Every sentence that Alexandra Fuller writes in this sequel to her memoir Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight displays such candor, sincerity, intimacy and unashamed delight in the eccentricities of her family that she renders all the Fullers irresistible.
At first glance, one might consider Nicola Christine Victoria Huntingford Fuller and Timothy Donald Fuller indifferent or careless parents and alcoholics, perhaps even certifiable. A closer look reveals a great love story that includes huge amounts of loyalty and forgiveness, a capacity to come back from heartbreak and a dogged belief that they have a home in Africa, rather than their birth countries of England and Scotland.
Nicola, as a former child of adversity, put up with her family moving around Africa, running from war and the loss of three children. The only survivor other than Alexandra is her older sister, Vanessa, whose eccentricity is her insistence that she cannot read. Nicola suffered periodic bouts of absolute madness, but continued to hope that the next move would be the right one. When asked why they kept going back, she says: "It was Africa, that was the main thing--we wanted to go back to Africa. We longed for the warmth and freedom, the real open spaces, the wild animals, the sky at night."
The perfect equatorial light of Africa is mentioned several times and, at the end, sitting under the Tree of Forgetfulness on their banana and fish farm in Zambia, Fuller helps us see it. Within it, her parents are finally at home. The reader is captivated by their humor, courage under fire, perseverance and overarching love for the land they've made their own: Africa. --Valerie Ryan, Cannon Beach Book Company, Ore.