Title: Leaving Before the Rains Come
ISBN: 9781473521032
Pages: 272 pages
How I
Read It: ARC ebook
Genre: autobiography,
memoir, nonfiction, relationships, African culture
My Rating: four cups
Synopsis:
"I believed that if I moored myself to Charlie, I would
know tranquillity interspersed with organized adventure. He would stay in
Zambia because he loved the romance of it. I could remain here, safely. Our
lives would be the 'three rifles, supplies for a month and Mozart' of Out of
Africa without the plane crashes, syphilis and Danish accent." In 1992
Alexandra Fuller embarked on a new journey, into a long, tempestuous marriage
to Charlie Ross, the love of her life. In this frank, personal memoir, a sequel
to Don't Let's Go To The Dogs Tonight, she charts their twenty years together,
from the brutal beauty of the Zambezi to the mountains of Wyoming - the new
adventures, the unexplored paths, the insurmountable obstacles ...and the many
signals that they missed along the way.
My thoughts:
“The truth is, most of the things that change the course of
our lives, happen in fleeting unguarded moments; grief buckling us at the
knees; fear shattering through us like buckshot; love pulling us out on an
unseen tide”.
Having read Fuller’s books
before, I was really excited to get the chance to read her newest memoir. This
time around Fuller examines her life once more from her marriage and the
factors that led to its dissolution.
“At night our sighs and exhaustion left our mouths and settled
over our bodies: a cloud of unmet expectations, a threatening storm of unbroken
promises, a low-pressure system of the unsaid”.
Let me say from the outset, I
love Fuller’s writing. For even though it is once again an examination of her
upbringing and life, she conveys it so well, that if she wrote it on the back
of a paper bag I would read it. I am
never disappointed as she captures the essence of not only Africa but how that
impacted upon the way she views the world and her approach to life.
“What did I know about the fifty-five (give or take) countries
of Africa? I carried within me one deep personal thread of one small part of
it, and it had changed and colored everything”.
This tale, like others, has
infiltrated through it, stories of her unusual childhood and the impact her quirky
parents have had on the way she views the world. So, whilst a memoir most
certainly, it would also fall into the category of relatable musings and
thoughts on occurrences in life that we all can relate to. The focus for this
instalment is about her marriage, her search and desire for protection and
safety amongst the chaos of her troubled family and country.
“I loved my family, but at some point I had lost the mettle
and the imagination to surrender to the promise of perpetual insecurity.
Instead I chose to believe in the possibility of a predictable, chartable
future, and I had picked a life that I imagined would have certainties, safety
nets and assurances”.
It is heart wrenching and real,
yet eloquent and exquisite.
“Someone had planted me in this
soil and I had taken fierce hold. And although I had no illusions – this land
wasn’t mine to inherit, none of it belonged to me – I couldn’t help knowing
that I belonged to it”.
I am biased, as I adore her
writing, highlighting passage after passage for further contemplation. I highly
recommend reading something, anything, of Alexandra Fuller’s; if only to
experience the magic that seeps from each page into your own consciousness.
“You always think there will be more time and then suddenly
there isn’t. You know how it is. You have to leave before the rains come, or
it’s too late”.
This review is based on a
complimentary copy from the publisher and
provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The quoted
material may have changed in the final release.
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