Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra FullerMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I read both this memoir and its sequel, "Cocktail Hour under the Tree of Forgetfulness," via audiobooks with terrific narrators, but Fuller's writing is just as beautiful and evocative in print. The daughter of white British settlers in central Africa in the mid-twentieth century, she grew up during the revolutionary years when colonials were losing their power, their land, and sometimes their lives to native peoples reclaiming their country. Fuller's childhood stories are both harrowing and hilarious, as are her descriptions of her amazing parents--gutsy, passionate people surviving tragedy and betrayal through sheer stubbornness and large amounts of alcohol. Like so many stories of Africa, Fuller's tales reveal through the chaotic lives of unforgettable individuals a wider perspective about a place and a culture so different from my own. I can't ask much more from a book than that.
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