This book is a contradiction. Its timely subject matter of African
poverty war and race oppression are very serious yet it is a very moving,
intensely funny, read because of Alexandra Fuller's wonderfully droll, and
truthful narrative. She reveals the love she has for her homeland and the
hopes she has for its future. Born and bred on African soil she is the
youngest daughter of white farmers who settled in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe,
during Rhodesia's civil war. Its a crude rural life for the author and her
older sister Nicola where children over five learned how to strip and clean
guns as well as how to shoot to kill. Ms. Fuller describes her hippie drunk
racists parents with a loving touch that makes you fall in love with them
despite their flaws. This book is a born classic. Readers will want to
revisit her dysfunctional but brave family frequently. I love this book. Our
family is a reading family. We share a book with the rest of the family if
it is a book we like. My mother first read this book and told me so much
about it, I became interested. After I read it, I gave it to my father to
read and he loved it too. Alexandra Fuller is a gifted writer. She takes you
into her world placing you in the middle of Zimbabwe's heat and oppression
with her family. You cry with her family through all their defeats and laugh
with them through all her family's crazy exploits. But mostly you learn to
love them despite the flaws. I am looking forward to Ms. Fuller's next book.