August 2022 Book Choice
“Don’t Let’s Go To The Dogs Tonight “- An African Childhood by Alexandra Fuller
Alexandra Fuller gives an insight into growing up within a dysfunctional family in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe at the time of the bush wars. She tells us about her experiences – many of which are harrowing. She gives details of an unruly and chaotic life; her mother was an emotionally remote woman, who was eventually diagnosed with manic depression. However, the author tells her story with humour and honesty and her memoirs are fascinating. It does include references to the family’s racism and their attitude to the black community in which they were living.
Most of the group felt that the book was well written and that the author recalled her childhood memories in detail. We talked about the lives of the family and the author’s relationship with other family members. A few of our group had lived as ex-pats in African countries and this led to a full discussion about their experiences while living there. It was generally felt, however, that although Fuller had lived with and
accepted apartheid as a child, she made no reference in the book to it being unacceptable now that she is an adult and living in another country. The book received mixed reviews from the group and these views were reflected by our overall scoring a of 6/10.