~ A Change in Altitude, by Anita Shreve ~
Patrick (from Chicago) and Margaret (from Boston) meet and fall in love, and after 2 years together – “married five months” – move to Kenya. Paul is a medical man who studies equatorial medicine and is attached to the Nairobi hospital, giving free clinics in many locations, while Margaret is a photographer, who seeks a new job in Kenya. They manage to rent a small house or annex on the property of their landlords, British Diana and Arthur. Diana, brisk and energetic, is supposedly mad over the Rhodesian Ridgebacks she breeds, while Arthur who works in Colgate-Palmolive, proves annoyingly paternalistic towards these new arrivals to Africa. The two couples plan a climb up Mount Kenya, joined by a third couple, a Dutch pair, Willem and Saartje; the latter being Diana’s close friend.
As new arrivals to Kenya, when Margaret finds their white Peugeot stolen, she is shaken and upset. They have already been robbed 4 times since arrival, and Patrick coming to her aid, voices their frustration, saying, “It’s not supposed to be like this,” p34, suggesting perhaps they had illusions of a better life than they had found. Margaret is horrified at some practices that are commonplace there, such as the fact there is no reporting of the killings of students; Patrick explains – albeit to her dissatisfaction – the system of fear and corruption that keeps such news from being reported.
There are some insights into the Kenyan cultural complications from the outset:
Already Margaret understood that though the country was deeply misogynistic and acutely aware of class as defined by money, the true animosity that kept man from man or woman from woman was tribal. Turkana, Nandi, Kalenjin, Kisii, Kipsikis, Kikuyu, Luo, Masai, and others. In Africa, a native man with dark skin was identified by tribe.
p22-23
After the climax of the Mt Kenya climb, the novel surprisingly gets a second wind in the 2nd part; the storytelling strengthens and grows even more engaging.
The imperialistic way of life in Kenya is illustrated in many parts of the novel. Margaret and Patrick house sit for a couple from Australia, and the house sit came with a house servant called Moses.
there was no not having Moses. […] Margaret liked him. But whenever she was with him, she couldn’t shake the sensation that she was a fraud, living a life she hadn’t been bred to and hadn’t earned. Giving instructions to Moses, she was an actor in a play someone British had written for a previous generation.
p130
When Margaret begins to work for Kenya Morning Tribune, the novel really comes into its own, illustrating more facets of life in Kenya, particularly for the dispossessed. In spite of all the hardships she witnesses, or because of it, and despite her unravelling marriage, she swiftly forges a deep relationship with Kenya:
And Margaret thought, as she stared out of the window, of Africa, of the country just beyond the screen. It had been her constant companion for nearly a year, teaching her, scolding her, enveloping her. It was in her lungs and blood now. She’d thought she wanted to absorb Africa, but the continent had absorbed Margaret. She could not imagine ever wanting to leave.
p237
Without spoilers, this review can only say the novel comes full circle at the end, beautifully structured. It is a novel where the protagonist, Margaret, grows tremendously due to being in such a radically different and new environment, and willingly opening herself up to its differences. She is aware her marriage struggles because they are in Africa and facing completely different challenges than they would have done at home in America, where there probably would not have been such tests and obstacles to the smoothness of their relationship. It is particularly fascinating to observe even if from a distance, only through Margaret’s eyes, how Patrick grows and develops in Africa, in completely different ways and directions from Margaret.
As a reader, I would have happily engaged in a novel twice the length at least, which teased out all these angles in greater depth and length. All in all, a beautiful read from Anita Shreve. Amazingly, it is all in the space of just about one year, but such a lot happens, enough for a lifetime.
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