Book Review: Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller

Monday 22 August, 2011 by 9 Comments

Title: Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness
Author: Alexandra Fuller
Publisher: Penguin Press HC
Publication Date: August 23, 2011
Hardcover: 256 pages
ISBN: 978-1594202995
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir

From the Publisher:

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.

My Review:

Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller is a moving and descriptive story of the author’s family as it struggled through adversity.  Fuller eloquently captures much of her mother’s (Nicola Fuller) thoughts through extensive interviews and in her expertly crafted writing, brings to life the challenges faced by her parents in eastern Africa.  This is the second of her memoirs and considered a sequel of sorts to her first Don’t Let’s go to the Dogs Tonight, which I think explains why I had a difficult time completely following Fuller’s writing at times, yet there were so many poignant moments that left me awestruck to witness the incredible story of the Fuller’s.  This is a true story about survival, war, commitment, heartbreak and redemption and is told through the eyes of one who witnessed and penned by her daughter in well-crafted prose.  Like taking a personally-guided tour of Africa, Fuller brings to life her mother’s story and chronicles her life from the 1940’s through to the present day.  For readers looking for a story of family strength and triumph amidst adversity, I recommend Alexandra Fuller’s Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness but suggest readers consider first reading Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight.

About the Author:

Alexandra Fuller was born in England in 1969. In 1972, she moved with her family to a farm in southern Africa. She lived in Africa until her midtwenties. In 1994, she moved to Wyoming with her husband. They have three children.

To learn more about Alexandra Fuller, please visit her website: alexandrafuller.org

For more reviews of the book, please follow the TLC Book Tour.

I received a complimentary ARC of Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.


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Book Review: The Convert by Deborah Baker

Thursday 18 August, 2011 by 2 Comments

Title: The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism
Author: Deborah Baker
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Publication Date: May 10, 2011
Hardcover: 224 pages
ISBN: 978-1555975821
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir, Islam


From the Publisher:

What drives a young woman raised in a postwar New York City suburb to convert to Islam, abandon her country and Jewish faith, and embrace a life of exile in Pakistan? The Convert tells the story of how Margaret Marcus of Larchmont became Maryam Jameelah of Lahore, one of the most trenchant and celebrated voices of Islam’s argument with the West.

A cache of Maryam’s letters to her parents in the archives of the New York Public Library sends acclaimed biographer Deborah Baker (In Extremis: The Life of Laura Riding) on her own odyssey into the labyrinthine heart of twentieth-century century Islam. Casting a shadow over these letters is the mysterious figure of Mawlana Abul Ala Mawdudi, both Maryam’s adoptive father and the man who laid the intellectual foundations for militant Islam.

As she assembles the pieces of a singularly perplexing life, Baker finds herself captive to questions raised by Maryam’s journey. Is her story just another bleak chapter in a so-called clash of civilizations? Or does it signify something else entirely? And is the life depicted in Maryam’s letters home and in her books an honest reflection of the one she lived?

My Review:

The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism by Deborah Baker is a thought provoking and gripping novel about a young woman who is drawn from her Jewish faith and into Islam. Maryam, as readers will soon become aware, abandoned her faith in the 1950s, yet the story is highly relevant today at a time when the United States is in post-9/11 turmoil over religious and cultural differences. Baker has some important points to make in this story of ideology, rejection and transformation as readers will discover the importance of respecting historical differences as a deterrent to conflict and violence. It is here where I think Baker’s truly masterful writing makes its largest impact. Of additional import is her examination of the factors that lead Maryam into a radical perversion of her newly professed Islamic faith. The Convert is an excellent non-fiction work that is timely in its appearance, historical in its time period, and captivating as it seeks a deeper understanding of religious faith and ideology. The Convert by Deborah Baker would make in interesting choice for book discussion groups.

About the Author:

Deborah Baker is the author of In Extremis: The Life of Laura Riding, a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize, as well as A Blue Hand: The Beats in India. She divides her time between Calcutta, Goa, and Brooklyn.

I received a complimentary copy of The Convert by Deborah Baker from Graywolf Press. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned novel.


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Book Review: How To Love An American Man by Kristine Gasbarre

Wednesday 17 August, 2011 by 7 Comments

Title: How To Love An American Man
Author: Kristine Gasbarre
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Publication Date: August 16, 2011
Paperback: 304 pages
ISBN: 978-0061997396
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir

From the Publisher:

Kristine Gasbarre made a New York career of dating driven, inaccessible men. When she realizes her love life will never result in happiness if she continues on the same path, she makes a big decision—relocating to Italy to discover her roots and find out what defines her adoring grandpa. But upon receiving the news of his sudden passing, she is lured away.

With nowhere left to go, Krissy returns to her small hometown for the first time in a decade to help care for her grandmother—a refined, private matriarch suffering from early dementia along with the loss of her husband. In her reluctant agreement to share the nearly lost love stories and transformative lessons from her rich sixty-year marriage, Krissy’s grandma becomes the one offering comfort as she coaches her granddaughter through the fear of loving. Grandma’s unapologetic femininity and secret giving spirit opens Krissy’s eyes about relationships, teaching her the single most important requisite for loving a man: first a woman has to learn the power of her own inner beauty.

My Review:

How to Love an American Man by Kristine Gasbarre is a thoughtful and honest memoir about relationships and how the author learned the most valuable lessons about them from her grandmother.  Readers will learn how Gasbarre had difficulty in her relationships with men and rather than blaming others for her failures and misgivings, she turns to her recently widowed grandmother for a steady hand in life.  The memoir is well-written without superfluous passages and refreshing for its honesty as Gasbarre does not make excuses but instead seeks answers, opens her mind to others, and learns to become introspective.  Readers will feel close to the grandmother as she, suffering from her own very emotional loss at the death of her husband of sixty years, lends her heart, experience, and wisdom to her granddaughter.  Gasbarre ultimately shows her readers how she went to help her ailing and grieving grandmother and wound up helping her in ways that could not have been foretold.  Gasbarre was drawn to her grandmother in a time of need, yet she also provided her grandmother with something that was recently lost; that feeling when someone needed her.  How To Love an American Man is a good choice for those looking for an uplifting memoir.

About the Author:

Kristine Gasbarre lives in Brooklyn, New York, and is a celebrity interviewer and a culture and lifestyle contributor to women’s publications. She is a graduate of John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio, and Fordham University in New York City, with degrees in psychology and media studies. Her last name is pronounced the Italian way, except in her hometown, where it rhymes with “raspberry.”

To learn more about author Kristine Gasbarre please visit her website at: www.kristinegasbarre.com/

For more reviews of the book, please follow the TLC Book Tour.

I received a copy of How to Love an American Man by Kristine Gasbarre from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.


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Book Review: Wendy and the Lost Boys by Judy Salamon

Tuesday 16 August, 2011 by 6 Comments

Title: Wendy and the Lost Boys: The Uncommon Life of Wendy Wasserstein
Author: Judy Salamon
Publisher: Penguin Press HC
Publication Date: August 18, 2011
Hardcover: 480 pages
ISBN: 978-1594202988
Genre: Biography

A snippet from the Publisher’s book description:

The authorized biography of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Wendy Wasserstein.

In Wendy and the Lost Boys bestselling author Julie Salamon explores the life of playwright Wendy Wasserstein’s most expertly crafted character: herself. The first woman playwright to win a Tony Award, Wendy Wasserstein was a Broadway titan. But with her high- pitched giggle and unkempt curls, she projected an image of warmth and familiarity. Everyone knew Wendy Wasserstein. Or thought they did.

My Review:

Wendy and the Lost Boys by Julie Salamon is a compelling biography of the great playwright Wendy Wasserstein, chronicling much of this fascinating woman’s life through access to the personal correspondence and notes of the late playwright.  Readers will be exposed to the less public persona of Wasserstein, seeing her amidst the sea of achievements garnered by her brothers and sisters and how she struggled for identity throughout much of her life.  It becomes abundantly clear from the careful research by Salamon and her telling of the story of Wasserstein’s life that this remarkable woman chose theatre as her podium from which to show the world who she was, how she was influenced, and the people who changed her in profound ways.  Readers will relish the successes in Wasserstein’s career, including The Heidi Chronicles and Uncommon Women and Others, beam with her in the love she shared with others, and cry with her through her darkest moments.  Salamon has captured the essence of Wendy Wasserstein and brings the playwright’s life to center stage in Wendy and the Lost Boys, a story only previously revealed through her dramatic tales played out by others and now told through a gifted author whose meticulous research has made the story possible.  I recommend this biography, Wendy and the Lost Boys, to all readers.

About the Author:

Julie Salamon is the author of Hospital, about Maimonides Hospital, as well as the New York Times bestselling The Christmas Tree; the true-crime book Facing the Wind; the novel White Lies; the film classic The Devil’s Candy; a family memoir The Net of Dreams; and Rambam’s Ladder. Previously a reporter and culture writer for the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, she has also written for Vanity Fair, Vogue, and The New Republic. She lives in New York City.

To learn more about Judy Salamon and her books, please visit her website: juliesalamon.com.

For more reviews of the book, please follow the TLC Book Tour.

I received a copy of Wendy and the Lost Boys by Judy Salamon from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.


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Book Review: Let’s Take the Long Way Home by Gail Caldwell

Friday 12 August, 2011 by 6 Comments

Title: Let’s Take the Long Way Home
Author: Gail Caldwell
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks; Reprint edition
Publication Date: August 9, 2011
Paperback: 224 pages
ISBN: 978-0812979114
Genre:  Memoir

From the Publisher:

They met over their dogs. Gail Caldwell and Caroline Knapp (author of Drinking: A Love Story) became best friends, talking about everything from their love of books and their shared history of a struggle with alcohol to their relationships with men. Walking the woods of New England and rowing on the Charles River, these two private, self-reliant women created an attachment more profound than either of them could ever have foreseen. Then, several years into this remarkable connection, Knapp was diagnosed with cancer. With her signature exquisite prose, Caldwell mines the deepest levels of devotion, and courage in this gorgeous memoir about treasuring a best friend, and coming of age in midlife. Let’s Take the Long Way Home is a celebration of the profound transformations that come from intimate connection—and it affirms, once again, why Gail Caldwell is recognized as one of our bravest and most honest literary voices.

My Review:

Let’s Take the Long Way Home by Gail Caldwell is a beautiful and heartbreaking memoir about the author’s friendship with fellow writer Caroline Knapp.  In what could only be described as a poignant and heartfelt account of life, loss, grief and healing, Caldwell tells of how she and Knapp became friends, how the common threads that brought them together closed a vast divide in their respective upbringings.  Readers will delight in the flowing and descriptive prose that Caldwell pens about and reflects upon the moments that built her friendship and how these moments, ones that may be difficult to recognize at the time because they are the ones we often take for granted, are truly the ones that matter.  While very sad at times, Let’s Take the Long Way Home offers a piece of Caldwell’s heart to her readers, lending her deepest thoughts, her best moments and those that were so painful.  This memoir shows how it is the way in which we cherish our moments that give us our strength, how these moments prepare us for those times when all seems lost, and how the bonds of friendship prevail even through death.  I highly recommend Let’s Take the Long Way Home to all readers and think discussion groups looking for an emotional memoir with strong lessons will enjoy this book.

About the Author:

Gail Caldwell is the former chief book critic for The Boston Globe, where she was a staff writer and critic for more than twenty years. In 2001, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. She is also the author of A Strong West Wind, a memoir of her native Texas. Caldwell lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

For more reviews of the book, please follow the TLC Book Tour.

I received a copy of Let’s Take the Long Way Home by Gail Caldwell from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.


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