Isak Dinesen
The Life of a Storyteller

This is an intense biography by a writer every bit as talented as Isak Dinesen but much more sane, thank God. By any measure, Isak Dinesen was about as complicated, tempestuous, and megalomaniacal as they come. Midway through this giant tombstone of a book, I was wishing I hadn't opted to find out s......more

This book. Wow. I'm only halfway done and feel I need to capture some thoughts. I read Out of Africa although I don't remember much except feeling frustrated. Now I know why!! It wasn't a memoir, it wasn't a novel, it was a hodgepodge and it confused me. I put Isak Dinesen on my list because it won th......more

This is a very good book. Much better, IMHO, than the book that Dinesen wrote herself, Out of Africa. Coupled with another great book, Circling the Sun, by Paula McClain, it describes an unknown and romantic world in the country of Kenya.......more

I appreciate literary biography, and I consider this particular book to be at the very apex of that genre. Meticulously researched, richly described, not only of the culture and times of late 19th and early 20th century Europe and Africa, but of the fascinating, difficult, frequently unlikable chara......more

This is a meticulously researched and highly detailed biography of a writer and author about whom I knew very little apart from having read, and thoroughly enjoyed 'Out of Africa' (twice over the years) and seen the film at some point in between. What a remarkable woman Isak Dinesen was! Her childhoo......more