Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood

by Alexandra Fuller

book data

3157 ratings, 3.95 average rating, 607 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		29%
4		43%
3		22%
2		4%
1		1%

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published

March 11th 2003 by Random House Trade Paperbacks

binding

Paperback, 336 pages

isbn

0375758992 (isbn13: 9780375758997)

description

This is the biography of Alexandra Fuller's childhood in Rhodesia during the beginning of the guerilla war time. It's funny, scary and a remarkable g...more

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Juliefrick rated it:

06/05/08

This is one of my top-ten favorite books of all time. An extremely compelling memoir, well-written, poignant but not maudlin or precious. I've read it twice and feel another reread coming on.

The brutal honesty in this story is startling, and Fuller does not set out to insert political or social critique into her story. This is probably unsettling for readers who come face-to-face with her family's colonialist attitudes and expect to hear her criticize and critique them. However, I prefer...more

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Sally rated it:

08/10/08

Read in August, 2008

There are many reviews that summarize this book, so I won’t repeat them. I found this book slightly anti-African. It left me feeling like; couldn't the British have left Africa alone and let them have their own country? It does not seem right for there to be a British Africa. Seems unnatural. I suppose American Indians may have felt the same way about the early colonists, as well. This was no Out of Africa. Now that was a great book and memoir. Different time period and location, of course.
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Allie rated it:

12/18/07

Read in December, 2007

recommends it for: Childhood memoir fans

I almost gave this book four stars because it was very well-written and evocative. But I just never felt much of a connection to the book or to any of the characters. The author's writing skill made it a pleasant enough read - at least, pleasant enough to finish. But it definitely wasn't a can't-put-it-down kind of book.

If I had to give concrete criticisms of the book, the main one would be that she doesn't develop any characters outside of her immediately family (in fact, it seemed her fam...more

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4 comments

Sara Diane rated it:

12/17/07

bookshelves: started-but-not-finished

Read in November, 2006

recommends it for: no one

I read this book (well, most of it, I admit, I didn't finish and didn't want to) while in training as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Namibia, Africa. I found the writing to be disjointed and the colonial attitudes to be far to accurate. I might have liked it better before going to Africa, before seeing first-hand what various colonizing governments did to people, but maybe not. I might have liked it better if she told her memories in order, rather than jumping around so I had some clue as to wher...more

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pamelochka rated it:

08/13/08

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in August, 2008

recommends it for: Kadee

A wonderfully written, inspiring tale of an unconventional childhood and life in Africa. I was particularly struck by the author's notes at the end of the book where she writes that she started out with 8 or 9 failed attempts to write a fictional novel based on her family and youth. I'm very glad she chose to tell her life story as it happened. It is heartbreaking and unforgettable. If nothing else, I have taken away from Alexandra Fuller's book a sense that one can do anything in this world as ...more

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Megan rated it:

04/28/08

Read in January, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Alexandra “Bobo” Fuller's Don't Let's Go To The Dogs Tonight depicts her childhood experiences growing up white in Africa during the Rhodesian civil war. Her life is an amalgamation of what most people would consider unusual circumstances. Bobo, as Alexandra is called growing up, has one sister, her three other siblings die, two at childbirth, and another drowned in a pool. I found the book engaging and enjoyed reading it. While it was not a page turner that I couldn't put down, each tim...more Alexandra “Bobo” Fuller's Don't Let's Go To The Dogs Tonight depicts her childhood experiences growing up white in Africa during the Rhodesian civil war. Her life is an amalgamation of what most people would consider unusual circumstances. Bobo, as Alexandra is called growing up, has one sister, her three other siblings die, two at childbirth, and another drowned in a pool. I found the book engaging and enjoyed reading it. While it was not a page turner that I couldn't put down, each time I did pick it up I enjoyed discovering more about her unusual childhood. Many of her stories intrigue me because they are unlike anything that I have ever experienced. For example, she blames herself for the drowning of her sister Olivia which made her mom start to go crazy. She also described the attack of their African maid. “Violet has been sliced, like rashers of bacon, all the way up her thighs, across her belly, her arms, her face” (121). There seemed to never be a dull moment in the Fuller house which made the book interesting.
I found this memoir particularly intriguing because of Fuller's location and sense of self. As a white girl living in Rhodesia, “I say, 'I'm African.' But not black” (Fuller, 10).
One theme in the book is how she sometimes describes things as the black way or white way. Her parents were racists who were fighting “to keep one country in Africa white-run” (19). Although she lived in Africa it was not until she was over ten years old that she got to meet and eat lunch with, Africans who were not her nannies, cooks, or maids. Therefore, she inherited her parents' way of looking at Africans. Bobo describes her sister “Vanessa gets her cat-hooded, African deadpan, not-listening eyes” (74).
I think that Fuller's objectives were to share her personal experiences growing up. Even through Africa ruffed her up and provided her with a childhood lifestyle that many grownups could never imagine, she still writes this book as a love story about Africa and her mother. For me, she was successful with her objectives in writing the book. Her use of anecdotes and descriptive language gave me a taste for her unusual life in Africa.
I loved Alexandra Fuller's use of descriptive language. This technique lends itself well to memoirs because it helped connect the reader to her Africa. Always using descriptive language, Fuller describes Africa in a matriarchal way: “...is her smell; hot, sweet, smoky, salty, sharp-soft. It is like black tea, cut tobacco, fresh fire, old sweat, young grass” (130).
I enjoyed how she was able to intersperse some humor. “I wanted to say, 'Dad was only joking about shooting him. And don't be touchy about being called a baboon. I'm their kid and they call me Bobo. Same thing'” (158). When describing this book to others I realized how depressing many aspects were and it was little bits of humor that made it still enjoyable to read.
The evidence that she used to support her claims was persuasive. However, it is impossible for it to be unbiased because it is her memoir and based on her biases and experiences. This is not a bad thing. While she does intersperse a few historical paragraphs throughout the book like the excerpt of Kenyan history and Jomo Kenyatta the, rest is reflecting on her life in Africa. If you want to read an unbiased book, then I suggest that you look outside of the memoir section. ...less

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John rated it:

05/13/08

Read in May, 2008

This is a memoir about growing up in an English family in Africa during tumultuous times.
It's actually about real estate, and the moral is: Don't buy a farm in a region where war is likely to break out.
The family lives during much of the author's growing-years in Rhodesia, which becomes Zimbabwe after the war. They are living there on April 18, 1980, when Robert Mugabe becomes Zimbabwe's prime minister. It's interesting because Mugabe finally has finished runner-up in an election this year,...more

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Amanda B. rated it:

04/07/08

bookshelves: advisorybooks-2007-08

Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: people who like to read books about African society

My initial thoughts about this book were that it would be a story of a young girl growing up with so much racism that she struggled to find herself and what to believe in. In some ways I was satisfied with my thoughts in comparison to the book but also dissatisfied. It was a memoir told my Alexandra Fuller herself looking back on her life in Africa during the war between Rhodesia and Zimbabwe. The stories she tells about her family revealed a lot about who she was and what kind of family she had...more

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Michelle rated it:

01/04/08

Read in January, 2008

As i was reading this book, i got bored very easily. The authors writing style was definitely interesting, but it just wasnt one of those 'can't put it down' kind of books. i've had it for almost two weeks, any other time, i'd be done with it. but i'm only on page 103. i've realized that its not something to sit down and read all in one day. i have take it bit by bit to stay entertained, but that could just be me. the story line isn't really one that i can relate to very well, but the detail and...more

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Anna rated it:

07/09/07

bookshelves: a-good-read, autobios-bios-memoirs

recommends it for: all interested in childhood recounts and recent history

An autobiography about growing up in colonial Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe). Two things made me curious about this book: it's from the perspective of the child of colonialists, and the events are fairly recent as it takes place in the 1970's-1990's.
The voice is that of a relatively innocent young girl (as innocent as you can be in midst of war and dire economic circumstances) and she's allowed to tell her childhood as she saw it, good and bad.

I've had fairly mixed feelings about this boo...more

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Anna rated it:

07/31/08

Read in April, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Brendan rated it:

03/15/08

recommends it for: anyone

I read an article by a book reviewer a little while ago in which they talked about how sick they were of "growing up in fill-in-the-blank" books and wished people would be more original. I think that's incredibly misguided. Growing up isn't a cliche, it's just something that happens a lot that's important. So people are going to write about it, and good for them.

They don't usually write about it this well though. This is one of those books that tops out on many different levels at ...more

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Julie rated it:

10/08/07

Fuller was raised during the Rhodesian civil war, a time when white children over the age of five "learned how to load an FN rifle magazine, strip and clean all the guns in the house, and ultimately, shoot-to-kill." Fuller regales her readers with tales of how, as a small child, she would respond to African servants' attempts to discipline her with warnings that she could have them fired. Fuller artfully describes her parents' racism, the war and relationships between blacks and whites...more

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Rachel rated it:

03/06/08

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in October, 2007

The story of young girl's experiences growing up in South Africa. At the outset, the story seems it will lead the reader to new insights about the changes in Apartide in the 60's, but its really about the pain the family indures as the mother suffers through the losses of three of her babies. It is a heavy memoir of pain.

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Janet rated it:

05/17/08

Read in October, 2007

I'm always amazed at how we survive our childhoods and this one was almost too brutally honest! I did come away with a desire to learn more about African history - especially the independence and early post-colonial periods.

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Maura rated it:

01/17/08

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in December, 2007

I wish I grew up in the wilds of Rhodesia and was allowed to drink beer when I was 12.

This book was good, and a quick read!

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3 comments

ciara rated it:

11/15/08

bookshelves: autobio-memoir, read-in-2008

Read in November, 2008

recommends it for: white people who grew up in africa, children of alcoholics

this is the memoir of a white woman who grew up with her family in africa (mozambique, zambia, rhodesia). it was difficult for me to really get into this book because there wasn't really any explanation as to why her parents wanted to live in africa. they were occasionally quoted saying things like, "we want to live where the white people control everything," but obviously that's such an incredibly racist, imperalist sentiment that i can hardly wrap my head around it, & also, if yo...more

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Stacie rated it:

11/06/08

bookshelves: memoir

Alexandra Fuller has shared a world full of life, color and racial tensions. Her memoir follows her childhood in Africa, where she must deal with the tragedies of her family and the danger of political and social backlashes from unsettled African nations.

Fuller pulls readers into her world by exploring the sights and sounds, glorious and horrifying, of all things African. Her descriptions are so powerful that you can almost feel the sweat pouring of her or feel the heat permeating from the hor...more Alexandra Fuller has shared a world full of life, color and racial tensions. Her memoir follows her childhood in Africa, where she must deal with the tragedies of her family and the danger of political and social backlashes from unsettled African nations.

Fuller pulls readers into her world by exploring the sights and sounds, glorious and horrifying, of all things African. Her descriptions are so powerful that you can almost feel the sweat pouring of her or feel the heat permeating from the horse beneath her. The clouds of mosquitoes and bugs are so dense you begin to itch just imagining them.

One of the strongest characters of the book is Fuller’s mother, Nicola. Throughout Fuller’s life, her mother has been at once maniacal, devastated and cheerfully drunk. Although her bouts of insanity are heartbreaking to encounter from the perspective of a young child, it is also reassuring the way Nicola ultimately loved all living creatures, and her children. Three of Nicola’s five children died of various causes. Yet – outside of her several mental episodes – she still managed the farm, was strong-willed and hardworking, and unfailingly loved her husband and children.

Although Fuller and her family were immersed in a country where they were the minority – originally from Scotland – Fuller takes a more subtle approach at exploring racial tensions. In the first part of the book, there are comments made regarding drinking of the same cups as the locals, or Fuller’s poor treatment of her nannies. Fuller is shocked as a child in Zimbabwe when black children begin to attend her all-white school. Soon, she is the minority again, at school and at home.

But with maturity comes a wider view of her surroundings and the poverty that has surrounded them her whole life. At 14, Fuller is first invited into the home of a black African.

"This is not the same as coming uninvited into Africans’ homes, which I have done many times. As a much younger child, I would often eat with my exasperated nannies at the compound (permanently hungry and always demanding), and I had sometimes gone into the laborers’ huts with my mother if she was attending someone too sick to come to the house for treatment. I had ridden horses and bikes and motorbikes through the compounds of the places we had lived, snatching at the flashes of life that were revealed to me before doors were quickly closed, children hidden behind skirts, intimacy swallowed by cloth."

Fuller is touched by the fact that this family has invited her to share food and shade. She is moved by the fact that her hosts are sharing their food, which they have little of, and who are emaciated from hunger. She is taken aback by their poverty. When she leaves, she rushes home to gather clothes and toys to share with the family. Her mother wisely tells her before she leaves that no matter what she does, it won’t go away. “It was there before you noticed… And it will be there after you leave.” This experience presents a very different view to a young Fuller of the Africa she thought she knew.

At times the Fullers have very little social interaction with anyone but their servants and farm workers. This is one of the reasons such a close bond was created between Fuller and her family, especially with her sister Vanessa. Vanessa seemed to be everything Fuller was not: older, feminine, artistic. But they had grown up in the same harsh environment that created a tough core. Their banter was that which only the closest of sisters can experience. In some instances they were downright mean, but this did not stop them from being there for each other in the most distressing of circumstances.

Tim Fuller is the last piece of this complex family puzzle. Not many mentions of him exclude the mention of some type of drink in his hand or a cigarette hanging from his lips, but it is apparent Fuller loves her father very much. No matter the faults of any of the Fuller family members, each are strong, loving people. They have survived death, violence, storms and wars. They moved from one decrepit country to another, but always together....less

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Susan added it

09/23/08

Really loved this book. In fact, as I am writing this I think I will re-read it. Yes, it is that good. It is set in Africa and is a memoir of the author's life growing up there beginning in the 70's. The author lives in Rhodesia at the time that Africa begins to throw off the British empire and becomes Zimbabwe. Her parents are originally from England and her father is a farmer. In the first paragraph of the first chapter, the children are told not to startle her parents while they sleep because...more

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Nadine rated it:

10/16/08

bookshelves: memoir

Read in October, 2008

Well-written, fascinating, and emotional. At first the structure is somewhat confusing, especially the first few chapters, I kept losing track of what year it was and how old the author was at that point. But after a while I settled right in. I was sad when the book ended; it's been a long time since I enjoyed a book that much.

I especially like how the author manages to tell the story through the eyes of a child, but yet makes it clear that she doesn't necessarily agree with all of these ...more

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