Binstead's Safari

by Rachel Ingalls

New Englanders Millie and Stan Binstead experience dramatic psychological changes while on an African safari, touching off a chain of events that results in infidelity and death

Genres: Fiction, Africa, Summer, Classics, Magical Realism, Novels, Literary Fiction

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Rachel Ingalls grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She held various jobs, from theatre dresser and librarian to publisher’s reader. She was a confirmed radio and film addict and started living in London in 1965. She authored several works of fiction—most notably Mrs. Caliban—published in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

Reviews

[lark benobi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. The book meanders and teases, and then it grows taut, and then it snaps like a noose. The action is strange and vague for pages on end and then suddenly a fog lifts, and everything becomes brilliantly clear for just a moment; and for just a moment a character sees, really sees, what is important to her or him; and then the clarity dissipates again into a fog. Strange repeating motifs take shape at the edges of every scene. Wild animals. Conversations. Paintings. Hot air balloons. Dead brothers. Lost loves. There is a story here, but the book is more of a mood than a story, or maybe it's a couple of moods--a book of dueling feelings--of what Stan feels; of what Stan's wife Millie feels. The dialog is full of yearning, sadness, missed opportunity, and unspoken things. It's a book about greed and death. About mortality and belief. It's far more open-ended and mysterious than Ingalls's Mrs. Caliban. The only thing I'm sure about is that Ingalls loved these characters very much: their flawed humanity shines out. It's a strange book and I loved it.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just like she does something magical with frogs in Mrs. Caliban, Rachel Ingalls evokes magic with lions in Binstead's Safari.

A strange little book, it follows Stan and Millie Binstead, an unhappily married couple, as they travel to London and then Nairobi where they begin a safari. Stan is an academic with a wandering eye. Millie is a shell of a woman who slowly blossoms back into herself.

As I said, it's a very strange book. Just when you think nothing is happening, that things are meandering around aimlessly, things happen. In fact, a lot of things happen. People die. People fall in love. People participate in group sex. People come to deep realizations about their lives. People ask for divorce. People get mauled by lions. And not necessarily in that order.

Ingalls, with elegant ease, allows us into the thoughts of both Millie and Stan, providing us a tandem view into their flawed partnership, a mosaic of misunderstandings and woundings. As all of this is revealed to the reader, a lion is coughing in the grass, and something mystical is afoot.

It's not that often that an ending can completely cinch a book for me - can elevate it to exactly what I wanted it to be, but this book's ending was just so deeply touching and satisfying. It brought to light how our damaged selves bring us to a place, the ripple effects of that damage, the moment where the truth finally crystallizes, so clear, so devastating, and the beauty of that clarity, even if it seems that it has come too late. WOW.

[Diane Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let me start by saying that this is my first book by Rachel Ingalls, but she's now on my list of authors to look out for. What an amazing novel! The Binsteads have a failing marriage. It's gotten so bad that when Stan plans an African safari for some research, stopping first in London to see a colleague, he insists that Millie pay her own way if she wants to go! He is an awful husband with a wandering eye, and she is depressed and unhappy. But from the moment they step foot onto foreign soil, she blossoms, spreads her wings, and begins to thrive. She decides to do what makes her happy, husband be damned. That turns out to be a wise decision.

What happens, first in London, then in Africa, is a magnificent story. Ingalls feeds us just enough information and gives us hints about what's happening off screen to keep us interested. Wonderful characters, including the lions, and a completely unexpected, but perfect ending. Not giving anything away by revealing that the husband never stops being an A**hole.

I would never even have known about this book or author without the wonderful review by GR friend Robin. She won me over by describing this as an offbeat, little known novel, my favorite kind of read. She has created a new fan for Ingalls, and I think anyone else who gives this book a try will be a fan as well. Thanks, Robin, I loved it.

[Betsy Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is such a marriage of kind of English drawing room dialogue, with the spareness and escalating tension of Pinter, woven into a mystical shamanic African safari journey that I don't know how to begin to explain it. So I won't. Except to say that I really enjoyed it and, once again, am so grateful to Goodreads friends (Diane Barnes and Robin) for reviewing this book. I never would have known about it otherwise.

[Sharon Boorstin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I devoured this novel, though "devour" is probably not the best descriptor for a book that involves man-eating lions in Africa. My most-literate friend I. told me about Rachel Ingalls when the author's recent death was covered in the NY Times. Ingalls was a writer whose magical-realism novellas and novels got some attention during her life, but she wasn't really "known" until she reached her 70s. And then, alas, she died. Now her books are being reprinted and they are well worth seeking out. Ingalls is perhaps best known for "Mrs. Calliban," in which a lonely single woman falls in love with a sea creature. Sound familiar? As in "The Shape of Water," the movie that won an Oscar? Director Guillermo del Toro insists he didn't read it, but still.... Anyway, I., my Ingalls-loving friend, who knows that I love wildlife and Africa, insisted I read "Binstead's Safari" before "Mrs. Calliban." What a lovely, poetic, exciting and mystical novel! I adored "Out of Africa" and loved this novel even more. I won't go into the details of the story about an unhappily married young woman and her academic husband who go off to Africa to pursue his quest for "mythic" stories of man and beast in the bush. It's full of twists that enlighten as well as surprise. If you love wild animals and adventure -- and have a passion for life -- read it!

[Max]

Another Rachel Ingalls banger about a woman finding liberation by falling in love with an mysterious creature.

[Captain Sir Roddy, R.N. (Ret.) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the African novel that Ernest Hemingway probably always aspired to write, but didn't. His short story, "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" (1936) perhaps comes the closest. The perfection that Rachel Ingalls has achieved in slightly over 200 pages is simply astounding. First published in 1983, this novel has the technical mastery of something written by W. Somerset Maugham with a dash of the gothic and macabre of Daphne du Maurier. This book is a prime example of novella or short novel length fiction that has been nearly perfectly executed.

While the setting of this tale is a long African safari, it is really about the liberation of a woman from an oppressive marriage and her own self doubts and low self esteem. Slowly but surely, Millie, the novel's primary protagonist, 'slips the surly bonds' and begins to experience the "joie de vivre" of being part the world and people around her, including finding real romantic love. The novel begins with Millie just tagging along as her boorish academic husband, Stan, sets off for Africa to write his anthropological treatise on a supposed native cult based on the worship of lions. But the reader quickly realizes that Stan is, in fact, the sideshow and that Millie is really at 'the heart of the matter.'

Once started, I defy anyone to put this novel down. The careful and astute reader will appreciate Ingall's masterful use of metaphor as Millie slowly grows and expands to fill every nook and crevice of the plot. This is a very good book, and while Ingalls and this novel appear to be relatively unknown, this is a classic that readers will enjoy discovering and reading and rereading for years to come. I highly recommend this powerful little gem!

[Isabelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want my dead lover to come back as a lion and maul me

[Clara Lincolnhol · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book describes a mood and I like that we get the internal monologue of characters every once in a while. Millie, the wife, blossoms and liberates herself from her bad marriage and detaches herself emotionally. While in London she is her own company. Then everyone loves her in Africa and that makes her arrogant husband insecure and suddenly he loves her again--so annoying--probably only because other people are valuing her now. She then gets involved with someone who lowkey is magical and gets pregnant. I like the supernatural part of the book a lot. It made Millie's intense desire to be with him make sense and the "hallucinations" Stan has after her death exciting to read. He realizes she was with him after her death.

[Michaela · Rating 2 out of 5]

I knew when I started the book I'd have to read it critically just by the way they talk about Africa like it's a country, but god do you have to sift through a lot of crap to get to the storyline. They continuously refer to Africa as a country and always refer to black people in slightly racist connotations. The way that a white man (Henry) is revered as some kind of god to a tribe is on many levels very problematic. And that Millie can only find her freedom through ANOTHER MAN? They even say that she was never this Interesting and Well Adjusted before she became pregnant with Henry's kid. Like??? What is the author trying to say by that? The "power" of Henry and his desire of her humanized her and gave her a personality and the gall to bite back at Stan? I'm so unimpressed. There are some interesting critiques about white heterosexual relationships between Millie and Stan and that's the only redeemable part of this book. But all of Millie's power is written to come from a different man showing interest in her. That concept of a man will save you from your abusive relationship is so tired and unhealthy. The ending was atrocious, too. The only character the readers were built up to care about was Millie and then she just dies and there are still at least 20 pages of story to go through that didn't add anything to the plot? I'm just confused. In the middle of the book I thought I understood what the message was (a feminist critique on the way husbands are "allowed" to abuse and diminish their wives) but it got totally lost. Even Stan doesn't come to understand his true flaws, he just gets killed trying to kill this lion. I feel unsatisfied.

[William · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very English book even if it is about Americans, and sadly it is not at all my cup of tea. I found the book pretentious and an absolute slog to read. Too many characters to keep track of, and a plot which I found both irritating and absurd are just the beginning of my resistance to this story.

The most central flaw is that Stan Binstead is such a jerk, and he and his wife, Millie, are the central figures. He is almost everything bad a man can be in a relationship with a woman (aside from chronic violence, I guess), and the frequent revelation of his thinking makes him banal and callow. Millie is more likable during the time the book covers, but why did she put up with that creep for so long? People got divorced in the 1980's, and goodness knows Millie had grounds.

I have a lot of resistance to novels where characters fall madly in love (and into bed) at the very beginning of their being acquainted. I also don't respond positively to the magical elements of the plot, which imply reincarnation. The ending is so preposterous than I found it hilarious, and in a small way it made me glad I struggled to the end of this. And I agree with other readers about the discomfort of Ingalls' "white man's burden" approach to people indigenous to Africa. The lions are sort of cool, though, and they do away with a fair number of Europeans in the course of the story.

[Olivia Mason · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am 60% of the way through, and I'm too bored to keep reading. I really want to like it because I adored Mrs. Caliban—and what I've read certainly isn't bad—but it's just not doing it for me. DNF.

[Jake Bittle]

So impressive how she switches back and forth between the husband and the wife’s point of view, paragraph by paragraph, and you never get lost. Never going on a safari now though.

[Linden · Rating 4 out of 5]

An academic and his neglected wife go to Africa, where she's transformed into the center of attention, much to his surprise.

[classicmyassics · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rachel Ingalls was saying “I choose the bear” (lion) way before it became a meme. I also want one of Millie’s little paintings so bad!

[CarolB · Rating 4 out of 5]

This little gem of a read was on some list in The Times of excellent books that have been ignored.

The Binsteads are not a happy couple. Stan is an academic, a man with a wandering eye and zero tolerance for his little wifey, Millie. To do research on African lion cults Stan goes on an extended safari and Millie joins him. On the way they spend some time in London, he partying with an old friend and she making the most of her time by exploring the city. She gets a newfound sense of empowerment from her solo time.

When they get to Africa Millie no longer is the doting wife, no longer needs anything from Stan. She meets handsome Harry at a party and they have a brief but clearly deep connection. While she is at various camps Harry gets love notes to her. Meanwhile, hubby Stan is noticing how beautiful Millie now looks, how people are attracted to her, how well she connects with them. But she has no interest in him. Handsome Harry gets killed in a bar. What was Harry doing to have someone hire thugs to eliminate him? We get to decide that for ourselves.

Things take a turn for the magical. A lion keeps showing up, apparently with a special attraction to Millie. He's a magnificent dark-maned creature, bigger and more perfectly muscled than any the hunters in this camp have ever seen. Any more and I'm into Spoiler territory.

This book is chock full of great perceptions about relationships, set against a background of the wilds, full of unidentifiable noises and dangers. Published in 1983, it's an odd but wonderful blend of psychology and adventure, of people who can't see what's right in front of them, and people who see things that aren't really there. Much is left unexplained. I'm left in a mystical zone having fun filling in the blanks.

[Stacey D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A twisted tale of greed, infidelity and death in the afternoon. I liked Ingalls’ writing a lot, and she sure knows how to keep the tension on high throughout the story. I couldn’t place the time nor the exact safari setting - if this was the 1950’s, the 80’s or somewhere in between - and that was a good thing. The myth and majesty of the lion plays a big part of the novel as the author draws you in, making you part of the exotic African experience. And that pervading feeling of doom that envelops the book reminded me of two other favorite authors who do it so well, Paul Bowles and Paul Theroux. So glad I read this.

[Peyton Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ingalls does not miss!! I am so impressed with the prose and structure of this novel, how she shifts between her protagonists, and how the ending is wildly unpredictable, even as she tells you what is to come. She has full confidence in her suspense; it’s like watching a movie and play, a surreal classic out of the 70’s. Every character is fully alive and tightly interwoven with the next. It has an essence of fantasy as the impossible becomes possible, and yet it’s anthropological, not speculative.

[Khris Sellin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gripping story about the changes to Millie and Stan Binstead when they embark on a trip to first London and then the wilds of Africa for safari. Millie is left mostly on her own in London by her philandering husband, and she gains more confidence in wondrous ways so by the time they reach Africa, she's really come out of her shell, so much so she decides she doesn't need her husband anymore. There's some "magical realism" thrown in which is a little weak, but still an enjoyable read.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

The bookmark note from the Fish Creek library guy who recommended it said "A very strange book, and I loved it". I agree with both parts of that comment. Reminiscent of some of the tales in
the Alexander McCall Smith "No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" series, it has a fascinating way of blurring the distinction between normal life and a spiritual, mystical being. Yes, that is difficult to to understand, and even tougher to try to explain!
SO, if you have an open, curious mind, just read the book!
If you can t find it, then read some of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. I loved them all!

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

He said, ‘I used to think. When people said they were lonely…’ He swallowed. She waited for him to go on. Her wristwatch started to tick loudly. He raised his head. ‘I used to think it was their own fault’

A couple on the brink of divorce go on an African safari. Got it mostly for cool cover but still was very fun!! Dark and deep at times, wicked comedic at others

[Maureen Grigsby · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was recommended to me by my favorite bookseller, Mary McBride. I didn’t know what to expect but the book was unsettling, to say the least. Also, don’t think I would ever want to go on safari after this! That said, it was a unique and compelling novel.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5, really. What a strange book. But it leaves a lot to think about at the end.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rachel Ingalls is a marvel. I loved this book.

[Madeleine 健敏]

Rachel Ingalls là một trong những tác giả xuất sắc nhưng ít được biết đến nhưng mình may mắn được chị @maireadingjournal giới thiệu riêng cho, và 'Binstead’s Safari' là minh chứng hoàn hảo cho khả năng kể chuyện đầy mê hoặc của bà vì đây không chỉ là một câu chuyện về một người phụ nữ thoát khỏi cuộc hôn nhân ngột ngạt, mà còn là một tác phẩm sâu sắc về tự do, bản ngã và những hình thái quyền lực ẩn giấu trong các mối quan hệ.

1. Millie: Sự biến đổi hay trốn chạy?
Millie là một người phụ nữ bị mắc kẹt trong cuộc sống hôn nhân với Stan- Một người đàn ông xem cô như một vật đi kèm trong chuyến thám hiểm của mình. Nhưng khi bước chân vào thế giới hoang dã ở châu Phi, Millie không chỉ tìm thấy sự tự do mà còn có một mối quan hệ đầy bí ẩn với một nhân vật siêu thực. Vậy, Millie có thực sự biến đổi hay cô chỉ đang trốn thoát vào một thế giới tưởng tượng? Câu trả lời lại tuỳ thuộc ở cách ta nhìn nhận về tự do vì 'Binstead’s Safari' không đưa ra một đáp án tuyệt đối; mà thay vào đó, nó khiến ta tự hỏi: Liệu tự do là một thực thể có thật, hay nó chỉ là một ảo giác mà con người tự tạo ra để thoát khỏi thực tại? Ingalls không cho phép người đọc thụ động tiếp nhận câu chuyện, mà buộc ta phải tự xây dựng cách hiểu của riêng mình.

2. Quyền lực trong mối quan hệ: Tình yêu hay một dạng kiểm soát mới?
Mối quan hệ giữa Millie và nhân vật huyền bí này có thể được nhìn theo nhiều góc độ. Nó có thể là một câu chuyện thần thoại về sự kết nối giữa con người và tự nhiên, nhưng cũng có thể là một biểu hiện của quyền lực dưới một hình thức khác. Bởi vì nếu Stan đại diện cho quyền lực nam giới theo nghĩa truyền thống gồm việc áp đặt và kiểm soát, thì nhân vật bí ẩn lại đại diện cho một dạng quyền lực nguyên thủy hơn như bản năng, tự do, nhưng cũng chưa đầy nguy hiểm. Mình biết là mình hỏi khá nhiều nhưng ở đây cần có sự suy ngẫm sâu sắc rằng liệu Millie thực sự được giải phóng, hay cô chỉ đang chuyển từ một hệ thống kiểm soát này sang một hệ thống kiểm soát khác? Và hơn thế nữa, cô mang thai vào giữa cuối cuốn sách nên chúng ta có thể xem đó là kết quả của một mối quan hệ huyền bí, nhưng đấy cũng có thể là dấu hiệu cho thấy cô chưa bao giờ hoàn toàn thoát khỏi cuộc sống cũ khi cô hồi tưởng lại cuộc trò chuyện với người chị gái ruột của cô- Betty. Vì thế, cảm nhận của mình vẫn cảm thấy rằng cô vẫn bị ràng buộc bởi các cấu trúc quyền lực, dù chúng có mang hình hài nào đi chăng nữa.

3. Thiên nhiên đang giải phóng con người hay đang che giấu mặt tối?
Thiên nhiên trong 'Binstead’s Safari' không chỉ là bối cảnh mà còn là một nhân vật thực thụ. Đối với Millie, thiên nhiên là nơi cô khám phá bản thân, rũ bỏ những ràng buộc của nền văn minh phương Tây. Nhưng nó có thực sự giải phóng cô, hay chỉ là một ảo tưởng? Tác phẩm này gợi cho mình nhớ đến những câu chuyện như 'Heart of Darkness' của Joseph Conrad (I'm going to read this) hay 'The Awakening' của Kate Chopin, nơi mà thiên nhiên đóng vai trò là chất xúc tác cho sự thức tỉnh tâm lý. Nhưng nếu thiên nhiên là một thế giới nguyên thủy, thì nó cũng chứa đầy sự hỗn loạn và không thể kiểm soát vì thiên nhiên 'không quan tâm' đến chuẩn mực đạo đức hay xã hội; nó chỉ vận hành theo bản năng sinh tồn. Vì vậy, Millie có thể đã tìm thấy tự do, nhưng cũng có thể cô đã đánh mất điều gì đó của con người mình. Và cũng có lẽ rằng Ingalls đang gợi ý rằng thiên nhiên không phải là nơi con người có thể 'ở lại' mãi mãi dù nó là một nơi để khám phá bản thân, nhưng cuối cùng, ta vẫn phải đối mặt với thực tế.

4. Phê phán hôn nhân của xã hội phương Tây
Stan rõ ràng là hình ảnh của một kiểu đàn ông phương Tây điển hình trong văn chương: Tự cao, gia trưởng và xem vợ mình như một vật sở hữu. Nhưng thay vì chỉ dừng lại ở sự phê phán lối mòn về hôn nhân truyền thống, Ingalls đặt ra một câu hỏi rộng hơn: liệu chúng ta có thể thật sự thoát khỏi xã hội, hay chúng ta chỉ đang dịch chuyển từ một hình thái kiểm soát này sang một hình thái khác? Millie có khả năng là đã rời khỏi cuộc sống cũ, nhưng liệu cô có thật sự tự do vì khi nhìn sâu hơn, 'Binstead’s Safari' không chỉ nói về sự giải phóng của một người phụ nữ, mà còn là một bài suy ngẫm về cách con người tự kiến tạo thực tại của chính họ.

Kết luận: Một tác phẩm đa tầng nghĩa và em M cảm ơn chị Mai <3
Binstead’s Safari là một cuốn sách đầy mơ hồ và thách thức người đọc. Nó không đưa ra câu trả lời, cũng không áp đặt một cách hiểu duy nhất do Ingalls viết một câu chuyện vừa mang tính thần thoại, vừa mang tính hiện thực, khiến người đọc không thể phân biệt đâu là thực, đâu là ảo. Có lẽ, cũng giống như Millie, chúng ta bị/ được đặt vào một tình huống phải tự quyết định đâu là sự thật của riêng mình.

[Alana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the writing in this, deceptively simple! Really it was strikingly concise. Also reminded me that there's the phrase "not for love nor money" which I will now be using constantly

[Natalie Jenner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this slender novel in a Hudson NY bookshop which was also stocking MRS. CALIBAN, the most famous of the works of Rachel Ingalls, who passed away earlier this year. These can be tricky books to find - and stepping into this one was like entering a parallel universe of women’s writing. This is the story of an unbearably unhappy and childless professor’s wife who discovers herself in London, then accompanies her unbearably selfish and self-preoccupied husband on safari and falls in love, all the while embracing the new freedoms and empowerment she has finally allowed herself to feel. I know I’ve enjoyed a book when I find it hard to write about it immediately upon finishing - my mind is still half in the dream-like and hypnotic world that Ingalls skillfully created, despite minimal description of both setting and characters. Why this book matters is in part due to the achingly real and troubled landscape of the wife’s mind, a perturbing picture of what so many women historically would feel, socially and emotionally invisible to the ambitious men they have married. Watching Mrs. Binstead come to life under such mentally grueling circumstances makes what could have been a rather bleak book a fascinating time capsule and life lesson all in one.

[Rhod · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the way the author develops the way a "frumpy" wife is able to redefine herself and discover a new independence from an uncaring, overbearing and alcoholic husband. I found the author's tendency to leave an adventure abruptly without completing it a bit annoying, but she brings into her story a surreal quality that adds another dimension to the book. I really enjoyed the book 4 stars worth until the ending - then I remembered I was reading Rachel Ingalls. Love her imagination, but she is not above treating her characters rather harshly. Except for the ending, the storyline reminds me of the movie "Bread and Tulips", a really delightful movie I saw recently via Netflix.

[Erik Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who's binstead?

[william · Rating 4 out of 5]

very odd. went from boring to fascinating to redundant to entrapping, just as it snapped shut untimely