Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight (2002), a memoir by the Zimbabwean writer Alexandra Fuller, tells the story of Fuller’s childhood in Zimbabwe—then Rhodesia—on a series of struggling farms. Fuller places her personal recollections of lost siblings and her mother’s alcoholism in the context of Zimbabwe’s political upheaval and the situation of white colonists in Southern Africa. The title alludes to a joke by the writer and humorist A. P. Herbert: “Don't let's go to the dogs tonight, for mother will be there.”

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Central to Fuller’s book is the intense relations between herself and her parents, a chain-smoking father able to turn round any farm in Africa, her glamorous older sister Vanessa, and the character who sits at the heart of the book, Fuller’s "fiercely intelligent, deeply compassionate, surprisingly witty and terrifyingly mad" mother. Suitably dramatic’– Further reinforces the idea of ignorance through her false nobility. The following quote ‘We are prepared to die, you see, to keep one country white-run’ proves that martyrdom and self-sacrifice are not always noble, exploring themes also raised in Persepolis, as Bobo’s mother wishes to give her life for an objectively immoral, even evil, cause. VS Naipaul, in his 1971 Booker Prize-winning novel In a Free State, offered a vision of the future for whites in sub-Saharan Africa in his portrayal of a European couple in flight from civil war. The couple eventually reach a fortified city at the southernmost tip of the unnamed country, where other whites are anxiously clustered and where they speak, as they do today in Cape Town, that last authentic white stronghold in Africa, of atrocities witnessed and prepare for the violence ahead. This is a book which made me laugh out loud lots of times and almost made my cry just as frequently. A follow up biography/autobiography to 'Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight', it has a mood-changing quality which switches from great humour to great sadness. The first book, which I read more than 10 years ago, was dubbed, (understandably, I'd say) by the author's mother as 'That Awful Book'. It is that comment which made me want to read its successor.

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The author is baffled by the wilful eccentricity and stubbornness of her parents and by the strange vacancy of her sister who, she concedes, for most of their time together resided in a place of 'such profound, unreachable pain that she didn't exist for me except as some shadowy, silent, very beautiful unattainable creature'. Define the complex relationship between Bobo and Vanessa. How do the two sisters differ in the ways that they relate to their parents? The quote ‘If we were killed in an ambush or blown up on a mine, we will be wearing clean brookies, our best dresses’ hints at the privilege of white colonialists in Rhodesia: even in death they are above others, wearing symbols of their wealth and status. Additionally the decision to use the more definitive future tense instead of the conditional in this statement emphasises the severity of the danger she faces everyday, and the high risk of death. When they stop a journey at a fancy hotels, the opulence is unfamiliar: "the chairs were swallowingly soft".

So…. I loved the author’s writing style. I loved the humor. What else did I love? Why was it that I could not stop listening? Beside that I though the history of colonial overthrow was expertly woven into the story, and that isn’t so strange since the family lived through these events, it was the understanding of who her mother was that I loved most. Maybe this sounds a little strange, but I like reading books to understand people. I like reading books to understand life, and life throws whoppers at all of us. Doesn’t it? Life is throwing whoppers at this family from day one to the very, very end. This book is a prequel to Alexandra Fuller's previous book, Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight. It tells the story of Nicola Fuller, the author's mother, who was born in Scotland and grew up in Kenya. Nicola was an artistic, humorous, courageous woman with a passion for animals, especially horses. I totally, TOTALLY loved this book!!!!! I know I tshould think a bit before I write something, but I am carried away by my emotions. I love the family, all of them. How can I love them, they are so very far from any way I could live my own life, but nevertheless I love them to pieces. Their lives are hard, but they get through, one step at a time. They know what is important. They don't demand too much. Oh the mother, my heart bled for her. I know she is manic, but who wouldn't be - living through what she does?! Africa is hard, but on the other side I grew to truly love it. OK, I couldn't live there but this author made me love Africa and that is strange because it has so many problems, there is so much wrong, so much that has to be fixed. This time around, as the adult Fuller lays out the timeline for one of the family's most profound tragedies, the drowning of Fuller’s toddler sister, you can practically hear her mother offstage dictating the details of this revisionist version. The parents were absent that terrible day because their oldest child needed school shoes. The neighbor left in charge was a long-trusted family friend. The careful exoneration of the parents ends up sounding understandably forced. And sanitized. And fascinating for the distance between the two accounts. Nicola and her husband, Tim Fuller, have a love of Africa. The author writes, "Land is Mum's love affair and it is Dad's religion." They moved from farm to farm from Kenya to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) to Zambia during the time when colonial rule was ending. During that time they lived through wars and the tragic deaths of three young children. The violent end of colonialism is told through the eyes of a white English/Scotch family.

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My reason for sharing this is simple... I have read Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight not just once, not just twice, but three times! There is no stronger endorsement I personally can give. Alexander Fuller takes risks with her writing and grammar. I found myself marveling at her bravery. It's always risky to deviate from standard writing format. Some people can be put off immediately, but I found it charming.