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The tone of this memoir of "an African childhood" is set in the very first lines:
Mum says, "Don't come creeping into our room at night."
They sleep with loaded guns beside them on the bedside rugs. She says, "Don't startle us when we're sleeping."
"Why not?"
"We might shoot you."
"Oh."
"By mistake."
"Okay." As it is, there seems a good enough chance of getting shot on purpose. "Okay, I won't."
Dangerous, slightly insane, quite funny. That's her childhood in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). My first impression ...more
Mum says, "Don't come creeping into our room at night."
They sleep with loaded guns beside them on the bedside rugs. She says, "Don't startle us when we're sleeping."
"Why not?"
"We might shoot you."
"Oh."
"By mistake."
"Okay." As it is, there seems a good enough chance of getting shot on purpose. "Okay, I won't."
Dangerous, slightly insane, quite funny. That's her childhood in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). My first impression ...more
I think "incongruent memoirs" (if that's a thing) is my new favorite genre. I finished "Educated: A Memoir" by Tara Westover a few weeks before finishing this gem. (Thanks to the What Should I Read Next? podcast for the suggestions.
There's something about a fish-out-of-water story that is so entertaining. Be it a rural, homeschooled Idahoan at Cambridge, or in Alexandra Fuller's case, a white African growing up during the Zimbabwean war for independence, their stories are tragic comedies--in a w ...more
There's something about a fish-out-of-water story that is so entertaining. Be it a rural, homeschooled Idahoan at Cambridge, or in Alexandra Fuller's case, a white African growing up during the Zimbabwean war for independence, their stories are tragic comedies--in a w ...more
Anything set in Africa appeals to me and this family story was a great read. A childhood in Africa is like no other. She wrote another bio as an adult which has a very different tone as the Africa of her childhood was no more.33
a wonderful book for anyone enamored w/ an African childhood. Magical, passionate, humorous, brutal, brutallly beautiful. A different view of life in Africa than I'm used to seeing.
...more
Interesting. Wow, tough life, but a dose of humor.
May 22, 2008
Kristi
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Deborah Wells
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Cheryl
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Candace Petersen Martineau
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Diana
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