a life time chance for him to escape his preacher father's cruel regiment. When he is asked to tune a Channon piano for the famous piano player John Killbaron, Brodie sees Lika for the first time and is smitten by her beauty and aura, a feeling that does not change when he discovers that Lika is living with Killbaron.  His obsession with her and their secret affair takes him from Paris to Geneva, from Nice back to Paris and St. Petersburg, Vienna, Trieste, Biarritz and Edinburgh, a place he thought he would never see again.

Boyd is a master storyteller; the book has several well drawn out characters painting a lively and intimate portrait of society at the turn of the 20^th century across Europe.  Another five stars Rating from me for William Boyd and “Love is Blind”: