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Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness
Alexandra Fuller
Penguin Press
September 2011
On Sale: August 23, 2011
256 pages
ISBN: 1594202990
EAN: 9781594202995
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Memoir
In this sequel to Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight,
Alexandra Fuller returns to Africa and the story of her
unforgettable family. In Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness Alexandra
Fuller braids a multilayered narrative around the perfectly
lit, Happy Valley-era Africa of her mother's childhood; the
boiled cabbage grimness of her father's English childhood;
and the darker, civil war- torn Africa of her own childhood.
At its heart, this is the story of Fuller's mother, Nicola.
Born on the Scottish Isle of Skye and raised in Kenya,
Nicola holds dear the kinds of values most likely to get you
hurt or killed in Africa: loyalty to blood, passion for
land, and a holy belief in the restorative power of all
animals. Fuller interviewed her mother at length and has
captured her inimitable voice with remarkable precision.
Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness is as funny,
terrifying, exotic, and unselfconscious as Nicola herself. We see Nicola and Tim Fuller in their lavender-colored
honeymoon period, when east Africa lies before them with all
the promise of its liquid equatorial light, even as the
British empire in which they both believe wanes. But in
short order, an accumulation of mishaps and tragedies bump
up against history until the couple finds themselves in a
world they hardly recognize. We follow the Fullers as they
hopscotch the continent, running from war and unspeakable
heartbreak, from Kenya to Rhodesia to Zambia, even returning
to England briefly. But just when it seems that Nicola has
been broken entirely by Africa, it is the African earth
itself that revives her. A story of survival and madness, love and war, loyalty and
forgiveness, Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness
is an intimate exploration of the author's family. In the
end we find Nicola and Tim at a coffee table under their
Tree of Forgetfulness on the banana and fish farm where they
plan to spend their final days. In local custom, the Tree of
Forgetfulness is where villagers meet to resolve disputes
and it is here that the Fullers at last find an African kind
of peace. Following the ghosts and dreams of memory,
Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness is Alexandra
Fuller at her very best.
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