Review of Circling the Sun by Paula McLain

McLain brings to life the story of real-life aviation legend Beryl Markham, who was the first woman to make a solo trans-Atlantic flight and who lived a life of independence and unorthodox freedom. This is a wonderful complement to Markham's own memoir, West with the Night.

There are things we find only at our lowest depths. The idea of wings and then wings themselves. An ocean worth crossing one dark mile at a time. The whole of the sky.

I loved Beryl Markham's beautiful, adventure-driven memoir West with the Night (last month was the 90th anniversary of her historic solo trans-Atlantic flight) and it has long been one of my most recommended reads, so I was a little wary of reading someone else's account of her life.

But Paula McLain did a lovely job fully setting the scene in vivid, varied, lush, unforgiving Africa--which in a way is really the main character of this book. McLain shapes a fully fleshed out story of Markham's young life and the fiercely independent woman's plausible internal dialogue, drive, and mindset.

Searching out something important and going astray look exactly the same for a while, in fact.

However, I felt and believed surprisingly little of her connection to the man described as the love of her life--that element felt told but not shown. My dissatisfaction in this regard could partially stem from their only occasional romantic encounters.

This was a book I was sad to finish. I loved living through Beryl Markham's adventures, determined reinventions, and resolute rejection of society's expectations of her.

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Paula McLain is also the author of The Paris Wife, When the Stars Go Dark, and Skylark.

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