Ii dau 3,5⭐️ pentru ca m-a tinut intr-o stare permanenta de revolta din cauza tuturor sacrificiilor pe care Corinne le-a facut in nume iubirii, sacrificii care nu au avut niciun ecou in inima bărbatului iubit.
Cartea esre inspirata din fapte reale, povestea fiind infatisata de protagonista care este si autoarea acestui roman exotic.Corinne Hoffman isi petrece vacanta in Kenya alaturi de iubitul sau, si ajunge sa se îndrăgostească iremediabil de masaiul Lketinga, pentru care renunta la tot, si incepe o noua viata intr-o tara necunoscuta. Pe parcurs, diferențele culturale isi pun amprenta, si Corinne se trezeste captivă intr-o lume necunoscuta si neînțeleasă pe care o înfrunta fara sprijinul bărbatului iubit.

Me ha sido imposible continuar con este libro tras escasos capítulos, y no sé si ha sido peor la traducción, el nulo arte de escribir de la protagonista, que no escritora, o su falta de tacto, de empatía y esa mirada de superioridad que tiñe todo donde se posa. Cuanto más leía, más me recordaba la expresión “Parece un elefante en una cacharrería”… Pues eso… Infumable e insufrible.

Truly one of the most batshit insane things I have ever read. this is the other thing i did not include on goodreads for the year out of shame lmao. I found it shelving in the travel section and i was like. What the fuck is this. I started reading it immediately on my lunch break. Then i got covid a couple days later and read the whole thing on my phone in bed in one day. It's about a white woman who gets so obsessed with a Masai (actually he is Samburu but they kept Masai for marketing purposes bc the name is better known) who she sees one time on vacation. She drops EVERYTHING, including her man that she's on vacation with, to be with him. It's a Lust at First Sight situation and of course things don't go very well. This is all a true story, they have a child together, there are photos. There's a lot obviously wrong with her behavior and her fetishization of Leketinga, I don't even need to get into it. because i had covid when I read this I ended up writing a super long diary entry about the ethics of traveling at all as a westerner and where does one draw the line in cultural relativism white saviorism etc. I don't know how to rate this bc I feel anything positive would be an endorsement of her behavior bc clearly I do not, she reaches levels of white womanhood heretofore unheard of. The narrative was not always so simple and I spent a long time thinking about it in so many ways, probably because of how much time on my hands I had when I was sick. I had expected just to read it as a "ha ha ha what the hell" like when I read that book about Vanishing Twin Syndrome but it was enthralling to read in its own way. I admittedly picked this up in a voyeuristic car wreck 90 Day Fiance type of way but even/especially 90 day fiance has a ton of food for thought.

What an educational read! The cultural differences between the two main characters was profound and so eye opening. I appreciated all that I learned from this book.

absolutely unhinged woman. girl got malaria fuck knows how many times and still stayed in their mud hut. this is commitment i will probably never know

Mijn eerste boek in het Engels. Goed gelukt maar las iets trager

Het verhaal van een Zwitserse vrouw die tijdens een vakantie verliefd wordt op een Masai-krijger. Ze breekt met haar vriend, en gaat alleen terug naar Kenia om zijn hart te winnen. Algauw krijgen ze een relatie en gaat ze mee in zijn dorp wonen, in een manyatta, een hutje opgetrokken van takken en plastic, en besmeerd met koeiemest. Uiteindelijk trouwen ze zelfs, en krijgen ze een baby. Ondertussen doet Corinne er ook alles aan om ginder wat geld te verdienen; ze koopt een landrover, en ze begint een winkeltje.
Maar dan wordt haar man Lketinga steeds jaloerser als ze met andere mannen praat, of als ze eens langer van huis is als voorzien wanneer ze haar inkopen gaat doen. Toch doet Corinne er alles aan om haar huwelijk te redden, tot de situatie echt onhoudbaar wordt, en ze met haar kind terug vlucht naar Zwitserland.
Het boek leest vlot, maar reeds van in het begin dacht ik: hoe stom kan je zijn, zo achter een man aanlopen, iemand met wie je niet eens kan communiceren (zowel Corinne als Lketinga kenden maar een paar woordjes engels, als gemeenschappelijke taal). Ze wist ook helemaal niets van de cultuur, alhoewel ze schrijft dat ze voordat ze terugging naar Kenia research gedaan had naar de Masai. Toch maar heel vluchtige research dan...
Later schrijft ze dat ze hoopte dat eens hun culturen zich zouden kunnen mengen, maar dan denk ik: had ze dat nu echt verwacht? Ik vond ook dat ze zich dikwijls (vooral in het begin als ze iemand leerde kennen) gedroeg als de 'wereldwijze' blanke. Ze vond het bv. prettig om broers van haar man mee te nemen naar de zee, en dan te zien hoe verbaasd en eigenlijk bang ze waren voor die grote watermassa. Of de eerste keer dat ze met Lketinga in een lift wil stappen en hij zeer wantrouwig is. Ook als ze met een auto in het dorp aankomt en iedereen uitloopt is ze heel trots, omdat zij als enige een auto heeft en dan nog kan rijden ook.
Ik moet er echter ook wel bij zeggen dat ze wel heel moedig was. Ziekte, hongersnood, een overstroming en andere ontberingen, ze heeft het allemaal meegemaakt en zich er moedig doorheen geslagen. Toch kan ik dan niet nalaten te denken, ja, maar dat heb je toch jezelf aangedaan.
Het verhaal is goed en vlot geschreven, maar ik vind het moeilijk om bewondering voor haar te voelen, ik vondf haar eerder naïef en onbezonnen toen ze aan dit avontuur begon.

Swiss woman falls in love with a stunningly beautiful Masai man. Sometimes they sell souvenirs to tourists and eat in cafes in the city. Sometimes they live in his mother's dark round mud, cow shit and straw hut and eat raw meat and drink blood drained from a living cow.

In the hut, away from the town, she finds out that sexual manners for Masai are that she lies there absolutely still and shows no passion just as if she had her clitoris cut off and labia sewn up like the real Masai women. Perhaps she lay there thinking of writing this book in the short time before it's over. The marriage doesn't last either. That's the nugget of it anyway.

But who could resist falling for that beautiful man? Here is a link to a blog about Masai women's lives


Here is a blog of the ten countries with the most beautiful men in Africa. I was ok with these good looking men until I got to the last one. Oh my, oh oh my. I'd have lived in a hut too... (If that link doesn't work, go here and search for Somalia.

Corinne did the right thing, sometimes what ultimately is wrong, was right. Sometimes the means are all that counts. The end.

Antropoloogilises mõttes väga huvitav lugemine tollasest Aafrika olustikust ja kultuuride vahelistest suhetest. Keeleliselt oli kahjuks kuivemapoolne ja pideva närvilise sündmustiku sekka oleks tahtnud rohkem olustiku ja inimeste kirjeldusi (tavaliselt ma just kurdan nende liigsuse pärast, aga siia oleks pideva actioni tasakaalustamiseks vaja läinud).

Ocena: Dwójeczka.
Wrażenia: Szwajcarka zakochuje się na wycieczce w Masaju, po czym rzuca wszystko i przeprowadza się do jego chatki. Zakochuje się oczywiście w wyglądzie i w swoim wyobrażeniu na temat dzikiego wojownika. Jednak potem następuje zderzenie z rzeczywistością, bo różnice kulturowe są zbyt duże - ani ona nie może się na tyle zmienić, aby tolerować niektóre zwyczaje, ani Lketinga nie jest w stanie porzucić swojej rodziny i części tradycji. I seks był rozczarowujący. Dwie gwiazdki należą się tylko za to, że ciekawie jest poznać masajską wioskę od wewnątrz.
Dla kogo: Na pewno nie dla oczekujących love story z happy endem.

I found this book incredibly annoying! The author not once used her brains to think through situations and consequences, instead always acting on feelings and impulses. After awhile, as situations occurred which could have been foreseen had a little thought gone into them, I just started to feel depressed. I read it because it had such hype a few years back, and because I love Africa with a passion. It was educational to me as well, because I never would have believed that someone could make life changing decisions with no thought! Decisions like to marry a man from a totally alien culture having only met him once and not even being able to communicate in the same language! Or to have a child with that man, out in the bush with no access to much water except what you collect yourself from the river and then complain about having to wash nappies by hand so that your knuckles are worn to the bone! Good heavens woman! Well, that's my rant. I also have the sequel to read so I'm trying to decide whether to read it now and get it over with, or to leave it for awhile till I have largely forgotten my annoyance and get annoyed all over again!

Don't think I can finish this. The woman is tres out of touch with reality.

I brought this book by mistake to a long appointment and am so angry today. If I have to say one good thing about it to give it one star, the writing isn't bad. I don't know if that is the translation, but I will give it one star for that. Now to the anger part.
The woman, Corinne Hoffman, is so self-centered, so stubborn and so man-centered and shallow it made me sick. She falls in love with a man for his looks alone. If you read the entire book, it is his looks alone that she thinks she loves and maybe her imagination of what a Masai warrior is and anything at all about the culture.
She calls love, putting her life in danger many times, almost dying, putting her child's life in danger, and does not believe what anyone else tells her about culture. She slowly and I mean slowly finds out that what she is in love with is not the person she wants him to be, but a man with his own culture who is being himself.
I have a degree in intercultural Communication which may explain why I dislike this woman so much. She cries a million tears for herself, and doesn't want to know other people except, "Her Masai" talks about them only as they have to do with him. This shows a self-absorbed Dum Dum. She complains about learning English, or Swahili and disregards other's needs. Then in the end she complains about her mistreatment by "her Masai" when she should have known the man and his culture first before finding out in the worst possible way.
I wanted to feel sorry for her but couldn't. She cries so much for herself it doesn't leave room for the reader to feel it. She takes risks and says, "I don't do anything halfway." She is a good businessperson, but in my opinion, not a good person. Love at first sight indeed.
She is a "piece of work" and I couldn't believe my eyes and what she goes through for "love' Her daughter could have been in danger of female circumcision and being married off as a second wife if she couldn't get her out of the country. If she had read about the culture she would have saved herself a lot of problems, but then she sold 4 million copies of her book. She is a good businesswoman. Hated it........