Sunday, October 19, 2008

Another Quotable Author

I just finished reading "Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight." It's marvelous. An honest writer, narrating her childhood without apology. She explained at the book's end how she'd quit trying to write the Africa book that seemed made-to-order to the world's expectations and wrote the Africa book she needed to write, the powerful one that I loved reading. I apologize in advance to my family for the actions this inspiration may bring out in me. If you're a regular reader, you know that I have a hardcore backstory to cover one of these days, because of course, L'il Marie existed long before travel blogs and Dik-Dik books, and the Adult Marie stories got nothin' on L'il Marie stories.

I made the decision, then, to write my life exactly as it had been: passionate wonderful, troubled, oppresive, chaotic, beautiful. Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight is the story that was born of that decision. It is not a political story or the story of Empire. It is the story of how one African came to terms with her family's troubled history; it is a love story for the continent."

-Alexandra Fuller, author of Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

yo go girl. cover that backstory - unapologetically.

Kevie Metal said...

Any time anybody says, "I apologize in advance to my family," I'm pretty much on he hook.

Marie Javins said...

Says Kevin, who happens to know a lot more about my backstory than most.

Dick -Photographer said...

This was a great book, is among many I have read by African authors. I really enjoyed your Dik Dik book, many of your adventures in Africa were similar to some of my own. I would love to another book with your story.

Marie Javins said...

Dick, I agree about "Dogs." It was fabulous and insightful and fascinating.

Thank you for the compliment. I have a few more books worth of personal material, but it will get harder to write every time. The "Dogs" book inspires me...