ISP Blog #2 - Shadows on the Grass

This is a collection of four lengthier "short stories" about Blixen's time in Africa. I read more of Blixen's work because I wanted to know more about her story, respected and enjoyed her writing style, and wanted to see if there were any other aspects of her writing that I could either use or steer away from in my original piece. In the end, there was nothing all that different between the styles of the two works that I read by her, but, as I mentioned before, one can't help but learn something when you read Blixen's works, so it was not a lost experience.

She does take the time here, however, to develop and give background on some of the characters that appear in "Out of Africa." For example, the first episode is about the Somali butler, Farah Aden, who watched over her Kenyan estate. She also describes the Somali section of Nairobi, which she visited with Farah on special occasions, as a guest of honour in his house during Somali weddings or festivals. The content here is perhaps more interesting for our purposes than the writing style.