Apparently Alexandra Fuller’s first memoir, Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, caused a bit of strife between her and her mother (who refers to herself as Nicola Fuller of Central Africa, and to Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight as “that Awful Book”, which cracked me up on multiple occasions). Not surprising, since Nicola does not come off as the greatest mother in that book. A lot of fun, perhaps, but not the nurturing type. In Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, Alexandra delves a bit more […]
A memoir so good that I immediately got copies of her other two!
“How you see a country depends on whether you are driving through it, or live in it. How you see a country depends on whether or not you can leave it, if you have to.” Alexandra Fuller grew up in Africa, the daughter of a manic depressive alcoholic mother, and a father who scratched out a living on various farms while also serving in the army, fighting the rebellion in order to ensure white rule. She and her older sister Vanessa learned how to kill […]
“Gold is the corpse of value…”
This book is a marathon, not a sprint. I listened to the audio version, which was something like 48 hours long. It did take about eight or nine hours to really grab my attention, but once it did, I was hooked! “Unfortunately, this category of secret is itself so secret that it’s very existence is secret, and he can’t actually reveal it to anyone.” Cryptonomicon takes place in two different eras, with a collection of kind of related people occupying each. In the 1940s, we […]
“Of course I loved books more than people.”
A couple of you recommended this one, and I’m so glad you did! It was a great read — full of books, mysteries and secrets. “All children mythologize their birth. It is a universal trait. You want to know someone? Heart, mind and soul? Ask him to tell you about when he was born. What you get won’t be the truth: it will be a story. And nothing is more telling than a story.” Reclusive author Vida Winter has tapped a young biographer named Margaret […]