Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful
Review: A very shatteringly honest depiction of a family's struggle to survive in a hostile environment. Having spent a month in Africa many years ago,it was easy for me to understand the appeal of that country. The smells, the scenery and colors are like none anywhere else in the world. My first reaction to the book was "why would parents want to raise children in such dangerous and potentially fatal surroundings?" I am certain, however, that Bobo would not have traded her childhood for any pampered "normal" upbringing that could have been provided. Likewise,we her readers, would never have gotten to enjoy this book. I wish the author would have gone into a little more detail about the circumstances that brought her family to Africa and why they persisted in this difficult life, but maybe that is fodder for another book. Let's hope so!
Rating: 
Summary: An outstanding book
Review: I can't recommend this highly enough-what a world the author brings to life, what a wonderful sense of humor and vividness she brings to the unlikely situation of growing up in racist Rhodesia where the white-farmers' fondest hope is to continue living in a country ruled by whites. And, she can really write; superb descriptions of nature, heat, smells, sounds, animals; adventurous and exciting with a moral rift right up the middle of the book. Terrific stuff.
Rating:
Summary: Terrific Memoir
Review: Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight is a terrific memoir of a young woman, born in England who grows up on various farms with her family in various African countries during the 1960s and 70s. Her story is a marked contrast to the "typical" suburban childhood, of the sort that one sees recollected in A Girl Named Zippy. Alexandra Fuller, or Bobo, as she is called is a humorous, gutsy narrator and manages to convey what is at times a heartbreaking childhood with no hint of maudlin and much good humor. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: A harsh life, but yet there's humor and no self pity at all
Review: Subtitled, "An African Childhood," this delightful autobiography by Alexandra Fuller transported me right into her world. Born in 1969, her early childhood was spent in sweltering hot Rhodesia, where her parents slept with guns next to their bed, and her father was often away, fighting with other white men against the guerillas who eventually won the war. Her parents were poor, life was brutal and harsh, and the climate was always sticky and uncomfortable. And yet, this is a tale laced with humor as she casts her child's eye view at the many disruptions and disappointments of her family's life as they moved from Rhodesia to Malawi and then to Zambia. Ms. Fuller's world was full of hot sweaty days, hard work, mosquitoes and ticks and snakes. There's only occasional electricity, drinking water is foul, and any kind of plumbing is a luxury. But there's always beer and alcohol, and lots of cigarettes, all of which is taken for granted as a way of life by her and her sister, the two surviving siblings out of five. I couldn't help thinking about my own children and their easy life here in New York, as I looked at the photographs throughout the book as the two young girls grew up and the parents grew wrinkled and gray. I love the writer's descriptions and the way she uses words. The children sing songs about fighting through "thickandthin" and the family camps with other "expats-like-us". Young Alexandra, nicknamed "Bobo" learns to clean, load and shoot a gun. Her father chain smokes cigarettes as he drives their Land Rover over inhospitable roads. Her mother loves animals and keeps packs of dogs around in a losing battle to control their fleas. The children attend boarding schools that change in racial composition as the politics change. And yet there's never a single word of self pity in spite of failing crops and ramshackle living conditions. I loved this book and read it fast, enjoying Ms. Fuller's voice. The Africa she describes became real to me as I let myself plunge into her world for a little while. There was an excellent map which helped me locate the places she describes as well as the family snapshots. Most of all though, there was a sense throughout of what it really felt like to be that little girl who grew up to share her memories with her readers. I thank her for doing that and give this book one of my highest recommendations. Read it. It's a real treat!
Rating:
Summary: Powerful
Review: As a person who has made numerous short trips on business over the years to Lusaka, Dar es Salaam, and Lagos, I have often wondered how people can live in Africa.
In a tightly woven memoir, Ms Fuller vividly describes her growing up in Africa on four remote farms, 13 years in Zimbabwe, 2 years in Malawi , and 10 years in Zambia. She communicates a love for Africa that pierces the economic, political, and health hazards that her family endured. "In Rodesia, we are born and then the umbilical cord of each child is sewn straight from the mother onto the ground, where it takes root and grows" (p149). After describing her near death from dehydration from swallowing a bit of unboiled river water, she makes "a vow never to leave Africa" (p179).
She describes how white kids from age five had to "learn how to loan an FN rifle magazine, strip and clean all the guns in the house, and ultimately, shoot to kill." (p74) A war that is ultimately lost. ... So far 2900 of the 3500 white farms in Zimbabwe have been taken under the guise of land distribution.
The story is laced with wonderful dialogues, the result no doubt of Ms Fuller's love of reading in her media free environment and her years boarding at Arundel High School, a replica in Zimbabwe of the British Public School: "The focus is on a rigorous academic program and we will be expected to pass difficult examinations sent out from Cambridge in England" (p224).
She describes with deep affection a number of black Africans who worked for her parents. In Zimbabwe, there is Cephas, an astute tracker, and the son of a witch doctor. In Zambia, there is Adamson, the cook, with a joint constantly hanging from his fat lips, easing the pain of a daughter stabbed to death with a spear and another born with severe disabilities, not even able to walk.
Then there is the young Australian woman hitching in eastern Zimbabwe with no one around for miles. She wants a ride to where the Fuller's mineproofed Land Rover is going even though she is told by Dad that they are just going "'To the dogs, . . to the bloody dogs."
She describes the defiance necessary for survival, -- her Dad telling a Zambian border guard "Fergoodsake, either let us go, or shoot us," her Dad fully aware that shooting deaths are treated lightly, as accidents: "We say, 'Acci-didn't. Acci-didn't stop. Ha ha" (p264).
She describes her Mum's coping with the deaths of three children and resorting to alcohol in desperation. She desribes her Mum's love of life, her efforts to rescue a spotted eagle owl, a symbol of bad luck to the Zambian men who broke his wing in an aborted attempt to kill him, and her bonding with Caesar, her big bay Thoroughbred.
She describes the terrors of the environment: "The hairs [of the buffalo bean] can stimulate a reaction so severe, so burning and persistent, that it has been known to send grown men mad, tearing into the bush in search of mud to alleviate the torture" (p110); Putzi flies "lay eggs on damp patches of earth or unironed clothes, burrow under the skin, the eggs becoming maggots, bursting into living boils, emerging as full-blown, winged flies" (47).
She is brutally honest. Describing her beautiful sister's London wedding to a Zimbabwen: "The little lump under the wedding dress, behind the bouquet of flowers, is my nephew" (p289).
She marries an American, a safari guide at age 23. When asked how she feels before the wedding she replies "a bit queasy", not because she is nervous but because she has "had a dose of hard-to shake-off malaria for the last two weeks" (293).
No doubt Ms Fuller's book will be turned into a movie, a movie that could rival Jamie Uys' film "The God's Must be Crazy".
Rating:
Summary: A Vivid Portrayal
Review: Alexandra Fuller's book is a must-read for anyone who loves Southern Africa and its contradictions. This book is written with so much passion, and yet control. It evokes the smells, sounds, sense of an Africa I experienced growing up at the same time and age in the 70's in South Africa. It is a book I will reccommend to all my compatriots who, as a result of Life's twists and turns, might find themselves living on a different continent and yet will always call Southern Africa home. Her brilliant observations, brutally honest writing and sense of humour made me savour each page. Hopefully this is just the first of many books. She has won an instant fan.
Rating:
Summary: RECONCILIATION
Review: MS FULLER HAS TOUCHED MY HEART WITH THIS BOOK AND HEALED A LOT OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE I HAD WITH THE MERCELESS WHITE PEOPLE, AS A BLACK CHILD WHO GROW UP IN ZIMBABWE. MS FULLER ANSWERED A LOT OF QUESTIONS ON WHETHER WHITE PEOPLE ARE JUST STRAIGHT UP EVEIL OR WHAT. SHE EXPLAINED HOW THEY FELT THE NEED TO PROTECT THEMSELVES FROM THE BLACK PEOPLE (MAJORITY) AND THE ONLY WAY TO DO THIS WAS INSTILL FEAR IN THESE AFRICANS.. AT THE SAME TIME SHE JUST EXPLAINED THE POLITICAL SITUATION OF ZIMBABWE AND THE STRUGGLES THAT THE PRESIDENT IS GOING THROUGHT THUS HELPING ME TO SUPPORT THE LAND REFORM IN CURRENTLY GOING ON IN ZIMBABWE. SHE IS A LIVING HERO WHO HAS DONE SOMETHING THAT HAS NEVER BEEN DONE BY ANY WHITE PEOPLE I REALLY SALUTE HER AND WOULD LOVE TO MEET HER AND WRITE A BOOK OR SHARE EXPERIENCE WITH FULLER.
Rating:
Summary: I had to go out and buy another little can of book darts
Review: I loved, loved, loved this book, mainly for the author's voice. I trusted her to deliver her own unique child's perspective on her life in Africa during 20 tumultuous years, before she married and moved to Wyoming??! With book darts, I tag passages I like in the many books I read, and I ran out on this book. Had to go buy more. Wonderful similies, twists and turns of phrasing, descriptions...
Fuller's love of Africa and her fervid love of her African childhood shines through.
Marvelous.
Read it.
Rating: 
Summary: Big Disappointment
Review: After forcing myself to read 1/2 of this book I still had no idea what is going on with this woman and her family. I devour every every book I can find on Africa and have loved them all, but not this one. I passed it on to a few friends. Same reaction. None of us could finish it. The vapid attempt at shock value by constantly mentioning the word pee is ridiculous. On the back of the book jacket, Wiiliam Finnegan is quoted as saying, "Nobody has ever written a book about growing up in rural Africa the way Alexandra Fuller has." That's an understatement. Let's hope no one ever does again...
Rating:
Summary: Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood
Review: I loved this book. Alexandra Fuller's writing style is refreshing and unique. Her vivid and sometimes horrifying experiences were totally engrossing. It has been several years since I have become so absorbed in a book that I was bereft when it ended and desperate to find another book to fill the void. I even immediately reread sections rather than let it go. The racism of her parents is not disguised nor apologized for. It is stated as a matter of history, and despite my shock at their attitudes, I appreciated the honesty with which it was recounted. When Alexandra swore never to leave Africa after nearly dying from drinking tea water tainted with Hippo dung, I was incredulous that anyone could wish to live in such harsh conditions. I'm sure it would be fascinating to hear her sister's side of the story, since Alexandra paints their relationship as cruely one-sided. Believe every good review about this book and treat yourself to a wonderful experience by reading it today.
|
