3 1/2 stars.

The whole time I was reading this book I was all like blah blah, rich white lady "steals" land from indigenous people to start a coffee plantation, blah blah shoots native animals, blah blah call indigenous people squatters because they've lived on "her" land for millennia and don't want to leave, blah blah. But then I realized Blixen was just a product of her time as I am of mine. She was actually pretty gutsy and did really care for the "natives" even if she always had a superior attitude towards them. Africa became her home, good or bad, and she truly loved and understood Africa. Reading the poetic way she described her adopted home, described her unique adventures, her trials and tribulations won me over in the end. I felt her pain when she realized she would have to leave her home, her friends, her whole life, having failed in her coffee venture. I imagined how utterly empty and bereft she felt, how hard it would be to say goodbye to something she loved so much, to start over again.

This was a snapshot of a certain time in the history of an African country, a snapshot of an individual living a most unusual life, not a life for the faint of heart. Living through just one plague of grasshoppers would do me in. By the end of the book I had a real respect for Blixen. Yes, Kenya is better off today without the colonists calling the shots, yes of course. This book is just one person's story of her experiences. I finally let go of my judgements and just read.