“Once again, Alexandra Fuller returns to the Africa of her first book, Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight. This time, however, she writes from an adult’s view, and the focus of the book is her indomitable mother, who describes herself as “Nicola Fuller of Central Africa.” Mother describes the author’s first memoir as ‘Another Awful Book,’ yet exhorts her to write this second one. Here, Fuller plumbs her parents’ memories as well as her own and recounts their history of failed farms, frequent moves, striving to maintain their colonialism against the rising tide of rebellion. Fiercely African, one million percent Scottish highlander, Nicola Fuller is vain, opinionated, brave, politically incorrect, tragic and yet admirable. Three of her five children die in infancy. Each time she and her family move to another farm, another country, she sheds more of her treasures, until at last, only the blackened, orange Le Creuset pots remain. And yet, she and her husband continue on, finally settling on a farm in Zambia where they successfully raise bananas and fish and enjoy their cocktails under the tree of forgetfulness. Funny, heartbreaking and fascinating. I am so interested in the stories of white Africans who are, but aren’t, natives, no matter how long they live on the continent.”—Barb, Paulina Springs Books, with locations in Sisters and Redmond, OR. Buy Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness from Paulina Springs Books.
Face Out
Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller
September 16, 2011