Product Description

Alexandra Fuller was the daughter of white settlers in 1970s war-torn Rhodesia. Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight is a memoir of that time, when a schoolgirl was as likely to carry a shotgun as a satchel. Fuller tells a story of civil war; of a quixotic battle against nature and loss; and of her family’s unbreakable bond with a continent which came to define, shape, scar and heal them. In wry and sometimes hilarious prose, she looks back with rage and love at an extraordinary family and an extraordinary time.

‘Like Frank McCourt, Fuller writes with devastating humour and directness about desperate circumstances . . . tender, remarkable’ Daily Telegraph

‘A book that deserves to be read for generations’ Guardian

‘Perceptive, generous, political, tragic, funny, stamped through with a passionate love for Africa . . . [Fuller] has a faultless hotline to her six-year-old self’ Independent

‘This enchanting book is destined to become a classic of Africa and of childhood’ Sunday Times

‘Wonderful book . . . a vibrantly personal account of growing up in a family every bit as exotic as the continent which seduced it . . . the Fuller family itself [is] delivered to the reader with a mixture of toughness and heart which renders its characters unforgettable’ Scotsman

‘Her prose is fierce, unsentimental, sometimes puzzled, and disconcertingly honest . . . it is Fuller’s clear vision, even of the most unpalatable facts, that gives her book its strength. It deserves to find a place alongside Olive Schreiner, Karen Blixen and Doris Lessing’ Sunday Telegraph

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6199 in Books
• Published on: 2003-01-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 300 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Don’t Let’s go to the Dogs Tonight is a wonderfully evocative memoir of Alexandra Fuller’s African childhood. Fuller regards herself "as a daughter of Africa", who spent her early life on farms in Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia throughout the turbulent 1970s and 80s, as her parents "fought to keep one country in Africa white-run", but "lost twice" in Kenya and Zimbabwe. This is a profoundly personal story about growing up with a pair of funny, tough, white African settlers, and living with their "sometimes breathlessly illogical decisions", as they move from war-torn Zimbabwe to disease and malnutrition in Malawi, and finally the "beautiful and fertile" land of Zambia.

Central to Fuller’s book is the intense relations between herself and her parents, a chain-smoking father able to turn round any farm in Africa, her glamorous older sister Vanessa, and the character who sits at the heart of the book, Fuller’s "fiercely intelligent, deeply compassionate, surprisingly witty and terrifyingly mad" mother.

Fuller weaves together painful family tragedy with a wider understanding of the ambivalence of being part of a separatist white farming community in the midst of Black African independence. The majority of the book focuses on Fuller’s early years in war-torn Zimbabwe, with "more history stuffed into its make-believe, colonial-dream borders than one country the size of a very large teapot should be able to amass." This is the most successful dimension of the book, as Fuller describes growing up on farm where her father is away most nights fighting "terrorists", and stripping a rifle takes precedence over school lessons. The sections on Malawi and Zambia are more prosaic, but this is a lyrical and accomplished memoir about Africa, which is "about adjusting to a new world view" and the author’s "passionate love for a continent that has come to define, shape, scar and heal me and my family." --Jerry Brotton

Review
'Like Frank McCourt, Fuller writes with devastating humour and directness about desperate circumstances.' Daily Telegraph

About the Author
Alexandra Fuller was born in Berkshire in 1969. In 1971 she moved with her family to Zimbabwe and then to Malawi and Zambia. She now livesin Wyoming with her husband and two children. Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight is her first book.

Customer Reviews

Wonderful
I loved this book. I have been fascinated with Africa for some time and have read quite a few books about growing up there (autobiographical and fictional). However after I bought this book it sat on my shelf for sometime. For some reason I kept putting off reading it as I wasn't in the mood for another book on the subject. What a mistake. It was different from the other books I'd read and drew me in much more. I was immediately hooked and could not put it down.

Right from the start, when the author talks about getting softly drunk with mother the night before returning to boarding school, and then smoking with her father while he commisertes with her because she won't be able to smoke at school, you know you are in for something different. And that was just the start of it.

I was also fascinated by the fact that the author was born in the same year as me, so all along I was comparing her life to mine and being astonished at how different it was. A very hard life at times, but I was also envious! I have been to Zimbabwe, as well as Botswana, Namibia and South Africa, but only on fleeting holidays. However I felt very drawn to the place and this book made the tie seem stronger, as though there was an actual reason for it rather than just my imagination.

Also, by the end of the book, I felt as though Alexandra Fuller was a friend. I was upset to loose touch with her and would love to know more about how she is adapting to life in the US as I really cannot imagine her there.

AN HONEST VERSION OF A PERIOD OF CHANGE IN SOUTHERN AFRICA
This look back at the life of the white farming community in Zimbabwe is a powerful recollection of a childhood that has left an indelible mark on the life of the authoress.

The story, as seen through the eyes of a young girl, describes the tough existence of a white farming family living through the Rhodesian civil war as white rule draws to an inevitable close. The family fights against drought, war and financial instability but, as the book starkly portrays, still live in a style inconceivable for the non-white community. The fact that racism was officially sanctioned and existed within the majority of white households is not concealed but given the perspective of the growing child.

Sadly, the family is cursed with the loss of three children out of five at young ages and the mother of the author finds solace through alcohol to relieve her mental anguish that such cruel misfortune has been wished on her.

On a brighter note, the wildness, smells and colours of the African landscape are brought vividly to life throughout the book making the reader yearn for an opportunity to share such experiences and to bring into context the priveleged childhood described.

The book is written in a style that makes you wish to finish it quickly and deserves to be re-read. It will serve as a worthy testemant to a period of time that was a true historical cross roads.

An African Childhood Everyone Can Share
This is an outstanding book. I have never encountered anyone who so accurately articulates what it was like to grow up in Zimbabwe; it's like reminiscing with a good friend. Some may find the references she makes to everyday life incomprehensible and the racism unpalatable, however, you cannot help but be moved by the honesty of her writing and the love she feels for her family and the country that lies between the Limpopo and the Zambezi. This is a must read for anyone who grew up in Zimbabwe, has visited the country or can find it on a map.