- Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller was published in August 2011
- Publisher: Penguin
- 256 Pages
Alexandra Fuller is the author of critically acclaimed memoirs about her family and time growing up in Central Africa, including Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight. Fuller's mother Nicola, however, will only refer to Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight as the "Awful Book," presumably for the unflinching family portrait it contains. Both Fuller's parents are the -- presumably willing -- subjects of her newest book, Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness. The eponymous Tree of Forgetfulness is on the Zambia banana farm of Nicola and Tim Fuller, and Fuller sits with her parents under the tree revisiting their stories of their life as white immigrants to an Africa when the continent was undergoing massive upheaval.
Not surprisingly, their lives are fascinating to follow, and Fuller fills Cocktail Hour with plenty of unforgettable detail, including her mother's chimpanzee best friend named Stephen Foster -- they dressed in matching rompers. There was plenty of tragedy, too, and things the family might rather forget.
It's hard to know whether Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness is so charming and absorbing because of the stories it tells or because of the both charming and bracing writing style of Fuller. She does an admirable job combining the funny and sweet details with the harsh realities of life in Central Africa. Fans of Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight should not miss Fuller's follow up.
