Customer Reviews: Read 13 more reviews...
 Compelling subject matter let down by style and structure August 1, 2008
For me this was a book that got better as it went along. I was fascinated by the descriptions of tribal life, and found I had to admire Corinne for her determination and sheer guts. At the beginning the obsessive way the she referred to her husband ('my Masai', 'my darling', etc) really put me off - it was like some rather unsettling fictional unreliable narrator - but by about half-way through I found I couldn't put the book down.
It's not great literature, and I do feel that - particularly at the beginning - the style and structure could have been greatly improved. However, it was a fascinating tale, full of interesting detail and observation. At page 50 I was ready to give up , but because I had to read it for my reading group I persevered, and amazingly, at the end I find myself giving it a 3. It's only not a 4 because of the irritating style.
 Truly, madly, deeply... terrible June 24, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
It's a rare feat to find a book that makes you want to hurl it across the room, this true story of Corinne Hofmann, a Swiss girl who goes to live among the tribes people of Kenya with her lover, a Maasai warrior would make useful ammunition.
The story is disarmingly simple: arriving in Mombasa for the first time accompanied by her fiance, within the first ten pages our heroine narrowly avoids arrest (her soon-to-be-ditched boyfriend is trying to buy dope), glimpses a noble savage (the Maasai warrior she will pursue) and decides that she alone truly understands the enchantments of East Africa. Taking her truculent boyfriend to the local disco "to which natives were admitted", she again encounters `her' Maasai (she is already using the possessive) and succeeds in meeting him. She does not speak his language, nor is her English sufficient to the task and she is shocked by his culture: nonetheless, she is immediately convinced of the depth and sincerity of her love and her desire to be with him `forever'.
She returns to Switzerland for as long as it takes to dump her boyfriend and sell her business, returning to Kenya six months later with her brother and his girlfriend, she finds `her' Maasai warrior again and is bemused when they do not immediately see in him the romantic hero she recognises. She attempts to seduce him and is confused but not deterred to discover that the Maasai do not kiss - nor indulge in most of the romantic gestures and caresses familiar to westerners. With a week, she has moved out of her hotel and into the tiny wattle and daub hut of her warrior's sister. Only now does he come to her - their `lovemaking' a perfunctory, painful experience in which she may not kiss or touch him (a Maasai woman may not touch her lover's penis, nor his hair/face (which are sacred); a man may not touch a woman below the waist and the mouth may only be used for eating) she is desolate but undeterred. Dismissing the reservations expressed by her brother and his partner, she determines to stay with him. This she does, and in the three years that follows, she becomes accustomed to the hardships of life in a bush village, she `tames' and marries her Maasai warrior and - inevitably - leaves him, returning to Switzerland and leaving their child with him.
Hofmann has an insular mind enthralled by the exotic but with little genuine curiosity about culture of language and this true story therefore comes across as arrogant and patronising: her romantic fantasies in Kenya are not matched by an interest in learning the Maasai language, nor much about the culture of the country in the six month return to Switzerland. The tale is a catalogue of the curious customs of the natives (her disbelief that they don't have washing up liquid or a scouring pad, so she must use her manicured nails; her disdain for their ritualistic approach to sexuality and marriage; her impatience at the longueurs of bureaucracy and the mysteries of immigration authorities). All in all she comes across as shallow and sheltered though determined to follow her dream.
It is - perversely - a fascinating story, but her prose is stultifying and does nothing to convey her passion for the Maasai and for Kenya, nor for the magic and glory of Africa she repeatedly tells us is all around. It makes for a depressing, deeply voyeuristic tale.
 Interesting but such an irritating read January 3, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book is a fascinating biography of one woman's experience of starting a new life in an alien culture. Her story begins when she meets her Masai on holiday and becomes obsessed by him. She leaves her home country Switzerland to become his wife and live in the depths of Kenya.
The back of the book has the quote from the Daily Mail 'dashing tale of love and adventure' and herein lies the fundamental reason as to why this book is so incredibly irritating. Hofman clearly is NOT in love with her masai. Throughout the book she keeps trying to create the impression to the reader that this is love with rather whimsical descriptions and lots of 'My darling husband' scattered generously throughout its pages. However beneath the fluff it is interesting when you look at her core descrptions of him and their relationship. She talks of being a 'breathtakingly beautiful man' 'he looks like a young god'. She later describes ' his sleek body' in detail. Infact at no point in this book are we presented with any evidence that she was 'in love', instead we are left with the impression that this is a holiday romance gone horribly wrong (eventually) and that she is obsessive and to be honest, a bit of a bunny-boiler. The GREATLY over-used description of her Masai as 'my darling' on almost every page left me wanting to extract my own eye balls, on more than one occaision and physically shout at Ms Hofman to 'WAKE UP AND GET A GRIP YOU SILLY WOMAN'.
I could not feel sympathy for her at any point in the book. Towards its end, there is a chapter which details her becoming very unwell and needing a significant stay in hospital for liver problems. She is warned not to eat meat as it will make her ill again but 'sneaks afew pieces' when her Masai comes to visit her and brings her a roasted goat leg. It makes her ill, resulting in a doctor screaming at her that if she didn't want to get better why is she in hospital in the first place. It is another example of her making a bad decision based on emotion rather than common sense. The best bit of this book comes when the doctor screams at her for being so stupid, a feeling echoed by myself for the entire book.
I would recommend this book as it is truely interesting, however it is not a book of one womans bravery, of following her heart and love. It is a story of an impressionable woman following her sex drive and making a life style choice based upon her labido and thats OK as we all make good and bad decisions in life. However the marketing of this book made me expect alot more inspiration and 'depth' from its pages, from this book which is apparently ' steeped in humanity' and a tale Hofman's bravery. Instead I was left with the feeling that I had been somewhat mislead and this is the story of a silly woman who made a rather silly choice.
 The White Masai - Corinne Hofman - Interesting Read December 28, 2007
A friend recommended this book to me after I returned from a fabulous holiday in Kenya. Not my usual style of reading but nether the less I found it impossible to put down. Read this in two days.
The author and main character Corinne is slightly annoying at times, but I feel the translation from German may have made this worse.
Her descriptive narrative of Kenya was wonderful to read after having just been there myself. The Kenyan people were the friendliest we have ever met and the country the most amazing we have ever been to. I loved reading about the culture of the Masai, and after visting a real life masai village I could really imagine myself there in her place.
I will definately read the sequel, wonder if she returns to her "darling"? Can't help thinking the woman was mad! giving up her successful business, wealthy lifestyle, friends and family for a man she didn't know and couldn't communicate with!
I would recommmend this book, simply to enjoy a taste of Kenya and another culture. I would suggest that anyone who has been to Kenya and loved it, might find as I did this is a must for when they return home, and their tan and memories are fading fast and they need a Kenya fix!!
Enjoy
Frustrating September 10, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book was highly recommended by a friend, and taken at face value, as a view of a radically different culture, it was fascinating.
Unfortunately I found the first part of the book really difficult to get into because I couldn't believe the stupidity of leaving a stable life in Switzerland for an extremely basic life in Africa, just because the author took a fancy to a Masai warrior with whom she couldn't even communicate.
The next part of the book seemed to be constant journeying over atrocious roads for hours on end, just to obtain basic living requirements or necessary paperwork - how can such a basic way of life need so much paperwork??!!
And finally we suffer through the disintegration of the marriage caused by jealousy, which was very sad.
So, I have mixed views on this one; I agree wholeheartedly with the previous reviewer that the whole thing was crazy, but at the same time it was a fascinating insight into a culture that we can hardly believe still exists.
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