Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood

If you like Danielle Steele, forget this book. This is a real novel written by a real writer.

This book had been calling to me ever since it was printed in hardcover, but I didn't listen until the paperback was on the bargain table. Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller is the best book that I have read in a long while. I have a little bit of an obsession with Africa going on right now, but I think this memoir has a broader appeal: anyone that strongly identifies with the land in which they grew up, anyone that takes pride in their family -- warts and all.

Bobo, the author's girlhood name, spent much of her youth in then-Rhodesia-now-Zimbabwe, during that emerging nation's civil war for independence from Britain. Bobo's father fought in and lost the war, Mugabe came to power, and the situation changed for white expatriates. The Fullers moved around, from Zimbabwe to Malawi to Zambia, managing tobacco farms and cattle ranches to make ends meet. Underneath this external turmoil, the impersonal hardships of Africa frequently hit very close to home and the relationships among the members of the Fuller family were tested. It was only later that Mrs. Fuller's (Bobo's mother) mental illness was medically diagnosed, but it manifested itself often enough during the author's childhood.

Alexandra Fuller captured well the seeming paradox of being in love with Africa, and her story at once conveys the extreme beauty and the sometimes terrible costs of being a living part of such a wild place. At one point, as a small girl left without the protection of her mother, Bobo drank from the wrong cistern of water. After a day of being violently ill and close to dying, she managed to pull through. That evening, as she was trying to fall asleep, she realized that she never wanted to leave Africa. The hardships of that place put life in sharper contrast.

I look forward to the next piece of non-fiction written by Ms. Fuller about Africa.

This is a wondeful and amazing book! I received it from Amazon on Thursday afternoon, started it on Friday and was finished with it by Sat. noon. Within the first few pages, I felt like I was back in Africa. Her descriptions and depictions of the African way of life, the slang used (Bembe, Shona, SA., etc.), and the brutal honesty of life as it was in Africa as a "white African" is incredibly true to life. I grew up on the Copperbelt in Zambia (I'm on American nationality but moved there for my formative years) and this brought back loads of memories. I went to Arundel school as well, although I was a few years before the author and did not know her, and I can tell you that everything in this book of memoirs, cannot be more true. The African way of life, unless you've lived it, and the continent itself, unless you've been there, cannot be known but she has been able to encapture its essence. I urge all to read it! I read her 2nd book, Scribbling the Cat, yesterday as well...Once again, a vibrant story! Kudos, Alexandra!

I have always loved reading, but once in a while you come across a book that is so beautiful, you almost want to drink it; this is one. I found myself desperate to pick it up and read more, at the same time pacing myself; not wanting the experience of reading it to end. Alexandra Fuller's style is refreshingly different, and I think this book has firmly taken its place in my top three all time favourites.

This book was given to me by a friend. I have read it over and over since then.
Maybe its because I was born in Zambia, moved to Rhodesia as a three year old to the same town were I grew up, and attended the same school as Alexandra Fuller, but I think not, rather its because it shines.
As an author this book released me from the need to write about my childhood, I felt I could not do it any better. The places, the people the sounds and smells are the Africa of my childhood and hers,This is writing of such fierce brilliance it can only come from actually living.
I feared that in the hands of some it would be as pearls before swine, yet I see it has already risen to the place it deserves.