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Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood |  | Author: Alexandra Fuller
Publisher: Random House
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy Used: $0.08
as of 3/21/2010 10:37 MDT details
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Seller: thrift_books
Rating:  202 reviews
Sales Rank: 244316
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 5.8 x 1.1
ISBN: 0375507507
Dewey Decimal Number: 968.9104092
EAN: 9780375507502
ASIN: 0375507507
Publication Date: December 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
When the ship veered into the Cape of Good Hope, Mum caught the spicy, heady scent of Africa on the changing wind. She smelled the people: raw onions and salt, the smell of people who are not afraid to eat meat, and who smoke fish over open fires on the beach and who pound maize into meal and who work out-of-doors. She held me up to face the earthy air, so that the fingers of warmth pushed back my black curls of hair, and her pale green eyes went clear-glassy.
“Smell that,” she whispered, “that’s home.”
Vanessa was running up and down the deck, unaccountably wild for a child usually so placid. Intoxicated already.
I took in a faceful of African air and fell instantly into a fever.
In Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller remembers her African childhood with visceral authenticity. Though it is a diary of an unruly life in an often inhospitable place, it 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.
A worthy heir to Isak Dinesen and Beryl Markham, 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.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 202
 A complex depiction of colonialism February 19, 2010
Chang Meng
We often think of colonialism of Africa is black and white, but this book disproved the myth and offered more insight on the subject. In no way I am endorsing colonialism, but I think the book made the point that everyone, including her obviously racist parents, are a victim of colonialism yet everyone picked up the pieces time and time again and tries to make the best of what life has to offer.
Process reveiw February 8, 2010
D. W. Adams (New Zealand)
Book arrived very quickly and was as described by the sellar, a very simple straight forward deal.
 An interesting true story February 8, 2010
Larry N. Stout
The most enjoyable autobiographies are those written in a decent style by non-celebrities, and which illuminate realms of human experience strange to the reader. This is a very nice example. You will want to read it.
I loved this book! February 1, 2010
Suzanne (United States)
This morning I finished reading what is now one of my favorite books of all time. The book is: DON'T LET'S GO TO THE DOGS TONIGHT: An African Childhood by Alexandra Fuller. When I picked it up and read the back cover it dawned on me that I'd first heard of this book a few years ago when it was reviewed in Oprah's O magazine. At the time it resonated with me because Ms. Fuller now lives outside of Jackson, Wyoming, one of my favorite places on earth. However this tells the story of her remarkable, hard-scrabble childhood in Africa. The back copy reads in part:
"From 1972 to 1990, Alexandra Fuller grew up on several farms in the remotest regions of Africa. Three of her siblings died in childhood-only she and her sister Vanessa survived. While their father was away for long stretches fighting on the side of the white government in the Rhodesian civil war, their mother managed the farming work with a fierceness and passion fueled by a love of life, and an almost illogical love for Africa....A worthy heir to Isak Dinesen and Beryl Markham, Alexandra Fuller writes with brilliance, humor, and overwhelming affection for her African childhood."
Unbelievably good. January 10, 2010
alfa.beta.charlie.delta. (Every town, USA)
Probably one of the best books I've ever read. Beautiful, thought provoking, heartbreaking... Alexandra Fuller made me weep. Read it, you won't be sorry.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 202
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