When Alexandra "Bo" Fuller was in Zambia a few years ago visiting her parents, she asked her father about a nearby banana farmer who was known for being a "tough bugger". Her father's response was a warning to steer clear of him: "Curiosity scribbled the cat," he told Bo.
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Thomas Wolfe's trusted axiom about not being able to go home again gets a compelling spin through the African veldt in Alexandra Fuller's Scribbling the Cat: Travels with an African Soldier. Fuller (Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood) journeys through modern Zambia, to battlefields in Zimbabwe and Mozambique with the scarred veteran of the Rhodesian Wars she identifies only as "K". Intrigued by the mysterious neighbour of her parent's Zambian fish farm and further enticed by her father's warning that "curiosity scribbled the cat" ("scribbling" is Afrikaans slang for "killing"), Fuller embarks on a journey that covers as much cratered psychic landscape as it does African bush country. Though she and "K" are both African by family roots rather than blood, she quickly discovers that 30 years of civil war have scarred them--and the indigenous peoples they encounter--in markedly different ways. "K" is a figure of monumental tragedy, a decent man torn by war-fuelled rage, a failed marriage and painful memories of an only son lost to tropical disease. His adopted Christianity offers him only partial absolution, and Fuller details his gut-wrenching confessions of quarter-century old atrocities with compassion and rare insight. Her prose liberally salted with a rich, melange of Afrikaans and local Shona slang, Fuller nonetheless struggles with a narrative whose turns are often unexpected, yet driven by humanity. There's a clear sense that the author's fitful journey into the past with "K" has opened as many wounds as it has healed, and spawned more questions than it has answered. It's that discomfort and frustration that often reinforces the honesty of her prose--and reinforces Thomas Wolfe's adage yet again. --Jerry McCulley, Amazon.com
Review
Searing, at times intoxicating prose . . . striking, intimately revealing . . . ("The Washington Post") "Scribbling the Cat" defies easy definition . . . [a] wild-hearted beauty of a book. ("O, The Oprah Magazine")
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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BECAUSE IT IS THE LAND that grew me, and because they are my people, I sometimes forget to be astonished by Africans. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
BECAUSE IT IS THE LAND that grew me, and because they are my people, I sometimes forget to be astonished by Africans. Read the first page
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
32 of 32 people found the following review helpful
By Is
Format:Paperback
Alexandra Fuller grew up in Rhodesia, a country that doesn't exist anymore. Her memoir "Don't Let's Go To the Dogs Tonight" was published a couple of years back, an honest, thoughtful story told in the easy flow of a natural writer. At the centre of that book was the description of her parents; hard-drinking and tough white farmers, leading what would be a life of hardship according to European standards, but luxury compared with what most people around them faced. It seemed striking how ready Fuller was to expose her family; it was, obviously, also what made it a compelling book.
In "Scribbling the Cat", it's once again this willingness to pin down the often unpalatable attitudes of her fellow white Africans without much moralising that turns it into an uncomfortable but honest read. On a visit back to Zambia, where her parents have washed up following Zimbabwe's independence, Fuller meets a veteran of that war, only referred to as K. Hiding his name seems to be a strange concession to anonymity, because Fuller exposes everything else about him; theirs is the vulnerable relationship between a person and his biographer, and Fuller writes compassionately but incisively about K's violent past.
However, she is much more reticent and protective of her own emotions and reactions. For example, is she infatuated by K, as some passages in the beginning hint? Or is she merely interested in his story? At no point does she indulge herself in lengthy condemnations of what K has done: she seems to accept that his guilt is hers as well, not as a white girl in Africa, but as a person, full stop. This is what we're all capable of, is the harsh message of the book; in certain circumstances, most men are capable of murder, of torturing women to death. Is that moral laxity? Or once again, is it just the truth? I have no answer myself, but I can't shake off the question.
The two of them end up journeying back to Mozambique in some vague quest for K to confront his demons. Fuller is an evocative writer, maybe sometimes a little bit too flowery, but always adept at recreating an atmosphere. This is a world she knows very well, but also one that she has left behind, so her eyes are both those of an insider and an observer... surely the perfect vantage point for a travel writer!
It's a pacey read, carrying the reader along effortlessly, but comes to a rather abrupt end. Their journey is interrupted. Suddenly they are home. Nothing has been really resolved, neither regarding the intriguing relationship between K and Fuller, or K and his past. Maybe that's another sign of Fuller's honesty? Or the clever make-do of a woman who grew up in Africa, and knows how to find a lot in a little?
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
By J. LESTER
Format:Paperback
In her first book, I really liked Fuller both as a "character" and an author. In this book, however, we see a more ruthless side to her character in her attempts to get under the skin of "K".
K is a, white, former soldier in the Rhodesian Independance War and the other conflicts that spilled over into neighbouring countries. It is K who first gave Fuller the premise for this book, and after a series of meetings at her parent's farm in Zambia, they undertook a trip across K's former battlefields in Zimbabwe and Mozambique. This all starts out fairly predictably, although not in a bad way, with many harrowing recollections from both K and the author about the war and it's effects on them.
The analysis of the events that took place during the war, and their effects on them as people are the many focus of the book; however in the final third it starts to concentrate more on the present and the relationship between K and Fuller. This leads to a final showdown which puts the whole book, and Fuller's motives, into question.
That being said, however, it is a very interesting story which manages to combine a good story with a historically informative story.
A Highly recommended read, even if an, at times, uncomfortable one.
K is a, white, former soldier in the Rhodesian Independance War and the other conflicts that spilled over into neighbouring countries. It is K who first gave Fuller the premise for this book, and after a series of meetings at her parent's farm in Zambia, they undertook a trip across K's former battlefields in Zimbabwe and Mozambique. This all starts out fairly predictably, although not in a bad way, with many harrowing recollections from both K and the author about the war and it's effects on them.
The analysis of the events that took place during the war, and their effects on them as people are the many focus of the book; however in the final third it starts to concentrate more on the present and the relationship between K and Fuller. This leads to a final showdown which puts the whole book, and Fuller's motives, into question.
That being said, however, it is a very interesting story which manages to combine a good story with a historically informative story.
A Highly recommended read, even if an, at times, uncomfortable one.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
By Turner
Format:Hardcover
Well I got hooked after reading Let's Not Go The Dogs Tonight and I am glad I bought this book. Alexandra revisits Africa again and the brutal day to day existence is recounted with searing honesty and yet she manages to infuse some homour in it too. You feel as though you are there with her and you cant help fall in love with her. The magic in her story telling is she manages to come across as the vulnerable lost girl and you can't but help want to wrap her in your arms and protect her. You will laugh at her encounter with the mad white man and his pet lion and it just goes on and on. I can't wait for her next book!!!!!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
good but *so* harrowing
I agree with "Heart of Darkness": this is a well written book that explores the heart of darkness we fear we all have, and does not judge. Read more
Published on 3 May 2011 by Florence
4.0 out of 5 stars
A fierce passionate tale of war and redemption
On a visit to her parent's farm in Zambia, Zimbabwean author Alexandra Fuller encounters the enigmatic K, a crazed, battle-scarred veteran of the Rhodesian war and a devout... Read more
Published on 21 Feb 2010 by K. Whalley
4.0 out of 5 stars
Emotional scars
Scribbling the Cat: Travels with an African Soldier
Alexandra Fuller, who wrote Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight about family life in Rhodesia, Malawi and Zambia, now... Read more
Alexandra Fuller, who wrote Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight about family life in Rhodesia, Malawi and Zambia, now... Read more
Published on 11 Nov 2009 by SusieH
5.0 out of 5 stars
superb
Scribbling the Cat: Travels with an African Soldier
Astonishing, moving, transporting, funny and a thoroughly good read.
Astonishing, moving, transporting, funny and a thoroughly good read.
Published on 15 July 2008 by Jane
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good but....
Her first book was quite fantastic. The second good, brilliant in parts but not throughout. She has chosen an extraordinarily difficult subject who is clearly a closed and... Read more
Published on 11 Sep 2007 by Mr. LGD Williams
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding descriptions
I would highly recommend reading both "Don't Let's Go To The Dogs Tonight" followed quickly by "Scribbling the Cat". Read more
Published on 6 Aug 2005 by Mrs. Katharine Kirby
5.0 out of 5 stars
Crashing Headlong Into Terra Incognita
What is most striking about a book that contains multitudes of gob smacking passages is Alexandra (Bobo) Fullers excruciating honesty. Read more
Published on 23 May 2004 by Sara Burlingame
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