Casei com um Massai

The White Masai #1

by Corinne Hofmann, Gabriel Fonseca (Translator)

Uma apaixonante e surpreendente história de vida que comoveu mais de quatro milhões de pessoas em todo o mundo. Casei com Um Massai de Corinne Hofmann EXCERTO «Esta é a história dos quatro anos que passei no mato do Quénia. Na altura vivi o maior amor da minha vida e passei pelo céu e pelo inferno. Foi a minha maior luta pela sobrevivência. Uma luta que, ainda assim, eu e a minha filha vencemos.»

Genres: Nonfiction, Africa, Biography, Memoir, Travel, Kenya, Biography Memoir

448 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

AKA Коринна Хофманн (Russian), Corinne Hofmannová (Czech), Korin Hofman (Serbian).
Corinne Hofmann was born in 1960 of a French mother and a German father in Frauenfield in the Swiss canton of Thurgau, now lives in a villa on Lake Lugano with her teenage daughter.

Reviews

[Katherine Howell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Now - before I started and indeed after reading the first few chapters, this book is making me angry. Angry is maybe not the right word. I just think that she's an ignorant dufus. Who makes a decision to change your life so dramatically (and invade someone else's home) based on deciding you've fallen in love with someone you've just glimpsed?? This happens while she's on holiday, she goes home for 6 months and then comes back to find him (which she does - don't worry, this is all very early on, not giving much away). There is not an inkling in the book so far that she has in any way tried to learn anything about his culture or language during that time. It makes me really annoyed.
Still, I'm going to persist for 2 reasons - firstly, I'd like to be proven wrong about her and secondly, it is set in Kenya so the setting is interestingly familiar....

[Petra X · Rating 4 out of 5]

Swiss woman falls in love with a stunningly beautiful Masai man. Sometimes they sell souvenirs to tourists and eat in cafes in the city. Sometimes they live in his mother's dark round mud, cow shit and straw hut and eat raw meat and drink blood drained from a living cow.

In the hut, away from the town, she finds out that sexual manners for Masai are that she lies there absolutely still and shows no passion just as if she had her clitoris cut off and labia sewn up like the real Masai women. Perhaps she lay there thinking of writing this book in the short time before it's over. The marriage doesn't last either. That's the nugget of it anyway.

But who could resist falling for that beautiful man? Here is a link to a blog about Masai women's lives


Here is a blog of the ten countries with the most beautiful men in Africa. I was ok with these good looking men until I got to the last one. Oh my, oh oh my. I'd have lived in a hut too... (If that link doesn't work, go here and search for Somalia.

Corinne did the right thing, sometimes what ultimately is wrong, was right. Sometimes the means are all that counts. The end.

[Badly Drawn Girl · Rating 2 out of 5]

I struggled with this book. The beginning is so unbelievable that I was left feeling uncomfortable by how shallow this woman was. I find it ironic that she has said in an interview that a lot of people are uncomfortable with the fact that she married and had a baby with a black man. As a mother of two biracial sons, I can guarantee that is not what made me uncomfortable. What made me uncomfortable was her complete lack of regard for the culture she barged her way into. She didn't know the first thing about cultural mores or expectations. She didn't even know the man she was supposedly in love with. How do you fall in love with someone that you cannot communicate with, have little to nothing in common with, doesn't even satisfy you physically, and has dramatically different ideas on gender equality, raising children and life than you do?? And every time she called him "my warrior" or "my Masai" I found my teeth clenching. She didn't win him at the carnival and yet the feeling that I got was that she felt she had won a rare prize.

Thankfully the book doesn't get bogged down completely in the "romance" aspect. Her adventures in the bush, her struggles to understand her role in the community and all the characters she meets adds immensely to the book's appeal. It is interesting in that respect and as the love between her and Lketinga cool off I was able to enjoy the story more. I really wish I could give it another half star but I can't justify giving it 3 stars so I'm going with the lower rating.

[Iset · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m not quite sure how I feel about this book. I initially picked it up due to my interest in the subject matter; I having a passing interest in anthropology and enjoy reading about other cultures, and have read a couple of books before about the tribes of this region of Africa. This seemed like just the thing; someone with knowledge of both western and Masai culture telling the ultimate tale of becoming immersed in another culture for life. Except it wasn’t.

I became concerned early on when Corinne recounts how, on holiday in Kenya with her boyfriend, she is immediately struck by the good looks of a Masai warrior. From that moment she feels compelled to engineer meetings, pursue him wherever he goes, and tell her boyfriend in no uncertain terms that it’s over. Her very first thoughts, upon seeing Lketinga for the first time, are: “I can’t take my eyes off him; sitting there in the last rays of the sinking sun, he looks like a young god. Five minutes from now, I think to myself, suddenly depressed, you’ll never see him again.” Her boyfriend thinks she’s not acting like herself, and I have to say I agreed with him. She bullies him into going places where she thinks she might by chance encounter “my Masai” again, and treats him with very little regard, and by the end of the holiday decides that she’s going to sell her life in Switzerland to come and live and be with Lketinga. This despite them not sharing a language at all, and the author herself admitting “I have no idea if I’m even remotely attractive to him.”

“The next day is our second to last, and I’ve made up my mind to tell my Masai that, after the end of the holiday, I’m leaving Marco. Compared with what I feel for Lketinga, everything that I have felt up until now seems laughable. Somehow I have to make that clear to him tomorrow and tell him that soon I will be coming back on my own. Only for a moment does it cross my mind that I don’t know what he might feel about me, but immediately I tell myself there is only one answer: he feels exactly the same!”

To be honest I kept reading out of morbid curiosity; the old crash in slow motion playing out before your horrified eyes. The author makes it out to be some sort of epic love she feels for this man, but it’s not, it’s just lust – her dreamy musings about him revolve around his appearance, there’s nothing deeper she knows about him that she can point to as a reason for love. During the months back in Switzerland whilst she sorts out selling everything she owns, she claims to “get hold of everything I can find about the country” but it seems doubtful that she did thorough research given the deep misunderstandings she later makes about Lketinga and the customs of his people, and for some reason she spends the time learning English instead of the Samburu language, or even Swahili. She gets nervous as her departure date gets closer and Lketinga doesn’t write to her, but talks herself out of her doubts with this horrifying line: “ And then my resolve steels itself again, and I am as convinced as ever that this man is all I need to be happy. ”



I expected the author to have spent a considerable amount of time living with and volunteering to work with the tribe before meeting a man and a relationship developing, having a good understanding of the culture and at least a passable smattering of the language. I definitely did not expect this. The author approaches the relationship in the worst possible way, mistaking lust for love, plunging in without finding out about the life, the culture, or indeed the man himself, and sacrificing everything for this man she barely knows whilst convincing herself that her happiness depends entirely upon him. I have to say the author was breathtakingly foolish and incredibly lucky not to end up robbed or dead several times over (as it is she has several life-struggling battles with various nasty diseases that she was lucky to survive). She learns fairly quickly that kissing and physical contact is completely taboo, and the sex is perfunctory, but still when the object of her lust disappears she travels back to the country and alone, not speaking the language, travels into the bush to find him, determined to marry him. It’s only two days before her wedding that she discovers that the ceremony starts with female circumcision for the bride, something that would be expected of her future daughters too, and for the very first time she flat out refuses to sacrifice everything for this man and asserts her own identity. The wedding goes ahead anyway, due to her husband’s quick thinking in telling everyone that she’d already had the circumcision done at birth, and the author sinks all her money into trying to make a life out in the bush. Needless to say, it doesn’t end well; she tries to open a shop but her husband lets people have things on credit, they’re stolen from, her husband develops a bad habit for alcohol and a native drug, and it’s only after she’s married that she discovers that in this culture it’s quite normal for men to be obsessively jealous and suspicious of their wife’s fidelity – though the warning signs were there beforehand, if the author hadn’t been so blind with lust to ignore all the red flags. I must admit I found it difficult to sympathise especially when the author so recklessly and obsessively pursued this man whilst hardly bothering at all to get to know the other people in the community or to learn more of the language and the culture of these people.

Of the writing style, the best I can say is that it is competent and functional. It lacks creative flair, and didn’t grip me, but it’s passable. It felt tedious at times simply due to the repetitive grinding toil that author recounts week on week; I lost count of the number of journeys she had to make in her car to the nearest village to get supplies during which the car broke down yet again. And yet, I have to admit, I did finish the book cover to cover, due to this sense of morbid fascination with the disaster unfolding before me. It will come as no surprise that after turning the last page it was a definite “I told you so” moment.

3 out of 10

[Everly · Rating 4 out of 5]

With all the negative reviews for this book, I felt the need to comment on my thoughts on the book.

I found the reviews were mainly based on people's feelings of the author herself as opposed to the actual book.

While I also didn't agree with everything (if anything?) that the author did, that really has nothing to do with the story itself.

I think it's fair to remember, English is not her first language and I am assuming she wrote it in German and it was then translated? - So there are a few sayings and sentences that sound funny due to this. It wasn't constant throughout every chapter and it was not at all off putting. It didn't bother me at all.

All in all, I found the story very interesting and insightful, regardless of what her decisions were and what happened throughout the story.

I found myself tearing through the book whenever I got a spare second as I wanted to find out what happened next. I really enjoyed reading it and found her detail incredibly believable and managed to feel like I was there along for the ride with her.

On that note, the only thing that I could have done with a little less of was the very detailed stories of the car constantly breaking down. But that might just be me


- In conclusion, the story is unique and interesting, so long as you don't get worked up over her decisions throughout.

[Leslie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Now ladies, what have we learned here? When on vacation in a foreign country, don't fall in lust with the noble savage ( right in front of, and in spite of, your current boyfriend). Don't do it. It's not only vulgar but also dangerous. No man is worth dysentary, diptheria and yellow fever. And let's be honest dearie, I doubt even Martha Stewart herself could do much with a cow dung hut. And why have your baby out in the hellish bush with lions and snakes and God-knows-what lurking about when you can have it in the air-conditioned comfort of a proper hospital where the staff not only shower now and then but also give you DRUGS! Yes dearies, they have Lovely, very helpful drugs and also those wonders of modern science, those most excellent inventions that changed our mothers lives forever-DISPOSABLE DIAPERS! Yes girls, let us learn from this poor woman's experience and stay at home to have our wild flings. Home, where deoderant, toothbrushes and diapers are always to be found. They are on the shelf, just there, next to the mosquito repellant.

[Susie Fox · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hated it. Only finished it to see if the author grew a brain, but she didn't.
You can't own another person, but she continually refers to her husband as 'my Masai'. If you want to endanger your own life by getting malaria and leaving it untreated, that's your own silly fault, but don't bring a baby into the world if you don't even have basic food and sanitation to care for her.
The whole idea of falling instantly in love with anyone is just silly, and completely ludicrous if that person can't speak your language and is culturally about as different from you as it's possible to be. The way she is constantly surprised at all the cultural differences just grated on me so much, ever heard of a bit of research luv?
Even saying that she didn't want to know anything about giving birth annoyed me, ok to leave you and your babies health in the lap of the doctors if you are in a first world country with good medical care, but not wanting to know anything when you're about to give birth in the middle of Africa? Sheer utter stupidity in my opinion.
I tried to put the poor writing style down to a sub-standard translation or editing, but in the end I couldn't forgive the endless whining and complaining about her lot, when she chose it in the first place. 'We took a long car trip and I had to change the babies nappy countless times' umm, yep, that's what parents do, did you expect her to hold on to her wee or something?? Stupid brainless twit of a woman, I feel sorry for her husband and her child.

[Nancy Schober · Rating 1 out of 5]

A Swiss woman is on holiday in Kenya and falls truly, madly deeply in love with a Masai warrior. She goes home sells her business and all her possessions, returns to Kenya to set up housekeeping with the Masai.

I'm sorry but this relationship had no chance. The power difference between the two was so great. Maybe she felt she was in love, and she certainly was. But not with the man but her idealized idea of him. If she had truly loved him she would have never pursued him. Because even an idiot could see that a relationship with her would destroy him. When the reality turns out to be incontrovertible the relationship falls apart. He was dazzled by her -- by her Westerness and seemingly endless wealth. There was no way he could ever feel confident of her fidelity with such vast disparity between them.

I think a great deal of this book is revisionist. She's telling the story in retrospect which certainly must contain abridgments. I think the word I'm looking for here is 'denial'. In the sense that Corinne rewrites her personal history to her liking.

[Anne Goldschrift · Rating 3 out of 5]

Diese Frau... das beste Beispiel für selbstverschuldetes Elend..

[Kavita · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of a Swiss woman who goes to Kenya, falls in love with a Masai warrior, and moves there to live with him, The White Masai is also a story of love, cross-culture marriage, life in an African village, and domestic abuse.

I started off with disliking the author a little. She was extremely mean to her Swiss boyfriend and dumps him unceremoniously for a Masai man. It is also a little weird how she gets obsessed with a man she knows nothing about. Call her silly and obsessive, or naive and innocent, Corinne does manage to find the Masai and he reciprocated her feelings. The other thing that annoyed me is that she continuously refers to Lketinga as 'my Masai' as if he were some object she had purchased. The 'my darlings' also began to grate on my nerves after a point.

But in spite of this, I began to warm up to her. Once the initial lust is satiated, she does genuinely fall in love and tries against all odds to keep the relationship going. She is the only person who actually treats the Masai with basic human respect. Both the white tourists and the local blacks act as if they are automatically criminals, and Corinne gains my respect by standing up for them. She is a wonderful businesswoman and actually started three successful businesses in Africa, only to lose them for lack of a reliable partner. Hofmann is incredibly resilient and nothing fazes her - malaria, hepatitis, living in a small hut and carrying many litres water from the river everyday. Nothing! As the story progressed, I began to sympathise with her and admire her more and more.

While Corinne is busy trying to make a living and make her relationship work, her husband, Lketinga wanders aimlessly about the place, being completely useless. He does not work to feed his family, no sir! Other tribals who herd animals work hard over the day and enjoy with other people in the evenings, but Lketinga seems to spend most of his time attending weddings and doing nothing constructive. That is, when he is not chewing miraa or drinking beer. He is sulky most of the time if things don't go his way. Not to mention, he is as dumb as a brick. No, dumber! He makes illogical decisions in the business, throws tantrums at customers and behaves atrociously at the hired workers. Gradually, he becomes more and more abusive to Corinne and keeps insinuating that she is being unfaithful and going off into fits of rage and disappears for days on end. In short, he is a disgusting and filthy piece of shit.

No problem, Corinne. You have another man, Corinne. No problem, Corinne, I am an asshole, Corinne, no problem. I am a complete waste of oxygen, Corinne, no problem. No problem Corinne, I am useless beyond belief. Oh Corinne, no problem, you a whore, Corinne?" - Just me being nasty about Lketinga because I was frothing at the mouth at some point in the story. I wanted to reach into the pages and give him a hard slap.

Corinne excuses Lketinga by claiming that it was a culture difference. No, my dear. Abuse must never to be swept away as a culture difference. 'Your Masai' was a jealous and abusive person, but that does not necessarily mean that other Masai men are the same. Maybe this is the only way she is able to deal with her trauma, and I was horrified at how much she showered on this utterly useless man and how much she still cared. I also was a little offended at her implication on how he should find a Sambaru wife - yes, because she would be taught to submit to domestic abuse and not raise a voice? Not right, Corinne!

The book is really compelling and kept me hooked till the end. I was rooting for Corinne as she went from strength to strength. Apart from Corinne, the other people I really liked in the book are Lketinga's mother - a wise and wonderful woman. James, Lketinga's brother, is an example of a Masai man who is nice, and I really liked him. It would be interesting to know he he fared in life. I also liked Father Guilio though I generally don't have much time for missionaries. Forget Lketinga, read the book for these other people. There is much to learn and enjoy in here! Don't read this book if you are expecting a love story. Read this book if you want a gritty account of life in Africa under extreme conditions of poverty. Read it for a description of how domestic abuse starts and spirals out of control without your even realising it.

I did cut off one star because I really did not understand some things because there is no background given, especially at the beginning. The story starts almost abruptly and is a little confused. I felt the author left out some details about meeting Lketinga.

In closing, I just want to mention that I read a few other reviews and am completely horrified at the amount of victim blaming happening, while the man gets clear away with his abuse. Just because a woman is naive or innocent, does not mean it is okay to mistreat her or abuse her! With this attitude, no wonder we are still in a nascent stage when it comes to respect for women.

[Agreenhouse · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book while perusing the non-fiction shelf at the East Windsor Branch of the Queens Public Library. I first noticed the word Masai, and thought back to some comments my friend Penny had made after her trip to Kenya where she visited a Masai village. She was shocked at the poor treatment of women. I opened the inside cover and read that the book was an autobiography about a Swiss woman who fell instantly in love with a Masai man and gave up her life in Switzerland to live with the man in the African bush. As a woman who also fell head over heels in love with a man from a completely different culture, I was curious to see what would happen.

I actually knew what was going to happen. Like a person who jumped out of an airplane without a parachute and knows what kind of hell it feels like to hit the ground without one, I couldn't help peeling my eyes towards the sky and watching her hit the ground. This is not out of evilness, but out of loniliness, to see that I was not the only one foolish enough, stupid enough, naive enough, to make such a mistake. Reading the book was like watching a horror movie, where you are like, "No, don't go into that dark forest at night all by yourself. You're gonna get yourself killed." I was shouting out her, "No, don't go after this man who comes from a completely different culture. You're going to ruin your life. His life. IT WON'T WORK!!" I also began to read with a little satisfaction that I found someone who had even worse judgement than my own. At least, I did not give up everything for the man I loved and moved to his country. I don't think I would have done that. Also, there was some communication between him and me. For Corrinne, it seemed to be based entirely on looks. Yes, I can pat myself on the back, I am not the stupidest person out there. It brings up the issue of making judgements when in love. Isn't love very dangerous? Doesn't it lead us to situations we shouldn't be in? Is love ever clear? What separates those of us who make rash judgements for love and those who don't? Was her love with Lketinga ever real or was it just infatuation? Why doesn't she see all the warning signs of how they are incompatible?

Besides all the love issues, the book did provide some fascinating insight into the life of the Masai people. Life sure ain't easy there. Corrinne suffers from malaria and then hepatitis, life threatening diseases that we never think about in our comfortable American lives. She also has to deal with everyday hardships like keeping clean, using the toilet and having a comfortable place to sleep. I was amazed at what a difference her store made in the lives of the people in the village. At first, I thought that nobody would have money to buy any of the items in the store, but the bigger problem was transporting the goods to the remote area. I do give her credit for being so brave in driving through the jungle back and forth. It was amazing that even in the African bush, relationship problems often come back to money. She was working hard, while her husband was wasting money on drugs and beer.

One of the interesting parts of the story was how he changed because of her, and not in the best way. She pulled him away from his tradition and culture, leading to come conflict within himself. Before her, he never drank or kissed a woman's face. He probably would have been better off never having met her. Comprimising on tradition and lifestyle is not an easy task, especially when a person feels like they are giving something up of themselves.

Every time she called Lketinga "my darling," I wanted to vomit. Didn't she see how he was treating her? How come everyone can see a train wreck coming except the people on the train?

Also, I found it disturbing how she always talked about his looks, and how she liked how he did his hair and decorations. I did not really see why she fell for him or stayed with him beyond his filling her fantasy of the "noble savage."

Well, the question is "Should you read this, too?"

If you want to learn more about the life of the Masai people -- yes.
If you want to warn somebody about the real dangers of love at first sight -- yes.

[Marie Declercq · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hoe dit een four-million copy bestseller is snap ik echt niet??? Ik heb effe gecheckt of het geschreven was in de vorige eeuw which it was not ma well 2006 dus da verklaard al een beetje mss? In ieder geval één van de grootste raadsels waar ik op gestuikt ben.

Oké eerst context: dit gaat dus over een vrouw - de schrijfster - die verliefd wordt op een man in Kenia die tot de Samburu tribe behoort en voor hem naar Kenia verhuist.

Oke maar dus, naar mijn mening is Corinne gewoon een beetje delulu en ook igorant? Ten eerste wordt ze verliefd op een man die ze 1 KEER ziet, kan niet stoppen met denken aan hem en verlaat haar boyfriend dus voor die guy. Let op: dit verhaal is waargebeurd, I know
Let op 2: ze kunnen NIET communiceren met elkaar want hij spreekt Swahili en zij Duits en beide kunnen praktisch geen engels.

Sidenote, ze gaat op een gegeven moment terug naar Zwitserland voor ze gaat trouwen met Lketinga en ze doet ook gewoon geen moeite om Swahili te leren. Ze leert een heel klein beetje Engels en das al veel moeite blijkbaar. Ma als je gaat verhuizen naar een dorp in een compleet ander land waar je de taal niet spreekt doe je op zen minst toch moeite om die te leren? Wie denkt ze da ze is haha. Ze leest zich ook totaal ni in in de cultuur waardoor ze soms echt stupid shit doet en dan is ze helemaal zo ??????. Ja vriendin what did you expect allez.

Dit alles terzijde, I am a sucker for a good love story maar waarop is dit gebaseerd???? In mijn ogen is dit gewoon white girl die hem interessant vind because he is DiFfEreNT. Maar oké we geven hen het voordeel van de twijfel, mss ging het om de vibe of hoe hij zich draagt ofzo idk.
Maar dan ….. ze begint hem in dit boek constant haar “warrior husband” te noemen ????????????????
Like ??????? Can you fetishize culture more??????
Zij is de hele tijd zo van, “I was not scared because I was with my big black warrior husband”
Like omg ik wou mezelf neerschieten heeft niemand van die 4 million readers dit gezien???????????? Hadden ze allemaal oogkleppen op in 2006 or what?????

Op een geven moment gaat ze mee schapen herden voor een dag met haar husband en ze schrijft hier over “We return to the house towards the evening, exhausted and sunburned, and I think: once, but never again! I am amazed that people can do this, day-in day-out, all their lives.”
Sorry ma?????? Yes girlie some people don’t have a CHOICE omg like wattefoooooooook

“oNcE BuT nEvEr AgAiN “

Oke ma naast al dit heb ik mij wel kinda geamuseerd hiermee, het was zo absurd dat het grappig werd, although I DO NOT support this behaviour at all. Ma heb al lang niet meer zo hard gelachen met een boek 🫠

Ten slotte is het ook ni zo goed geschreven, de taal is heeeel simpel. De enige reden dat dit interessant was is omdat het verhaal interessant is. Maar op literair vlak verdient dit boek echt een -5/10.

Dit alles terzijde vind ik het gewoon jammer want een waargebeurd en interessant verhaal zoals dit heeft zo veel potentieel. Ze had zoveel interessante kwesties kunnen bespreken en uitspitten but she really ruined her own story haha

Update: ik ga de hele tijd heen en weer tussen een rating van 2/5 of 3/5. Ik wou 2/5 doen bc look at my review haha ik kan 3/5 echt niet verantwoorden, maar langst de andere kant heb ik het wel met plezier uitgelezen dus is 2/5 nogal weinig aangezien ik stiekem wel van dit boek heb genoten in a weird way? Dus we zullen het op 3/5 houden aangezien deze review mijn persoonlijke ervaring weerspiegelt maar hou dus in je achterhoofd dat het eigenlijk maar een 2/5 verdient.

[Melissa · Rating 1 out of 5]

A Swiss woman travels to Africa with her boyfriend for vacation. While there she meets a Masai warrior, decides she’s in love, breaks up with said boyfriend, and pursues a relationship with a man with whom she doesn’t even speak the same language.

I read this for my book club. I only mention that because if it hadn't been for book club then there's no way I would have finished this. The writing is pretty awful, the actual events are infuriating and the end result is not surprising.

I don’t think anyone would be shocked to find out that there are huge cultural differences between the two. The way the men and women relate in their different cultures, the way food is made, the way weddings occur, etc. You name it and it’s different from what she knows. She also spent most of her time in Africa near death from different diseases or broke down on the side of the road.

BOTTOM LINE: I hated it. I just wanted to slap the author for all of her naïve and dangerous decisions. She didn’t take her life or the situation seriously until the very end. There were dozens of red flags, but nothing seemed to matter except her blind infatuation. Ugh.

[Dalia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cam asta se întâmplă când îți ia Dumnezeu mințile. E povestea lui Corinne care renunță la civilizație pentru a-l căuta pe războinicul masai de care s-a îndrăgostit la prima vedere. De fapt, simplu masai care doar poza în războinic pentru turiști. Îl găsește și acceptă să trăiască în niște condiții greu de imaginat. Fascinația cărții stă în descrierea minuțioasa a acestei lumi arhaice plus strădaniile femeii de a face relația să funcționeze. A funcționat? Într-o anumită măsură, pe o perioadă scurtă, da.
Cartea mi-a plăcut foarte mult pentru că e felie de viață autentică deși tot nu am înțeles ce a fost în capul acestei femei: dragoste sau imaginație.

[Jolanta25 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is often described as an ultimate love story between a White woman and her Masai. As a love story it had very little to offer, but what I found most fascinating about it, is its Cultural context.

It was one of the most engaging anthropological journals I've ever read. From the very first page I just couldn't put it down. It described in details the everyday life of Samburu people occupying the dry lands of Kenya; their odd beliefs, daily struggles for food and water as well as the significant role Priests and European doctors play in their lives.

Reading this book made me want to donate money straight away and arrange to volunteer in Africa to help them survive 1 extra day. I also have a new-found respect for people who've spent their lives raising awareness of the African poverty. Their poverty is REALLY shocking!

All in all, it was an amazing book that made me experience the whole spectrum of emotions from deep sadness to joy. Ive read it in just over a day and have already ordered the second book by the author!

[Marcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh I loved this book. Especially because it's a true story. This book made me more aware of all the luxury that we have here in The Netherlands. Made me appreciate all the little things that are so "normal" to me, like drinking water from our faucet, a warm bed every night, clothes to ware, healthy food every day......
Everybody should read this book!

[Marilyn Maya · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don't think I can finish this. The woman is tres out of touch with reality.

I brought this book by mistake to a long appointment and am so angry today. If I have to say one good thing about it to give it one star, the writing isn't bad. I don't know if that is the translation, but I will give it one star for that. Now to the anger part.
The woman, Corinne Hoffman, is so self-centered, so stubborn and so man-centered and shallow it made me sick. She falls in love with a man for his looks alone. If you read the entire book, it is his looks alone that she thinks she loves and maybe her imagination of what a Masai warrior is and anything at all about the culture.
She calls love, putting her life in danger many times, almost dying, putting her child's life in danger, and does not believe what anyone else tells her about culture. She slowly and I mean slowly finds out that what she is in love with is not the person she wants him to be, but a man with his own culture who is being himself.
I have a degree in intercultural Communication which may explain why I dislike this woman so much. She cries a million tears for herself, and doesn't want to know other people except, "Her Masai" talks about them only as they have to do with him. This shows a self-absorbed Dum Dum. She complains about learning English, or Swahili and disregards other's needs. Then in the end she complains about her mistreatment by "her Masai" when she should have known the man and his culture first before finding out in the worst possible way.
I wanted to feel sorry for her but couldn't. She cries so much for herself it doesn't leave room for the reader to feel it. She takes risks and says, "I don't do anything halfway." She is a good businessperson, but in my opinion, not a good person. Love at first sight indeed.
She is a "piece of work" and I couldn't believe my eyes and what she goes through for "love' Her daughter could have been in danger of female circumcision and being married off as a second wife if she couldn't get her out of the country. If she had read about the culture she would have saved herself a lot of problems, but then she sold 4 million copies of her book. She is a good businesswoman. Hated it........

[César Lasso · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not great literature – just a woman’s memoir of her African experience.

Nevertheless, that experience caught my interest. On the one hand, I am very interested in Africa myself, and have a penchant for narratives of intercultural exchange. On the other hand, I admired the author.

I really think Corinne Hofmann made a very big mistake. She fell head over hills in love at first sight with a Samburu warrior. She was 26 at the time. The last time I fell in love at first sight was at 15. At my present age, I carefully consider if I could have a satisfactory relationship with a woman I am fond of.

Secondly, the author let herself drift in that passion and didn’t consider the vast gap between her Western world and the world of a humble Samburu from deep Kenya who had not even gone to school. I myself promised marriage to a North-African woman but, after second thought and getting to know her better, I gave up. I would not have been happy.

That said, I have to admit that Corinne was consequent with her option and gave everything for her love. She cancelled a promising future in Switzerland, sold everything she had and went to Kenya. Her beloved one had vanished and she was able to find him 1,460 km away from Mombasa. She started living in a humble hut in the Samburu district. She married the man under the Kenyan law and gave everything to make a nice future for both of them. She married him. They had a daughter. She caught malaria and later on, hepatitis. She worked like hell…

But the man was unable to understand her, not even to appreciate all she had done.

The rest, and how life is in Kenya for a white, you’ll read it for yourself. On my part, I have to praise the woman because she was a fighter and, even when she had not been able to be reflective, she showed courage and a strong emotional intelligence. I’m happy she was later on able to become rich by telling her story, and sometime in future I’ll read her second book.

But, for the time being, I want to go back to real literature.

[Alina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despre cartea Îndrăgostită de un masai (Die weiße Massai), scrisă de Corinne Hofmann, am auzit numai aprecieri din partea prietenelor mele şi cunoştinţelor de gen feminin. Astfel, mi-am propus să o citesc pentru a-mi satisface curiozitatea. Acest roman este primul dintr-o tetralogie autobiografică, prin care parcurgem pas cu pas evenimentele neobişnuite din viaţa autoarei, de la călătoria ei în Kenya, viaţa pe care o duce acolo, stigmatul ei ca femeie albă într-o ţară cu populaţie negroidă şi decizia dureroasă pe care o ia pentru binele ei şi al copilului.

Iniţial am avut intenţia să citesc doar acest prim volum, însă îmi doresc să aflu ce se întâmplă în continuare cu protagonista, cum se readaptează la lumea civilizată şi ce se va întâmpla atunci când se va reîntâlni cu fostul ei partener peste ani. Această carte este diferită de tot ceea ce am citit până acum, mai exact este vorba de viaţa unei femei elveţiene obişnuită cu traiul din Vestul Europei, care se hotărăşte brusc să se mute în zona tradiţională a Kenyei. Naraţiunea este relatată în detaliu, într-o paletă largă de culori, de la roz, la gri, până la negru. La început, povestea are un văl de romantism ilustrat de dorinţele Corinnei, însă acest sentiment va dispărea complet pe parcurs, lăsând loc realităţii dure reprezentate de rigorile unei societăţi în care bărbatul are întotdeauna dreptate, iar femeia nu are de ales decât să i se supună în totalitate. Corinne se va lovi de multe ziduri şi va fi neînţeleasă deoarece ea se obişnuise să fie o femeie independentă, cu iniţiativă.

Pe scurt, Corinne Hofmann, o tânără din Biel (Elveţia) merge într-o vacanţă de două săptămâni în Kenya, împreună cu iubitul ei Marco. Sentimentul puternic de apartenență al protagonistei la această țară africană şi îndrăgostirea ei la prima vedere de un războinic masai, Lketinga, vor declanşa o poveste uimitoare, plină de aventură, dragoste şi de probleme cauzate de ciocnirile dintre două culturi diametral opuse şi incapacitatea fiecăruia de a-l înţelege pe celălalt. Brusc, Corinne face numeroase gesturi imprudente, greu de înţeles de o persoană cu capul pe umeri: îl invită şi dansează cu Lketinga la discotecă, se desparte de Marco, își vinde afacerea și tot ce posedă în Elveția pentru a se muta în Kenya, merge prin oraşe şi sate în căutarea masaiului și acceptă să trăiască într-o colibă, într-o sărăcie lucie, fără apă potabilă sau mâncare diversificată.

Povestea este interesantă şi din punct de vedere antropologic, deoarece autoarea ne relatează în detaliu cum este viața în orașele și satele din Kenya, ne sunt prezentate obiceiurile și credinţele localnicilor și, nu în ultimul rând, transportul în comun deplorabil şi birocraţia de la ambasadă. Din cauza diferențelor dintre culturi, Corinne face numeroase greșeli: îl sărută pe Lketinga pe gură, ceea ce nu este permis în cultura masailor, deoarece gura este „folosită” doar pentru mâncare, protagonista este uimită când află că părul, fața și organele genitale sunt tabu și nu trebuie atinse, iar faptul că bărbații masai mănâncă separat de femei o intrigă și mai mult.

Deși de-a lungul narațiunii apar suficiente semnale de alarmă care ar fi trebuit să o trezească pe Corinne la realitate, ea își dorește prea mult să își unească destinul cu Lketinga, în pofida îndoielilor familiei sale legate de fericirea ei, a englezei stricate pe care o vorbesc amândoi și explicațiile Priscillei, o localnică kenyiană, care o învață pe Corinne anumite lucruri despre mentalitatea și credințele masailor. Chiar și după prima criză de gelozie a lui Lketinga, montat de alți masai împotriva femeii albe sau un efect al consumului excesiv de miraa, care îl ţinea treaz pe Lketinga ore întregi, Corinne acceptă să își continue viața alături de el, însă o vor aștepta și mai multe greutăți, mai ales după naşterea fiicei lor, Napirai. Deşi iniţial am perceput-o pe Corinne ca pe o adolescentă care s-a îndrăgostit pentru prima dată şi care s-a lăsat purtată de val fără a ţine cont de repercusiuni; în final, tot calvarul prin care a trecut a constituit o etapă de maturizare sentimentală şi a făcut-o să se gândească la viitorul fiicei ei.

Înainte de a încheia această recenzie, trebuie să menționez că romanul este foarte ușor de citit și, deși uneori sunt cam multe detalii referitoare la viaţa de zi cu zi, nu am putut lăsa cartea deoparte din cauza curiozității de a descoperi ce se întâmplă mai departe cu această protagonistă care renunță la tot confortul lumii moderne pentru a-și găsi fericirea în Africa. Sper ca această carte să trezească interesul doamnelor şi domnişoarelor, care îşi doresc să citească un altfel de romance.

http://elitere.ro/indragostita-de-un-...

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit I read this. One feels sympathy for Hofmann, who falls in love with a Masai man she meets while on vacation in Mombasa. But why anyone intelligent enough to write this book would not investigate the culture and circumstances of their "beloved" before selling their business and running off to live in a village where it becomes clear that her physical and emotional health are compromised is not clear to me. Some bottled water and a basic book on Masai culture and customs might have saved this woman a lot of grief.

[Alexandra · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the very few books in my life I didn't finish reading. Every time something went wrong, and believe me about everything turns out to go wrong sooner or later in this story, I started to get annoyed more and more with the author, her overly romantic yet totally unrealistic expectations into one of the most extreme relationship scenarios one can imagine and into which nobody besides herself had pushed her. After managing about half of the book, I gave it to a friend who saw it at my house and mentioned she wanted to read it, making her promise to never bring it back to me.

[D · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a bit conflicted about this book. It does not get four stars because I think the prose is beautiful or profound. This book is essentially the memoir of a Swiss woman who is on holiday in Kenya and 'falls in love' (I'd call it lust) with a Kenyan Masai warrior. The book takes place over approximately 3 years of the author's life, in which she breaks up with her Swiss boyfriend, sells everything she owns (car, apartment, dress shop) in Switzerland to live a very difficult life in Kenya. Her 'darling' as she frequently calls him, is ultimately a violent, jealous, immature man. From the first page, I could tell this story would not end well. Reading this book was like watching a train wreck in brutal slow motion. I decided to give it four stars because it is a great, unique depiction of the Kenyan Masai way of life. The language, gender, cultural barriers are so significant that if this book were fiction (verses a memoir) i'd put it down because the premise would seem so preposterous.

[Paulien · Rating 4 out of 5]

Verliefd worden op iemand die je maar 1x hebt gezien. En dan is het ook nog een Masai krijger en ben je op vakantie met je huidige vriend. Dit is wat de Zwitserse Corinne Hofmann tijdens haar vakantie in Kenia is overkomen.
Het lukt haar om deze man te vinden, ze trouwen en krijgen een kind.

In het begin vond ik Corinne heel erg naïef, hoe kun je je normale leven in Zwitserland achterlaten om een nieuw leven in Kenia te beginnen waar je je westerse leven compleet achter je laat? Voor een man die ze helemaal niet kent! Aan de andere kant vind ik het ook heel moedig, ze laat zich niet door anderen ompraten en ze trekt compleet haar eigen plan. Ik zou het niet kunnen.

Ik vond het erg interessant om op deze manier een inkijk te krijgen in het leven van de Masai in Kenia.

[Vivone Os · Rating 1 out of 5]

Prvo, žena apsolutno ne zna pisati!
A drugo, i ono još važnije, treba ju biti sramota! Došla je u Afriku, pristala otići živjeti s Massai ratnikom, došla u njihovo selo i onda ih cijelo vrijeme pokušavala promijeniti, nametnula im je svoj način života, nije držala do njihove tradicije već je stalno silila da se oni prilagode njoj. Pa draga moja, što onda nisi ostala u svojoj Europi, u komforu i civiliziranom društvu, uštedjela bi svima (uključujući i meni!) puno muke.

[nanastudies · Rating 1 out of 5]

Can't believe this actually got published.

[Noella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Het verhaal van een Zwitserse vrouw die tijdens een vakantie verliefd wordt op een Masai-krijger. Ze breekt met haar vriend, en gaat alleen terug naar Kenia om zijn hart te winnen. Algauw krijgen ze een relatie en gaat ze mee in zijn dorp wonen, in een manyatta, een hutje opgetrokken van takken en plastic, en besmeerd met koeiemest. Uiteindelijk trouwen ze zelfs, en krijgen ze een baby. Ondertussen doet Corinne er ook alles aan om ginder wat geld te verdienen; ze koopt een landrover, en ze begint een winkeltje.
Maar dan wordt haar man Lketinga steeds jaloerser als ze met andere mannen praat, of als ze eens langer van huis is als voorzien wanneer ze haar inkopen gaat doen. Toch doet Corinne er alles aan om haar huwelijk te redden, tot de situatie echt onhoudbaar wordt, en ze met haar kind terug vlucht naar Zwitserland.
Het boek leest vlot, maar reeds van in het begin dacht ik: hoe stom kan je zijn, zo achter een man aanlopen, iemand met wie je niet eens kan communiceren (zowel Corinne als Lketinga kenden maar een paar woordjes engels, als gemeenschappelijke taal). Ze wist ook helemaal niets van de cultuur, alhoewel ze schrijft dat ze voordat ze terugging naar Kenia research gedaan had naar de Masai. Toch maar heel vluchtige research dan...
Later schrijft ze dat ze hoopte dat eens hun culturen zich zouden kunnen mengen, maar dan denk ik: had ze dat nu echt verwacht? Ik vond ook dat ze zich dikwijls (vooral in het begin als ze iemand leerde kennen) gedroeg als de 'wereldwijze' blanke. Ze vond het bv. prettig om broers van haar man mee te nemen naar de zee, en dan te zien hoe verbaasd en eigenlijk bang ze waren voor die grote watermassa. Of de eerste keer dat ze met Lketinga in een lift wil stappen en hij zeer wantrouwig is. Ook als ze met een auto in het dorp aankomt en iedereen uitloopt is ze heel trots, omdat zij als enige een auto heeft en dan nog kan rijden ook.
Ik moet er echter ook wel bij zeggen dat ze wel heel moedig was. Ziekte, hongersnood, een overstroming en andere ontberingen, ze heeft het allemaal meegemaakt en zich er moedig doorheen geslagen. Toch kan ik dan niet nalaten te denken, ja, maar dat heb je toch jezelf aangedaan.
Het verhaal is goed en vlot geschreven, maar ik vind het moeilijk om bewondering voor haar te voelen, ik vondf haar eerder naïef en onbezonnen toen ze aan dit avontuur begon.

[Esther · Rating 2 out of 5]

I believe this book is only a "somewhat good read" if you've been to Kenya, or if you are interested in the country and the Masai. The book itself isn't that great and I only really enjoyed the parts of the book that were about the country, the language and the vibe there, since I was reading the book while I was in Kenya.

A longer review can be found at Bite Into Books

I'm so curious about other opinions on this book, or if you are willing to give it a try what you'll think afterward. I just loved the Kenyan vibe in this book and that was also the main reason I finished the book. The other aspects in this book didn't bother me that much. Not the characters and not the story itself, so sorry.

[Rox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Empecé no aguantando a Corinne y terminé apoyándola. Dejando de lado el tema del insta obsesión (porque ni lo considero amor al principio) es interesante ver las experiencias de Corinne en territorio "salvaje" y como se las apañaba.
Eso sí, si el universo se la pasa mandandote señales de que no deberían estar ahí...yo haría caso. Llámame loca. Podría haber muerto varias veces y ella ahí, terca como una mula.

[Liralen · Rating 2 out of 5]

In a way I think this book's strength and its weakness are one and the same: there's no analysis. It's all in the present tense, written as though she had not had ten years between her time in Kenya and the book's publication in which to reflect and draw new conclusions. It's a strength because the reader is able to experience things (sort of) as she did, without outside clutter; it's a weakness because, well, there's a lot that could have used further explanation.

To some degree I admire the author quite a lot: packing up and moving to a country, and a culture, you know almost nothing about? That takes courage (and possibly less-desireable traits, but let's stick with courage for the moment). She doesn't seem to spend much time being homesick, and she puts a lot of effort into making things work.

But the title is misleading. She might have lived among the Maasai, but she never fully integrated; her good friends in Kenya were white; even had she stayed longer she was always going to be, to some degree or other, an outsider. As far as I could tell the only Kenyans she felt particularly close with were Lketinga's mother and the vet's wife (who was Kenyan, right? I'm not 100% sure).

It's clear fairly early on that this was a relationship that was going to, at best, struggle. Without a common language, they couldn't communicate effectively, and neither would be happy unless the other changed significantly. (I will note that while she was the one to move to his country and his culture -- of her own volition, and without much by way of encouragement from, well, anyone -- most of the changes in viewpoint and so on were ones that she expected him to make.)

But, right, questions. There was some really interesting stuff in this book that I wish had been explored in more depth (and which of course wasn't, perhaps owing to the aforementioned lack of analysis). There's a tremendous amount of racism displayed, for example: nobody can understand why she wants to marry a Kenyan; hotels and restaurants are for tourists only; Lketinga is looked down upon for being a Maasai warrior; etc. I don't know how true this still is in Kenya, but a little more thought on that would have been nice. (Also, a sense of exoticism/romantic view of other cultures from her, although I am undecided on how I feel about how she presented that. I wish she'd said more about what appealed about Lketinga, because the only thing that's obvious is that she had physical attraction to him.)

The other big question -- what did she expect to happen long-term? She (understandably, from a western point of view) didn't want her daughter to be circumcised, but did she expect her daughter to grow up and marry a Maasai man? To go to college? If so, in Europe or in Kenya? How would the author herself have felt if she didn't have her Swiss bank accounts to fall back on and could not so easily make it home to visit or to stay?

Interesting book. Problematic, but interesting.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was interesting. I certainly wouldn't call it a love story, more like a story about a chick who had the hots for a Masai Warrior.

I never got the impression anyone was actually in love. It felt like he let her hang around because she was a novelty and had a seemingly endless bank account. Corrine just appeared to find him extremely attractive. The most positive things she has to say about her warrior are all in regards to his appearance - especially when he's decked out in his traditional dress.

By the end of the book I had had enough of Corrine. She blames his jealousy entirely for the end of their marriage and doesn't seem to think she had anything to do with it. She never seemed to respect his culture or understand that her behavior created a lot of problems too. Perhaps, as the book is translated, something was lost in the translation.

The way she leaves him is devastating. I realise she did what she felt she had to, but who breaks up with someone through a letter, when that person is illiterate. The poor guy would have had to ask someone to read it for him. I can't imagine how awful and shameful he felt. Poor guy. He's better off without her. I noted that she treated her first boyfriend in the book quite badly as well.

Either way, an interesting read. And I can't believe she stuck it out so long.