Rating: 
Summary: Great story
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. "Bobo", as she is called as a youngster, has a keen memory of life in Africa growing up as a white African in rural Africa. She tells stories of her family (including an endlessly teasing sister and half-crazy mother) and all their assorted pets, as they travelled together as a group from farm to farm. I could totally relate to her descriptions of the sights, smells and sounds of the areas in which she lived! Having lived myself in Africa as a child and visited as an adult, I say that Alexandra Fuller is spot in with details, racially, geographically and from all (six) senses. I hated for this to end, this journey into the tales of her childhood.
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Summary: An African Childhood
Review: I can't believe some of the criticisms of this wonderful book. As a white woman who grew up in Zim - even though I was a few years older and lived in town - it captured exactly what it was (is) like. The matter of fact descriptions are powerful on their own - would you expect a 13 year old girl to be making a studied analysis of the political forces at work? The point is that Fuller manages to describe vividly events which fit into that world and give you a richer understanding of it. There are good novels and historic/political books from other perspectives, but that does not mean that her perspective is invalid. Try reading some of the dry as dust ones like Cathy Buckle's account of the current experiences of white farmers (written from a very liberal, politically correct standpoint) and see which gives you a better insight. By the way, for the reviewer her questioned her teapot metaphor - has he/she ever looked at a map of Zimbabwe?
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Summary: Penetrating and biographical insights
Review: Don't Let's Go To The Dogs Tonight provides penetrating and biographical insights into African politics and racial conflicts. Alexandra Fuller's family was white at a time when power was changing from the white Rhodesia to the black-run Zimbabwe. Don't Let's Go To The Dogs Tonight tells what it was like growing up white in rural Africa under social changes. An eye-opening, revealing memoir.
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Summary: A Child's Eye View of the Sunset of Colonial Africa
Review: Ms. Fuller is a restrained wordsmith. Her's is a child's narrative of growing up in this awe full continent. She never once gives an explanation, rational, or theorem for or against white colonialism in black Africa. Rather through her story she allows the reader to disover much of the motivation of middle class whites who foot soldiered on, till the final campfire, in the economic and military army of colonial Africa. Those adults for whom hell is any place were they must serve and heaven any place were they may rule.
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Summary: A tale of 2 parts
Review: This book goes a long way to teasing out the complex threads of white history in the old Federation of Central Africa countries. Those who attempt to neatly define people on the other side of the earth may appreciate their folly once they've read this. It is also a universally touching yet never cheaply exploitative personal story.
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Summary: I felt as if I was back in South Central Africa
Review: A very well written memoir of life on an African farm today. A good read, even for non-expats or settlers. So much of what she writes is typical of the lives/experiences of many ordinary farmers struggling to make a go of it in countries which continue to collapse and plunge further and further into chaos. Despite the hardship and despair of everyday life for so many in Africa today, the magic and atttraction of Africa comes clearly through.
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Summary: An Extraoridinary Memoir
Review: WOW! What an extraordinary book! Alexandra Fuller was grow up in rural Central Africa during the civil war in Rhodesia (and now Zimbabwe). This book described her childhood in Africa--her daily life (being White and lived life in Africa), two brothers and one sister died when they were very young, a nervous breakdown mother and a always-not-at-home dad, fired a rifle when she was only eight or nine years old... and more. I enjoy Fuller's written style and her unsentimentality in the book. I like this book not only because of Fuller's "unusual" childhood, but also the rich historical information about Rhodesia/Zimbabwe in the '70.
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Summary: The end of white Rhodesia as seen through ordinary eyes
Review: Dissatisfied reviewers of Alexandra Fuller's "Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight" tend to dwell on the degree to which the book fails to conform to their own agendas and expectations. These reviewers lament Fuller's perceived lack of attention to women's issues, the plight of black Zimbabweans, and the horrors of the Rhodesian War, to name a few. In other words, rather than praise Fuller for the story she tells, they criticize her for stories they believe she fails to tell. To bad for them; they are missing out on a great book. In addition to being smart, funny, entertainnig, and well-written, Fuller's memoir provides invaluable insight into the end of white rule in southern Africa. The Fullers are hardly members of a wealthly, landed, colonial ruling class. They are poor, rootless, prone to drinking and fighting. Where is the privilege, however minimal, for which they and other white Rhodesians fought? Why on earth would they stay on in places like Zambia and Malawi after the end of white rule? Fuller offers no definite answers to these questions -- though possible answers lurk in the loving and intricate passages in which Fuller describes the sights, sounds, and smells of southern African life. As the story of ordinary white Africans living through a defining moment in southern African history, this book works particularly well. Those who enjoy Fuller's book might also want to read "Mukiwa," Peter Godwin's equally excellent memoir of growing up in white Rhodesia. Godwin (who, like Fuller, spent much of his youth in the eastern part of Rhodesia, near the border with Mozambique) is about ten years older than Fuller. As such, he offers more about the origins of the war. Godwin also fought with the Rhodesian Army in the 1970s (these experiences make up a large portion of his narrative) and returned to his homeland as a journalist in the 1980s, to cover prime minister Robert Mugabe's reign of terror against his opposition. This more political and historical approach provides a nice companion to Fuller's work.
Rating: 
Summary: A unique and fascinating biography
Review: After reading Entertainment Weekly's review of this book, my curiousity led me to purchase it for my wife, since she enjoys reading true tales of other women. However, I started reading it before she did and I quickly was drawn into Alexandra Fuller's world. Her style is a little disconcerting at first (simply because she is speaking in her own voice and the language and slang she grew up with), and it takes a while to fall into the flow of her jumping around in her life in the early chapters, but I almost immediately was drawn into her world. I really enjoy writers who have a style all their own and Fuller definitely has her own unique voice. Her language is sometimes choppy, but it stills conveys meaning and understanding. What I partuclarly liked was the subtle way she conveyed the changing of the guard in Africa, as black rule began to become the rule, rather than the exception. Without directly commenting on the changes either positively or negatively, she conveys the confusion that the change brought about and suggests that whether blacks or whites are in control, the common people of most African nations remain oppressed by their leaders.I think Ms. Fuller makes it clear that regardless of their race, whites and blacks are Africans and that something must eventually be done about the oppresive political environment present in so many African nations. This book is particulary relevant given the recent turmoil over the apparent re-election of Robert Mugabe. I was fascinated by her mother, but wished she had provided more information about her sister. At one point she hints that her sister may have been molested by a neighbor and that a neighbor may have attempted to do the same to her, but she is vague on details, perhaps deliberately so. I also was a little disappointed that there was not more detail on her and her sister's lives in their late teens and early adulthood, but she still manages to convey a tremendous amount of information about their lives as young adults in a relatively short span. Overall this is a fascinating look at a way of life that is rapidly dying out and I would be curious to see if her parents are eventually forced to leave Africa. I guess its a mark of a good author that when they finish their tale, you're asking for more.
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Summary: Riveting storytelling
Review: I found that I couldn't put this book down. The author has refreshing insight into her own extremely dysfunctional family in a dysfunctional country. This is a touching survivor's story, but without sentimentality. The only drawback is that the author needs to tone down her descriptive language in order to be a great writer. A wonderful book, even more so because it's autobiographical. For anyone who loves reading about life in Africa, British colonialism and overcoming adversity in life.
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