From My Bookshelf....by Lynn Willoughby

(Grassroots Page 18)

 Sometimes at the beginning of a movie or TV show you just know it's not going to end well. The same can be said about the two books I'm reviewing today. How easy it is to see the flaws in the emotions and reasoning of someone else.

Beloved Stranger - Clare Boylan
'Marriage as a trap, prison, confinement, an endless compromise with no end in sight, Beloved Stranger is enough to drive one screaming from the altar' - Jennifer Howard of Washington Post Book World.
Although I agree with her - that prospective brides and grooms are advised NOT to pick up this novel, it was complex, well written but left me perplexed and with many unanswered questions.
An Irish couple, married for fifty years not a bit happily and with many 'accommodations' is now separated. How can Lily still long for Dick (who is in a locked psychiatric ward), when he has bullied her, terrorized her (once stroking her cheek with the barrel of his rifle as he drank tea), kept her ignorant of all financial affairs, refused to upgrade their old home in any way and rudely driven off their few friends? He is frantically jealous of Lily, even with their daughter Ruth. What brought these two mismatched souls together in the first place?
While Dick's mad scenes are among the book's best, it seems to be what Lily HASN'T done that is the focus of this novel. When Dick dies, "I'm free, she (Lily) thought. The notion swam into her, seductive and profane. The marriage is ended." What will Lily do now - we never find out!
It's no shock that Ruth has an uneasy relationship with both her parents. As the story progresses we find out why - they are each so jealous of the other's relationship they must keep Ruth away at all costs. And cost it does - especially for Ruth. Dick may suffer episodes of manic-delusional paranoia, but the entire household is fraught with craziness!
"If Boylan can't find a fresh marital story to tell, at least she has discovered new ways of describing an old one: stuck together until the bitter end." -  Jennifer Howard
 Holy Pictures
 Last Resorts
….and many others

The White Masai - Corinne Hofmann
This is a kind of travel writing that takes you into other lives and other cultures.
The author is hit by a thunderbolt when she first saw Lketinga, a Masai warrior, on a ferry in Mombasa. She ditches her boyfriend, sells her boutique in Switzerland and marries her warrior and goes off to live with him in the bush.
An Information Age woman and a Pastoralist man will mean their relationship has limited success, for in his village, Samburu, women are worth less than goats. Hofmann lives with Lketinga's mother in a cow dung hut so tiny she cannot stand upright. Getting water is difficult and the diet consists mostly of goat meat, tea and sugar. This diet, a bout of Malaria, Hepatitis and pregnancy all pose a grave threat to Hofmann's health and survival.
As Hofmann struggles - although she never does learn his language, nor does he learn hers, and tries to improve the lives of the villagers she is blocked at every turn. She buys a truck and eventually opens a small store to sell dietary staples. Lketinga is jealous of each success and sabotages them in his way. This, of course, leads to further tensions and she eventually returns to Switzerland for a "vacation", taking her small daughter with her.
Although the writing was so-so and the photographs fascinating, I was so fed up with the idiocy of the author I have never read the two sequels. This true story was beyond belief for me.
 Back From Africa
 Reunion in Barsaloi

Who Knew?
The traditional Masai home is a very impermanent. The stick structure is plastered with a mix of mud, grass, cow dung, human urine and ash to make it waterproof. It measures about 3m x 5m, standing 1.5m high. Within this space the family cooks, eats, socializes and stores food, fuel and other household possessions.