description: The Barnes &amp; Noble ReviewAlexandra "Bobo" Fuller's journey crosses unchartered roads. This dazzlingly writtenmemoir of a young English-born girl, whose family moves to strife-torn Rhodesia in1972, paints a canvas of a landscape few Americans will easily recognize.The family barely scrapes by as Rhodesia is ravaged by war, then relocates to thebleak, inhospitable landscape of Malawi and finally settles on a farm in Zambia. Alongthe way, these insistent white settlers encounter an environment many might question.Three of the five Fuller children die before the age of two; only the author and her sister Vanessa survive. Their mother struggles with fierce bouts of alcoholism and breakdownsthat ultimately are diagnosed as manic-depressive episodes. Meanwhile, their fatherfights in the Rhodesian bush for months at a time.In the tradition of other white European women before her, such as Isak Dinesen,Bobo falls in love with an Africa she cannot be a part of and yet cannot walk away from."My soul has no home," she movingly writes. "I am neither African, nor English nor amI of the sea."The book may be somewhat disturbing in its politics, depending on one's viewpoint on theRhodesian struggle, but as a writer, Fuller gives us a tour de force. We see, hear, andeven smell the Africa of her childhood. Ultimately, Let's Don't Go to the Dogs Tonightbecomes a 20th-century swan song to the long story of colonials inAfrica; in this case, told from the inside out. And assuch it makes for riveting reading. (Elena Simon)Elena Simon lives in New York City.
language: English
title: Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight
titlecomplete: Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight
genres: Book Club, Biography, Africa, Travel, Zimbabwe, Autobiography, Nonfiction, History, Memoir, Biography Memoir
ratings_count: 54723
places: Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi
awards: awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: Guardian First Book Award, awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: Book Sense Book of the Year Award
category: Adult Nonfiction, awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize
publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.