A river runs through it

摘要

If african fiction has enjoyed a resurgence over the past decade, non-fiction has generally taken a back seat. "Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight", Alexandra Fuller's full-throttle and deeply funny account of growing up in southern Africa, came out in 2001 and is still a rare exception. "Leaving Before the Rains Come" is its sequel. It opens in Wyoming, where Ms Fuller now lives, but is as rooted in the red soil of her childhood as its predecessor. On the surface, it is the story of the end of a marriage. It is not, however, a divorce memoir, nor is there much of the misery about it. Instead, Ms Fuller has stitched together a patchwork of anecdotes and emotions spanning two continents-the Africa of her early years and the America of her adult life-and many generations of variously mad and sad ancestors in an attempt to make sense of it all. Her writing is as- toundingly good; she loops forwards and backwards in time and place, but there is not a spare word in the book. Every story earns its right to be there.