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Scribbling the Cat: Travels with an African Soldier
 
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Scribbling the Cat: Travels with an African Soldier (Hardcover)

by Alexandra Fuller (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Picador; First Edition edition (3 Sep 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 033043327X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0330433273
  • Product Dimensions: 22.4 x 13.8 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 275,965 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
These days, powerfully evocative personal memoirs like Alexandra Fuller's Scribbling the Cat are so plentiful, it would be tempting to think that such quality writing is the norm. Generally, it isn't--but on the strength of this book and Fuller's equally impressive Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, this is an author from whom we may expect only the best.

The first book, a childhood memoir, brought the author's childhood experiences as a young white girl living on a farm in Rhodesia (and suffering through the Civil War) vividly to life; the new book has Alexandra Fuller (known as 'Bo') taking a journey to her parents' farm in Zambia and finding things very changed. She encounters the beguiling and attractive neighbour of her parents, 'K', who has lived life on the edge. He entrances Alexandra with descriptions of the turbulent life he has led, and the two form a bond, attempting to forge a shared approach to life and love in a land that is tearing itself apart with civil strife.

In her atmospheric and subtle prose, Fuller pulls off something of a juggling act here: while the relationship between herself and the conflicted, seductive 'K' is foregrounded, with every nuance of emotion between the two subtly delineated, the reader is simultaneously granted a picture of a country in strife that misses nary a detail in its careful but discursive line drawing. The author may have settled down to family life in Wyoming, but it's impossible not to feel that this was clearly the most significant period of her life--and her sharing of that time with the reader in this finely–honed book is something for which we may be grateful. --Barry Forshaw

Product Description
Like all the veterans of the war, K has blood on his hands. Driven by K's memories, Fuller and K decide to enter the heart of darkness in the most literal way, by travelling from Zambia through Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) and Mozambique to visit the scenes of the war and to meet other veterans. What results from Fuller's journey is a remarkably unbiased and unsentimental glimpse at life in Africa, a land that besets its creatures with pests, plagues, and natural disasters, making the people there at once more hardened and more vulnerable than elsewhere.

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Scribbling the Cat: Travels with an African Soldier
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Scribbling the Cat: Travels with an African Soldier 4.7 out of 5 stars (7)
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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Heart of Darkness, 10 Aug 2005
By Is (Tokyo) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Scribbling the Cat: Travels with an African Soldier (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?

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars beautiful, honest, sad, funny!, 14 Jan 2005
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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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding descriptions, 6 Aug 2005
By Mrs. Katharine Kirby "Kate" (HELSTON, Cornwall United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Scribbling the Cat: Travels with an African Soldier (Paperback)
I would highly recommend reading both "Don't Let's Go To The Dogs Tonight" followed quickly by "Scribbling the Cat". That way you would be at home with Bobo - Alexandra Fuller - and her strange and quirky life, without trying to work out whether she was just downright brave or stupidly unaware. (Very, very brave) Also the setting is complicated it is worth looking up in an Atlas if you aren't familiar with Zimbabwe and Mozambique. As in the first book the accompanying photos are of poor quality and have a 'looking through Granny's album' feel although there are some very odd ones to get you in the mood. Anyway you won't find a picture of "K" as AF explains, she covers her tracks. This book is rich in atmosphere and the descriptions are beautiful. AF has a finely tuned ear for dialect and idiosyncratic expression. This sets the mood perfectly. "K" is barely controlled and rather frightening, you wonder if AF recognises the power of the embers that she is poking. I liked the way in which she points out that "It should not be physically possible to get from the banks of the Pepani River to Wyoming in less than two days, because mentally and emotionally it is impossible". This explains why wherever she is she feels "exiled by who I was". That was well put. Read this book alone for the wonderful descriptions of the lion Mambo and the introductions to the dogs she meets, the fishermen in the night and the kindness of the strangers that she meets. Cigarettes assume a whole new role as currency, inspect repellents, hunger suppressants and sedatives. Throughout the theme is of the soldiers' memories, erupting into their dreams, ghastly confessions of war crimes and efforts to put themselves right after all the horror are shaming to anyone who agrees and promotes war without considering the men that have to fight them. A most unusual, rich read with high educational value. I loved it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars superb
Scribbling the Cat: Travels with an African Soldier
Astonishing, moving, transporting, funny and a thoroughly good read.
Published 12 months ago 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 22 months ago by Mr. LGD Williams

5.0 out of 5 stars Another good, if uncomfortable, read by Fuller
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... Read more
Published on 11 May 2007 by J. LESTER

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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