by Corinne Hofmann
This is a really engaging tale, an amazing life story on its own. I believe in reincarnation, so I think Corinne’s strong feelings must root from a past life. She is an amazingly strong woman to be able to leave behind everything she has and knows to marry someone in a culture so vastly different.
(The following contains spoiler:)
It is sad that this story does not have a fairy tale ending. I wish so much it does. From newspaper advice columns, I know that there are controlling, jealous husbands everywhere, even if they don suits and ties instead of loinclothes. So you can’t blame it on language barrier. At least, in terms of rotten husbands, Lketinga is far from the bottom of the rut. Nonetheless, I am deeply sadden that this great love could not end on happier terms, when it could have.
The story is really entertaining, although towards the end, the incidents somewhat gets repetitive: get grocery, car break down, domestic fight; that I almost long for the ending. Hofman wrote two more books about her experience after this book, I would love the chance to know what happens after the last chapter.
For anyone interested, I’ve found two websites about the Masai tribe, with photos which helps me trememdously in visualizing the people and the scenes (and hey you’ll find your Masai!):
http://laleyio.com/www.maasai-association.org
And this site has a movie trailer for the movie: (I must say the actor is not as handsome as the Lketinga in my mind.)http://au.movies.yahoo.com/The+White+Masai/movie/16085/