Paula McLain's "Circling the Sun" Makes the Historic Maverick Beryl Markham's Life a Bore

Paula McLain (b. Amer 1965) is a historic fiction writer.  She wrote "The Paris Wife" ('11) a dull read which dallies around the notoriety of Hemingway through the eyes of his 1st wife; unceremoniously pushed aside before his literary acclaim.  In McLain's novel, "Circling the Sun" ('15) the heroine, Beryl Markham (b. UK 1902) is a women who led a fascinating life & accomplished incredible feats.  Markham is the 1st woman to successful navigate a solo flight across the Atlantic.  She was a also a maverick in the all-male equestrian arena.  Beryl, along with her father, pioneered in the barren, treacherous & wild lands of Africa (now known Kenya.)  The onset of the novel had me in its grips. Beryl forages her way in 2 worlds: her father's struggling farmlands & the indigenous Kip African tribe.   Beryl is accepted by the tribal women after her mother abandoned her at age 4.   Beryl befriends a native tribal boy, Kibii.  Together they hone hunting, & preservation skills.  Beryl & Kibii form a lifelong friendship & partnership. Beryl's father left her to run wild & fend for herself.  As a young woman, her father & society try to impose conventions on the free-spirited & fearless upon her.  An attack by a lion almost cost Beryl her life as a girl.  This story seemed enthralling & exotic.  I was taken aback by her unique & unpredictable childhood.  However, McLain plummeted the novel after Beryl turns 16.  She chose an unsuitable 1st marriage without foreseeing another option to remain in Africa.  We're in the cockpit with Beryl flying across the Atlantic in what seems an imminent crash.  The disaster comes with McLain's writing which trudges through years of infidelities, lust & boredom. In addition to the little account of her flying there were interesting gallops into her skills at horse training. But, McLain fails to focus on pioneering achievements in Beryl Markham's life.  The tedious book reads as a dated gossip dossier of a woman noteworthy for her audacious sexual indiscretions.  Isak Dinesen, ("Out of Africa" 1937) a.k.a. Karen Blixen, a friend & rival of Beryl's factors a great deal in Beryl's life.  Dinesen is a gifted writer who makes life in Africa in the early 20th C come alive.  McLain's "Circling the Sun" should be shunned.