Memoir Mondays: Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood — Alexandra Fuller
Likely the most famous East Asian author outside of Asia, Murakami’s short memoir alchemizes athletics and writing aesthetics into an impactful portrait of his whole life with distance running as a central metaphor.
Here’s how it CATCHes readers:
Character — Colonialism is often viewed as a period in history where there were no real winners. Obviously this is true for the colonized countries. Sure, the colonizing countries (often Western European nations) saw their economies bolstered by seizing and exploiting foreign countries for resources but as time has gone on and we’ve seen the devastation that came with colonization, these nations have become moral losers. In such a winless battle Alexandra Fuller's choice to tell her novel through the eyes of a hapless child helps us see this colonization conflict anew.
Adventure — Across 1970’s Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe, Fuller’s childhood is as action packed as Marco Polo’s adulthood. There are guns, beasts, political uprisings, and general unrest inside and outside of her various dwellings. Fuller grew up in conditions that would be unimaginable to most of the developed world but by the same token she was exposed to a wild and exciting frontier unlike the well-traveled places in those countries. The young Fuller is raised and shaped by almost constant adventure, large and small, with beautiful and disastrous consequences.
PULL QUOTE:
“I take a few swallows of the meat and bread and then push my plate away. There is a state in African meat sometimes that is strong, like the smell of a sun blown carcass. It is a taste of fright-and-flight and then of the sweat that has come off the hands and brows of the butchers who have cut the beast into pieces. it makes the meat tough and chewy and it jags in my throat when I swallow.”
Tribulation —While Fuller had no choice in where she was raised, her parent’s guaranteed a life for themselves and their children that was as uncomfortable as it was exciting. Economic and agricultural chaos pushes their family well within range of starvation and various unforeseen environmental elements put them at risk of disease and infection without reliable medical care close by. With the safety nets of the developed world gone, Fuller’s family is flying solo in constant stormy weather.
Culture — The redemption for Fuller and her family is in the land and the people of their chosen home. She beautifully retells memories of local customs and the way the sunsets made the land she grew up on glow in a way that nowhere else could. With this region so unfamiliar to most of her readers, she expertly unveils this wild world with a care that reflects how dear the land itself is to her.
Honesty — The toll that this life takes on the Fuller family isn’t a small one. Toward the end of the book, Fuller’s mom is diagnosed with manic depression but shrugs it off by saying “All of us are mad, but I’m the only one with a certificate to prove it.” Laughing off these serious life impediments aren’t just par for the course but an actual requirement for living such a challenging life. There are no rose colored glassed on this childhood but there are genuine attempts to see the humor in the honestly heartbreaking.
CATCH score: 7/10