I just finished reading "Too close to the Sun" and was a bit disappointed in it. I had high hopes on this as Finch Hatton is a bit of an enigmatic character and I hoped the book would shed some much-needed light on this historic figure.

As many English writers do, Sara Wheeler writes the book as if only the English will read it, referring to titles, locations and events in such a way that makes the non-English reader pause to look up further information to provide the much-needed context she fails to include. Maybe it's just my ignorance as an American and maybe arrogance that makes me feel this way, but I also think it's arrogance on the part of the writer of a book meant for a world market to include esoteric information that disrupts the flow of the book and causes the reader to be a) confused by or b) indifferent to the information.

The most frustrating part of the book centers on the very detailed account of the campaign in German East Africa. Again, Wheeler includes names and places with very little supporting information as to context. And I can't remember reading a section of a book that more required a map than this one. Wheeler leaves the reader to search for a map of colonial-era east Africa to put into relative place the locations where major events occurred. Troops moved here, troops moved there, as if the reader is absolutely familiar with GEA and BEA and can draw map in their mind as troops move along. Imagine a book on the War Between the States (is my Virginia birth showing??) referencing Gettysburg, Antietam, The Wilderness, First and Second Manassas and troop movements, without the ubiquitous line-drawn map showing relative locations, train tracks, the location and movements of the troops. A simple map would have given much clarity to this section.

The remainder of the book continues Finch Hatton's story, much of it in the context of his relationship with Karen Blixen, Berekley Cole and other BEA personalities. If you have read Out of Africa or seen the movie, the book will simply confirm Finch Hatton as a man who did not want to be tamed, had flitting moments of interest, very little capacity to maintain focus on a singular goal for very long, was rather indifferent to physical relationships but who craved deep intellectual conversations and stimulus. He was good with a gun and despite the author's intentions to make Finch Hatton out as a reformed hunter near the end of his life, the thrill of the hunt never left him. His concern for wildlife was sincere and his dislike of shooting from cars or overshooting animals was more akin to modern thoughts on hunting and conservation than the hands off approach by the PETA crowd. Finch Hatton hunted until the end of his life, made no excuses about it, but pushed hard to make sure that the wildlife he loved would survive what he knew was happening to Africa. He became a proponent of photography and acknowledged that it often required more skill and patience than hunting, but never traded his Lancaster double for a Kodak, even though the author lightly implies such by using the old "liked shooting animals with camera versus a gun", cliche that pervades hindsight glances at many of the hunters of old whether true or not.

If you have read many of the books on the personalities BEA in the early 1900's as I have, you will see familiar names and events and it helps to complete the picture of what life was like in those days. Books on this subject I have read recently are, The Bolter, The Temptress, African Hunter (Blixen), Straight on till Morning and Under the Midday Sun. All of these books contain fragments of each other in their story and fit loosely together to form a whole. I have in the batter's box The Flame Trees of Thika, which I think will also fit into this puzzle of BEA (and I hope it redeems Huxley after the plodding Midday Sun) and give yet another perspective on life there.

Back to Finch Hatton...the book, although unintentional, allows us to feel what it was like to know Finch Hatton but not be able to really possess him. In this way we identify with Karen Blixen and how she must have felt. Although Wheeler implies Blixen was not possessive of Finch Hatton, we know that isn't the case. The number of times mentioned that Finch Hatton stops by unexpectedly, can stay for only a few days and must run off represent probably 1/100th of the number of times it must have happened. Blixen must have felt she was trying to catch a ghost, which is what the reader of Too close to the Sun feels like. At times we have Finch Hatton cornered, under the interrogation light and he is about to give up the goods and then at the last minute he escapes, either to the bush, or to England or simply to his house on the coast and we are left with half-spoken words, telling his truth, trailing in the wind behind him. He was a man who never wanted to be caught by a woman, by a desk job, by any firm commitment other than a commitment to follow his desires and to meet himself wherever they led. He was the consummate 'Gentleman Hunter' and one that I'm afraid history will have to be content with owning only that much of him with which he was willing to part.

It must have been a daunting task to write a biography of a man who left so little of himself. In that context, I did find it an enjoyable read.

You are right Scriptus. I was a bit disappointed in it but out of 5 stars I'd give it 3 1/2 for an Africana book. It did add to what I knew of Denys, but in the end we are left wanting so much more.