Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness

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Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness

3.76 of 5 stars 3.76 · rating details · 4,315 ratings · 812 reviews

A story of survival and war, love and madness, loyalty and forgiveness, "Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness "is an intimate exploration of Fuller's parents and of the price of being possessed by Africa's uncompromising, fertile, death-dealing land. We follow Tim and Nicola Fuller hopscotching the continent, restlessly trying to establish a home. War, hardship, a...more

ebook, 256 pages

Published August 23rd 2011 by Penguin Books (first published January 1st 2011)

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Aug 26, 2011 Melissa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

To read Fuller's books is to immerse yourself in the history of Africa, and most of it is pretty tragic and tough to fathom. It's hard to be at peace with colonialism. Fuller seems to struggle with this herself. While her mother reminisces about her Scottish ancestors, Fuller is haunted by the Tasmanian natives forced into slavery on the family's ancient estate. I can’t imagine how hard it must be to reconcile one's need to see all people as equal with an entire family history predicated on the...more To read Fuller's books is to immerse yourself in the history of Africa, and most of it is pretty tragic and tough to fathom. It's hard to be at peace with colonialism. Fuller seems to struggle with this herself. While her mother reminisces about her Scottish ancestors, Fuller is haunted by the Tasmanian natives forced into slavery on the family's ancient estate. I can’t imagine how hard it must be to reconcile one's need to see all people as equal with an entire family history predicated on the belief that they are not. But does this attitude make the Fuller’s experiences invalid? Rhodesia's bizarre history, that the lives of 250,000 white settlers should be so much more important than the 6,000,000 indigenous blacks who were there first, is tough to swallow. But that was their lives nevertheless. In the midst of the entitlement and privilege of white Europeans who found Africans to be, in the words of Rhodesia's prime minister, "uncivilized savages," these people lived, tried to realize their dream of a farm, their children lived or died (mainly died, and although I knew of their deaths from Fuller's perspective from her first book, it was even more heart-rending to hear of them from her mother's). I hope that I can marvel at the specter of a hard-drinkin’, man’s-shirt wearin’, dog pack trailin’, bipolar Nicola Fuller, mourn her dead children and be amazed at the circumstances of her life even as she speaks of determination to be White and stay White in Rhodesia.

I think I'm essentially trying to write a review that assuages my white guilt about loving this book. I am absolutely fascinated by Alexandra Fuller's family. Their pictures, their nicknames, their expressions, their drinking. I would love nothing more than to sit down & pore through every one of her photo albums. Their experiences are just so bizarre and heartbreaking. Does it make it better that the colonialism & racism both from this book and Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonightare slightly tempered here by her parent's experiences managing a black landowner's tobacco farm in Malawi after the war in Rhodesia? It is, in Nicola Fuller's words, "A short, sharp education on how to live and behave in a black African country run by black Africans." Can you be fascinated by people and love reading about them while at the same time abhorring the dominant philosophy of their lives?
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Oct 15, 2011 Jeanette rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: africa, biography-memoir, nonfiction, four-star-nonfiction

I love the title, but if I had a Tree of Forgetfulness, why then would I need a Cocktail Hour?
This book gives some insight into the wackiness of Bobo's parents, especially her mother, "Nicola Fuller of Central Africa," whom we first encountered in Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight.

I think this passage from page 125 illustrates a bit of life for the often dissolute British colonials in Africa in the mid-20th century. A horse vet named Charlie organized hunts bringing together large groups of co...more

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Jan 29, 2012 Grburbank rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: doorway-character, narrative-nf, memoir

Alexandra Fuller wrote of her African childhood in Don’t Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight—known afterward to her family as the “Awful Book”—and her fey mother, Nicola Fuller of Central Africa, emerged as the most memorable character. In Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, Fuller returns to that harshest of continents to chart her mother’s life and memories as a one million percent Highland Scottish woman who grew up in the perfect equatorial light of colonial Kenya, who led a hardscrabble...more

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Dec 29, 2011 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: school

Several years ago, I read Fuller's Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, a memoir of her young life as a white girl in Southern (NOT South) Africa, and although I don't remember the specifics, I do remember that I closed the book with a sense of history and humor, so I was pleased to see that she'd published a new book. This one, Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, does not disappoint. This time around, the author sets her sights on the experiences of her parents, especially her mother,...more

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Jan 17, 2013 Edward rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What happened to all of those whites who once lived good lives in Rhodesia and east central Africa? That is, before the civil wars of the 60's and early 70's turned the countries over to native Africans. Many left, of course, but some remained, and Fuller's book is an tribute to her parents who stayed on. It's an followup to her earlier book, DON'T LETS GO TO THE DOGS TONIGHT about her childhood growing up in this volatile environment. She married and left Africa, and returns only to visit her a...more What happened to all of those whites who once lived good lives in Rhodesia and east central Africa? That is, before the civil wars of the 60's and early 70's turned the countries over to native Africans. Many left, of course, but some remained, and Fuller's book is an tribute to her parents who stayed on. It's an followup to her earlier book, DON'T LETS GO TO THE DOGS TONIGHT about her childhood growing up in this volatile environment. She married and left Africa, and returns only to visit her aging parents.

They were originally Scottish highlanders who settled in Africa and made it their home. As she writes, "land is Mum's love affair and it is Dad's religion." They love the country, just as their ancestors loved the rugged west coast of Scotland, and both want to be buried in Africa." Her father fought in the African wars to retain British rights, but when those war were ultimately lost, he hung on, working as a manager on various farms. He says, "You put your blood and sweat into a place and then . . . there's a coup, squatters show up, the wind changes direction, and suddenly it's all gone. No, there's no point, but you can still work in Africa without trying to own any of it." It was a tough life, Fuller's mother losing three of her five children, two to disease, one to a tragic accident, and most of all the youthful innocence she had when she first came to Africa. She suffered from serious bouts of depression and alcoholism.

Fuller gets much of the fascinating story from her parents while they sit having cocktails under a tree actually called the "tree of forgetfulness. A native explains that "if there is a sickness or you are troubled by spirits, then you sit under the tree of forgetfulness and your ancestors will assist you. It is true, all of your troubles and arguments will be resolved." Whether they are or not is an open question, but Mum believes it "two million percent". To live in this part of Africa you have to have faith in a better future or else you'll succumb to despair.

Africa is full of life and incredible beauty, but it's also full of decay and death, and Fuller captures both in this very interesting book. (less)

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Feb 07, 2012 Marc Weitz rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ever sat down with a friend for cocktails only to have them retell their same old stories without showing the slightest bit of interest in you? That was this book. This is the fourth book I've read from this author, which means that I've read all her books. Obviously, I've enjoyed them, or I would not have bothered reading this one. But the author rehashes many stories from her first book "Don't Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight," only this time from her parents' perspective and without the in-depth d...more

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May 12, 2013 Leon rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Selected by The New York Times Book Review as a Notable Book of the Year

Alexandra Fuller returns to Africa and the story of her unforgettable family.

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Selected by The New York Times Book Review as a Notable Book of the Year

Alexandra Fuller returns to Africa and the story of her unforgettable family.

In Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness Alexandra Fuller returns to Africa and to her unforgettable family. At the heart of this family, and central to the lifeblood of her latest story, is Fuller’s iconically courageous mother, Nicola (or, Nicola Fuller of Central Africa, as she sometimes prefers to be known). Born on the Scottish Isle of Skye to a warlike clan of highlanders and raised in Kenya's perfect equatorial light, Nicola holds dear the values most likely to get you hurt or killed in Africa: loyalty to blood, passion for land, and a holy belief in the restorative power of all animals. With a lifetime of admiration behind her and after years of interviews and research, Fuller has recaptured her mother's inimitable voice with remarkable precision. Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness is as funny, exotic, terrifying and unselfconscious as Nicola herself.

We see Nicola as an irrepressible child in western Kenya, then with the man who fell in love with her, Tim Fuller. The young couple begin their life in a lavender colored honeymoon period, when east Africa lies before them with all the promise of its liquid honeyed light, even as the British empire in which they both once believed wanes. But in short order, an accumulation of mishaps and tragedies bump up against history until the Fullers find themselves in a world they hardly recognize. We follow Tim and Nicola as they hopscotch the continent, restlessly trying to establish a home, from Kenya to Rhodesia to Zambia, even returning to England briefly. War, hardship and tragedy seem to follow the family even as Nicola fights to hold onto her children, her land, her sanity. But just when it seems that Nicola has been broken by the continent she loves, it is the African earth - and Tim's acceptance of her love for this earth - that revives and nurtures her.

A story of survival and war, love and madness, loyalty and forgiveness, Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness is an intimate exploration of the author’s family and of the price of being possessed by this uncompromising, fertile, death-dealing land. In the end we find Nicola and Tim at a table under their Tree of Forgetfulness in the Zambezi Valley on the banana and fish farm where they plan to spend their final days. In local custom, the Tree of Forgetfulness is where villagers meet to resolve disputes and it is here that the family at last find an African kind of peace. Following the ghosts and dreams of memory, Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness is Alexandra Fuller at her very best.

Review

“Electrifying…Writing in shimmering, musical prose… Ms. Fuller manages the difficult feat of writing about her mother and father with love and understanding, while at the same time conveying the terrible human costs of the colonialism they supported… Although Ms. Fuller would move to America with her husband in 1994, her own love for Africa reverberates throughout these pages, making the beauty and hazards of that land searingly real for the reader.”

(Michiko Kakutani, THE NEW YORK TIMES )

“Ten years after publishing Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood, Alexandra (Bobo) Fuller treats us in this wonderful book to the inside scoop on her glamorous, tragic, indomitable mother…Bobo skillfully weaves together the story of her romantic, doomed family against the background of her mother’s remembered childhood.”

(THE WASHINGTON POST )

“Another stunner… The writer's finesse at handling the element of time is brilliant, as she interweaves near-present-day incidents with stories set in the past. Both are equally vivid… With "Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness" Alexandra Fuller, master memoirist, brings her readers new pleasure. Her mum should be pleased.”

(CLEVELAND PLAIN-DEALER )

“Fuller's narrative is a love story to Africa and her family. She plumbs her family story with humor, memory, old photographs and a no-nonsense attitude toward family foibles, follies and tragedy. The reader is rewarded with an intimate family story played out against an extraordinary landscape, told with remarkable grace and style.”

(MINNEAPOLIS STAR-TRIBUNE )

“[Fuller] conveys the magnetic pull that Africa could exert on the colonials who had a taste for it, the powerful feeling of attachment. She does not really explain that feeling—she is a writer who shows rather than tells—but through incident and anecdote she makes its effects clear, and its costs.”

(THE WALL STREET JOURNAL )

“[A]n artistic and emotional feat.”

(THE BOSTON GLOBE )

“An eccentric, quixotic and downright dangerous tale with full room for humor, love and more than a few highballs.”

(HUFFINGTON POST )

About the Author

Alexandra Fuller was born in England in 1969. In 1972, she moved with her family to a farm in southern Africa. She lived in Africa until her midtwenties. In 1994 she moved to Wyoming, where she now resides.

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Feb 22, 2013 Meg rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: People who aren't afraid of madness or falling in love with colonialists

I am giving this book four stars, even though it is very unfair. I adored Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight and Scribbling the Cat SO MUCH (with Colton H. Bryant somewhere in the 4.5 star range) that I am giving this book a four only in comparison. I do have to say that the whole idea of the Tree of Forgetfulness itself just floored me. I mean, the actual tree. I want one of my very own. Also, I still find it amazing how Alexandra Fuller does a better job than anyone I know of writing about rac...more

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Feb 17, 2013 Mitch rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biographical, humor, travel

The opening couple of pages are terrific, as is the ending. Between these two extremes are funny bits as scattered as the characters that star in them.

Ostensibly, this patchwork book is about the lives of the author's parents and grandparents in England and in various countries in Africa. There is some historical context that serves as scenery in addition to the scenery that also serves as scenery. (Will anyone ever understand that? No matter...)

If you like eccentric characters, you will find th...more

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Dec 24, 2012 C.G. Worrell rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

While perusing the shelves of Barnes & Noble, I came across this book. The title and cover photo immediately hooked me. This memoir largely centers around the life of "Nicola Fuller of Central Africa", the eccentric mother of the author. For fifty years, we follow this pukka-pukka-sahib (most excellent mistress) and her family as political conditions and war force the Fuller's from Kenya to Rhodesia to Malawi, and finally, Zambia where they run a banana and fish farm. Nicola is clearly a hyp...more

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Nov 05, 2012 Arlene rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness Alexandra Fuller braids a multi-layered narrative around the Happy Valley-era Africa of her mother's childhood; the grimness of her father's English childhood; and the darker, civil war-torn Africa of her own childhood. Born on the Scottish Isle of Skye and raised in Kenya, Nicola Fuller holds dear the kinds of values most likely to get you hurt or killed in Africa: loyalty to blood, passion for land and a holy belief in the restorative power of a...more

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Aug 13, 2012 Brian Sweany rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In 2001 Alexandra "Bo" Fuller's DON’T LET’S GO TO THE DOGS took the publishing world by storm. It was named the Booksense Non-Fiction Book of the Year and won the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize, hitting the bestseller lists of the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Boston Globe. “A classic is born,” hailed Publishers Weekly in a starred review. “This is not a book you read just once, but a tale of terrible beauty to get lost in over and over,” added Newsweek. The book has since gone on to se...more

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Aug 09, 2012 Lisa rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: memoirs

I read Alexandra Fuller's "Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight" 10 years ago and never forgot it, so when I saw her new book recently in the airport, I had to buy it, even though I had already planned my reading for that trip.

I found the first part of the book (Fuller's mother's history) terribly uninteresting. Very disappointing after being so captivated by AF's previous book. But BECAUSE I had enjoyed her previous work so much, I stuck with it, skimming the pages at best. At about page 90, Full...more

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May 23, 2012 SwensonBooks rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: jill

(Read the original post by clicking here.)

Alexandra Fuller’s latest book, The Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, continues to roam around in my imagination more than a month after I finished reading it. She is a memoirist who transports the reader to a time and place you could never otherwise know and experience it with compassion and good humor.

Even her title invites the reader to the place in the African village where people meet, talk, discuss, negotiate, laugh, drink, sing, forgi...more (Read the original post by clicking here.)

Alexandra Fuller’s latest book, The Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, continues to roam around in my imagination more than a month after I finished reading it. She is a memoirist who transports the reader to a time and place you could never otherwise know and experience it with compassion and good humor.

Even her title invites the reader to the place in the African village where people meet, talk, discuss, negotiate, laugh, drink, sing, forgive and forget. One central tree where the shade provides a gathering place. The Tree of Forgetfulness is a symbolic spot where sitters anticipate the amnesia that lets them forget the past: slavery, war, violence. The central figure in this story, Nicola Fuller, is much like this tree herself. And she holds court there during the cocktail hour.

If I told you this book was about a mother who lost two children, drove around with an Uzi across her lap with an infant and toddler strapped in, suffered from alcoholism and depression, and lived the life of a white Rhodesian, I’m guessing you wouldn’t really be interested. Not a character most of us are interested in getting to know better.

But if you read Fuller’s first memoir, Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood (2003 Random House Trade Paperbacks), then you already know the larger than life stories of Alexandra’s mother, Nicola, and her father and itinerant farmer, Tim, Fuller are page turners. Alexandra Fuller returns to the subject of her childhood in Kenya and writes as the memoirist of parents who intend to spend their final days in the Zambezi Valley.

Fuller recounts the African childhood of her mother, Nicola, and her father’s British upbringing during the early part of the 20th century. The relations between whites and Africans, between rich and poor, majority and minority are shown, not told. Historical, cultural and political background information are woven into the story like a blind hem on a full skirt. Fuller is a gifted journalist and applies this skill by permitting her readers to make their own interpretations and draw their own conclusions.

Capturing the voice and irrepressible spirit of Nicola Fuller, Alexandra reveals her mother’s love of animals, especially horses, her grit in struggling to scrape out a living, her negotiations to make a place in the world, and her reckless sense of adventure. But also the suffering of a woman who lost a child to an illness that could not be treated in such a remote location. A woman whose daughter drowned when she left her at home. A woman whose husband would be gone four days at a time working farm land miles away. A woman who drank. A force to be reckoned with, and a lady.

If you haven’t read her first book, this one stands on its own. And you’ll enjoy the first one, then, even more. You might be interested to know that Fuller’s agent suggested she write another book about her mother and father. If you have read both, which do you think is better?

Between the two books, Alexandra Fuller wrote The Legend of Colton Bryant (Penguin 2009). The true story of a boy in Wyoming who loves to ride mustangs and fancies the rodeo, returns home to take a job on an oil-rig and is killed on the job. Where the great high plains meet the Rocky Mountains, hydro-fracking changes the landscape and its people. Fuller lives in Wyoming and captures the characters and sense of place to draw a landscape portrait of contemporary life.

Rare is the writer whose voice is so compelling that it doesn’t matter what they write, you’ll read it. For me, Alexandra Fuller is one of those rare writers.(less)

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Mar 20, 2012 Deborah Gray rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I normally don't read other people's reviews before I do my own, because I don't want to be influenced. I can see why I thought this was a good idea. There are too many wildly differing opinions on this book, which is about par for the number of different personalities reviewing them, but they did start to make me wonder if I was crazy to love it.

Because I did love this book. Alexandra Fuller writes beautifully with such wit and clarity that I was captivated. I didn't care that some of these st...more

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Mar 14, 2012 Susy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The title alone makes this a great book to read, but if you've read Fuller's first memoir, Don't Lets Goo to the Dogs Tonight, you'll really enjoy this new book which is in part a prequel to her childhood story and part homage to the strengths and shortcomings of her parents. Overall, I found it to be both a tribute to her mother most of all and perhaps extending an olive branch to mum as well. Fuller's mother, Nicola Fuller of Central Africa (as she refers to herself) refers to the first book a...more

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Jan 30, 2012 Sherri rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the story of Nicola Fuller the author's mother and her life in Africa. The author was enamored with her mother's life and thought it would make a good story. My problem is that I can't tell if the author is a bad writer or if her mother's life wasn't worth writing about.

At the outset the story seems worthwhile: a white woman in Africa raising children, trying to make a home in a land full of war and beauty.

Unfortunately, the author never quite gives the reader a reason to fall in love wi...more

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Jan 19, 2012 Judith rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

How can you lose with a title like this? It's so poetic, romantic, and intriguing. I had the lucky accident of ordering the book and the audio book at the library at the same time. So while I enjoyed the audio portion tremendously because of the lovely British accents, the occasional singing, and the pronunciation of so many African words, I then enjoyed looking at the pictures in the book.

It seems we never tire of hearing stories of people who grew up in Africa, how they experienced the beauty...more

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Jan 10, 2012 Kristey rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

While I did not read her prior book, Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, my book club ladies indicated it was not necessary in order to read Cocktail Hour. Cocktail Hour takes up the story again, which depicts her parents' early years and family backgrounds, and goes on to bring them forward into the present, to their fish & banana farm in Zambia. The author revisits episodes she wrote about in her 1st book: all their hardships/accomplishments of their drought-plagued, war-blighted farming v...more

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Dec 30, 2011 Ciara rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: autobio-memoir, read-in-2011

if you only read one memoir by alexandra fuller this year...make it her other one. because this one is basically a pale imitation of her other one. & her other one wasn't even that great. i can't even remember what it was called. don't let's go to the dogs tonight, i think.

basically, this is a book for anyone who read don't let's go to the dogs tonight & wondered to themselves, "wow, alexandra fuller just wrote a memoir about how her mom is basically a demented alcoholic. i wonder how th...more

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Nov 21, 2011 Lucy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the follow up to "Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight," 2001, and like it, is about Ms. Fuller's family, primarily her mother. "Cocktail Hour..," 2011, is a perfect example of a mother and adult daughter trying to come to terms with one another. No surprise, Ms. Fuller's mother was not entirely happy with the way she was portrayed in "the awful [first] book." Who could blame her? It wasn't exactly a rousing endorsement of her mothering. She was often so wrapped up in her own mental illnes...more

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Oct 23, 2011 Alistair rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I loved this but then I loved Alexandra's previous memoir of life growing up in Africa with her parents " Don't let's go to the dogs tonight ".
This a more a tribute to her mother Nicola Fuller of Central Africa . I suspect that the first book led to a rift between mother and daughter particularly as it unflinchingly reveals her excessive drinking and depressions and Nicola constantly refers to it as " That Awful Book " but this a more rounded portrait and a love letter to her parents and to Afri...more I loved this but then I loved Alexandra's previous memoir of life growing up in Africa with her parents " Don't let's go to the dogs tonight ".
This a more a tribute to her mother Nicola Fuller of Central Africa . I suspect that the first book led to a rift between mother and daughter particularly as it unflinchingly reveals her excessive drinking and depressions and Nicola constantly refers to it as " That Awful Book " but this a more rounded portrait and a love letter to her parents and to Africa .
Nicola Fuller is a no nonsense , jaunty out- doorsy type who adores animals , the warmth and freedom of Africa ,its colours and smells and probably in real life came over as great fun . At least some of the time she is but she also herself acknowledges her funny moods and mental wobbliness .
It must be said that this is not a story of rich colonialists with partying , drugs , corridor creeping and general spoilt bad behaviour . Mr and Mrs Fuller are pretty poor although well bred and are wedded to the soil and to planting and reaping . They are khaki land rover types and English with their horror of sentimentality and bad manners, a casual ease with profanity and a deep mistrust of humourlessnes .
They live through the mau mau uprising , the takeover of Rhodesia and the white farmers ,the declaration of Independence , the civil war , two childern dying in infancy , one child drowning , her several years of mental illness , until finally coming to rest in Zambia .
Of course their views on white superiority are a totally non pc but they are not bad people they just have some firm views based on life and the end of an elephant charge .
Mr Fuller is the strong silent type who has probably put up with a lot but the sight of the two of them glasees raised high on their verandha in the late evening tells of a hard unglamourous incident filled life survived with devil me care humour .
The cover has a photo of Nicola Fuller as a child hand in hand with her best friend Stephen Foster , a chimpanzee . I found the title of the book a bit fluffy , the memoir most certainly not .

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Sep 24, 2011 Elisha Condie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I so looked forward to this book. But it honestly felt like reading "Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight" again - seriously, at least half the stuff is in the other book. And yes, it gave us Nicola's point of view on events, but she doesn't add enough to make it any more interesting. It was rather tedious reading a bunch of things I had read not a month ago.

The Fuller family are nuts. They are fiercely British, but wholly African. Nicola Fuller in particular is determined to be truly Scottish...more

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Sep 05, 2011 Caren rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adult-nonfiction

Ten years ago Alexandra Fuller published her first book, a piece of non-fiction about her childhood in Rhodesia as it transitioned, with lots of chaos and bloodshed, into today’s Zimbabwe. If you haven’t read that book, "Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight", by all means, put everything down right now and grab a copy. Ms. Fuller’s mother refers to her daughter’s earlier publishing success as “that Awful Book”. We find, in this current offering, the ways in which her mother nourished and encourage...more Ten years ago Alexandra Fuller published her first book, a piece of non-fiction about her childhood in Rhodesia as it transitioned, with lots of chaos and bloodshed, into today’s Zimbabwe. If you haven’t read that book, "Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight", by all means, put everything down right now and grab a copy. Ms. Fuller’s mother refers to her daughter’s earlier publishing success as “that Awful Book”. We find, in this current offering, the ways in which her mother nourished and encouraged her daughter’s future calling as a writer. When the author was quite young, her mother advised her: “Look Bobo”, she reasoned, “numbers are boring. Anyway, you can always pay someone to count for you, but you can never pay anyone to write for you. Now,” Mum paused and gave me one of her terrifying smiles. “What do you think you are going to write about?” Then she took a long sip of tea, brushed a couple of dogs off her lap and began to live a life Worthy of Fabulous Literature. (p. 5)
This book purports to be a sort of background as to how on earth her parents happened to be caught raising their children in the midst of an African war for independence. It is ostensibly about the beginnings of each of her parents, but the focus is really mostly on her larger-than-life mother, “Nicola Fuller of Central Africa”. There is a sense that this book is a sort of peace offering between mother and daughter. Ms. Fuller, now mature and with three children, can look back at the woman her mother was with great compassion and empathy. There is a clear-eyed respect for the courage with which her mother faced so many tragedies and challenges.
Ms. Fuller’s parents now live on and work a fish farm/banana plantation on the Zambezi River in Zambia. They never gave up on Africa and now, in their “golden years”, are living their dream, farming on the continent they so love. This book is the story of a family, a family with British roots but with a love of Africa in their blood. And it is the particular story of Nicola Fuller, who, while she considers herself one million percent Highland Scottish, has lived most of her life in Africa. The book is so richly written that parts of it twisted my soul into shreds, and other parts had me laughing aloud. The significance of the title comes from the fact that the Fuller’s current house in Zambia is built under a tree the native Africans call the “tree of forgetfulness”. From pg. 215: Mr. Zulu shook his head, “No, Madam. This is the Tree of Forgetfulness. All the headmen here plant one of these trees in their village.” Mr. Zulu held his forearm steady as if to demonstrate the power of the tree. “You can plant it just like that, from one stick, and it is so strong it will become a tree. They say ancestors stay inside it. If there is some sickness or if you are troubled by spirits, then you sit under the Tree of Forgetfulness and your ancestors will assist you with whatever is wrong.” He nodded and took another drag of his cigarette. “It is true---all your troubles and arguments will be resolved.”
“Do you believe that?” Mum asked, but before Mr. Zulu could reply she waved her own question away. “I believe it’s true,” she said. “I believe it two million percent.”
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May 16, 2011 Evan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Other than the film version of Out of Africa and Heart of Darkness, this is the first close experience I've had with the sort of British colonials you think of from movies. You know, khaki-wearing, gin-swilling, Land Rover-driving folks from the small islands. I say that with the utmost reverence, because Fuller's parents, Tim and Nicola, are made of tougher stuff than pretty much anyone I know, and they handle their tumultuous lives with the kind of grace we all wish we could have in tight spot...more

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Mar 08, 2013 Cynthia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

We just came from hearing this author speak - I'm entranced by her: her history, her thoughts, her humor.

Humor? She starts off this book by relaying her mother's response to Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight (DLGttDT, my abbreviation) - it is "The Awful Book". In Fuller's talk tonight, she said her mother resents being portrayed as an alcoholic racist, to which Fuller responds: "Yes, and..?". She said she had to write this book to come to terms with the fact that these people, whose beliefs an...more

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Mar 20, 2012 Catherine rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club

This is the first book I’ve read by Fuller. There’s an abundance of memoirs out there recalling childhood memories, and, if I’m not mistaken, I believe that was the focus of Fuller’s previous book, “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight.” Judging by other reviewers who’ve read both, perhaps I would have had a different opinion about this book had I already read the previous.

I usually enjoy reading memoirs and biographies of people who have had an opportunity to live many decades because oftentimes...more

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Sep 14, 2011 Paul Pessolano rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“Cocktail Hour under the Tree of Forgetfulness” by Alexandra Fuller.

Category – Biography

Alexandra Fuller led a very extraordinary life growing up in Africa with her parents and siblings. Nicola, Alexandra’s mother, who liked to be known as Nicola Fuller of Central Africa, was a unique woman. She was a courageous individual who stood by her husband and family in some very dire circumstances.

Nicola was born in Kenya and married Tim Fuller. They both were enchanted and fell deeply in love with Afri...more

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Feb 26, 2013 Jacqueline rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a beautifully written portrait of Fuller's parents and their lives in Africa. The prose is lovingly crafted to show Fuller's deep appreciation of her parents and the lives they carved out for themselves in the midst of turbulent times. However, Fuller does not shy away from issues of racism and imperialism, her criticism of her parents' lifestyle is often apparent. She fills in the details of the Kenyan and Rhodesian/Zimbabwean civil wars, exploring the impact of colonialism even while h...more

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Dec 15, 2012 Tim Cowley rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: africana

I'll admit I'm a fan of Alexandre Fuller's writings despite the cloud of depression that seems to hover around me as I read her tales of woe, mainly from 1970s Rhodesia. Cocktail Hour is the third of her books from Africa and, as usual, she weaves a fascinating tale this time focusing on the formative years of her mother, Nicola.

As a white guy living in Africa, I love reading what life is like for others originating from the United Kingdom. I just can't help but recognize that if my own ancestor...more

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About Alexandra Fuller

Alexandra Fuller has written four books of non-fiction.

Her debut book, Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood (Random House, 2001), was a New York Times Notable Book for 2002, the 2002 Booksense best non-fiction book, a finalist for the Guardian’s First Book Award and the winner of the 2002 Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize.

Her 2004 Scribbling the Cat: Travels with an African Soldie...more

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“You learn not to mourn every little thing out here, or you’d never, ever stop grieving.” — 8 people liked it

“Surely until all of us own and honor one another's dead, until we have admitted to our murders and forgiven one another and ourselves for what we have done, there can be no truce, no dignity and no peace.” — 6 people liked it

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