Summary and Reviews of Circling the Sun by Paula McLain

Excerpt
Circling the Sun

Before Kenya was Kenya, when it was millions of years old and yet still somehow new, the name belonged only to our most magnificent mountain. You could see it from our farm in Njoro, in the British East African Protectorate—hard edged at the far end of a stretching golden plain, its crown glazed with ice that never completely melted. Behind us, the Mau Forest was blue with strings of mist. Before us, the Rongai Valley sloped down and away, bordered on one side by the strange, high Menengai Crater, which the natives called the Mountain of God, and on the other by the distant Aberdare Range, rounded blue-grey hills that went smoky and purple at dusk before dissolving into the night sky.

When we first arrived, in 1904, the farm wasn't anything but fifteen hundred acres of untouched bush and three weather-beaten huts.

"This?" my mother said, the air around her humming and shimmering as if it were alive. "You sold everything for this?"

"Other farmers are ...

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. At the beginning of the book, Beryl reflects that her father's farm in Njoro was "the one place in the world I'd been made for." Do you feel this is a fitting way to describe Beryl's relationship with Kenya, too? Did she seem more suited–more made for–life there than the others in her circle? Is there a place in your life that you would describe the same way?
   


2. While it is clear he loved his daughter, do you feel Beryl's father was a good parent? Do you think Beryl would have said he was? Did you sympathize with him at any point?
   


3. Beryl is forced to be independent from a very young age. How do you think this shaped her personality (for better or for worse)?
   


4. After Jock's drunken attack, D fires Beryl and ...

Please be aware that this discussion may contain spoilers!

Here are some of the comments posted about Circling the Sun in our legacy forum.
You can see the full discussion here.


After Jock's drunken attack, D fires Beryl. Do you understand his decision? Do you feel it's fair that Beryl was being judged so harshly for the incident?
I agree with Rebecca L. I thought it was as much for Beryl's safety as his own. - jeanniet

Beryl is forced to be independent from a very young age. How do you think this shaped her personality?
Similar to the first summer you come home from college, after a school year of freedom to make your own decisions. Once you have had that independence, to have someone try to determine for you what they think you should do is unbearable. I think ... - barb23703

Beryl says, "Work does more than pay your way... It gives you a reason to go on." Do you think her peers would have been able to comprehend her meaning? What role does work have in your life?
It was a very progressive thought for her day, and a symptom of her fierce independence. I have seen this attitude played out by many women who came of age in the 60's and 70's, as they fought through social barriers and professional barricades. I is... - barb23703

Do you feel Beryl's father was a good parent? Do you think Beryl thought he was?
No, I don't think he was a good parent. He was so busy training horses and trying to make a living that it seems he almost forgot about her. Lady Delamere did remind him that Beryl was a girl and she was running wild. Then her father tried to "tame"... - annar

Do you feel Clutt was a sympathetic character?
somewhat. he was not a good father but perhaps he was unable to do so as a single parent. He did lover his daughter very much however. - julianna