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Trade Paperback
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9780375758997
Overview
Overview
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - A worthy heir to Isak Dinesen and Beryl Markham, Alexandra Fuller shares visceral memories of her childhood in Africa, and of her headstrong, unforgettable mother. "This is not a book you read just once, but a tale of terrible beauty to get lost in over and over."--Newsweek "By turns mischievous and openhearted, earthy and soaring . . . hair-raising, horrific, and thrilling."--The New Yorker Though it is a diary of an unruly life in an often inhospitable place, Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight is suffused with Fuller's endearing ability to find laughter, even when there is little to celebrate. Fuller's debut is unsentimental and unflinching but always captivating. In wry and sometimes hilarious prose, she stares down disaster and looks back with rage and love at the life of an extraordinary family in an extraordinary time. From 1972 to 1990, Alexandra Fuller--known to friends and family as Bobo--grew up on several farms in southern and central Africa. Her father joined up on the side of the white government in the Rhodesian civil war, and was often away fighting against the powerful black guerilla factions. Her mother, in turn, flung herself at their African life and its rugged farm work with the same passion and maniacal energy she brought to everything else. Though she loved her children, she was no hand-holder and had little tolerance for neediness. She nurtured her daughters in other ways: She taught them, by example, to be resilient and self-sufficient, to have strong wills and strong opinions, and to embrace life wholeheartedly, despite and because of difficult circumstances. And she instilled in Bobo, particularly, a love of reading and of storytelling that proved to be her salvation. Alexandra Fuller writes poignantly about a girl becoming a woman and a writer against a backdrop of unrest, not just in her country but in her home. But Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight is more than a survivor's story. It is the story of one woman's unbreakable bond with a continent and the people who inhabit it, a portrait lovingly realized and deeply felt. Praise for Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight "Riveting . . . full of] humor and compassion."--O: The Oprah Magazine "The incredible story of an incredible childhood."--The Providence Journal
- Format: TradePaperback
- Author: Fuller, Alexandra
- ISBN: 9780375758997
- Condition: Used
- Dimensions: 8.06 x 0.73
- Number Of Pages: 336
- Publication Year: 2003
Customer Reviews
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Stories that are entertaining and incredibly moving at the same time.
Abigail S. - 4 years 7 months agoThis is one of the few books in my life that upon finishing, I turned back to page one and started again immediately. Fuller writes of her childhood in post-colonial Zimbabwe with a no-holds-barred-utterly-intimate style that immediately draws you in and makes you fall in love with the complex land she writes about and her colorful family. Born of British parents that settled in pre-Zimbabwe Rhodesia, Fuller seems to have an endless well of stories that never fail to be entertaining and incredibly moving at the same time.
HPB Staff Review -
A young girl's captivating view of a changing world.
Catherine K. - 5 years agoI first picked up "Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight," in curiosity because my Mom grew up in the same area of Africa during the same time period that the author describes, 1970's Rhodesia. Because my mother is no longer alive I search out information about her where I can. Alexandra Fuller kept my interest throughout the book not only because I had a personal investment but through her vivid description, honesty, and humor in the midst of tumultuous times. Fuller's family moves to Rhodesia, Africa from England when she is two, her "lungs shocked by thick, hot, humid air." From then on she describes a childhood full of the smells and sights of Africa-beautiful and frightening often at the same time. Her family's farm suffers from weather conditions, their personal dysfunctions and changing politics of the time which ultimately lead to the Rhodesian war. Fuller describes the racial tensions and personal failings of her family with brutal honesty, through the eyes of a child. She interjects humor when it least seems possible while presenting the ironic, scary, fascinating world that she grew up in. A very human portrayal of a changing time.
HPB Staff Review