Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness (original 2011; edition 2011)

(Borrowing heavily from the book jacket) Cocktails Under The Tree of Forgetfulness is a daughter's telling of her mother's life from her birth in Scotland in 1944 through her adventures in Central Africa ending in 2010 during the author's extended visit to Zambia to spend time with her inimitable parents, the self-styled "Nicola Fuller of Central Africa" aka Mum or Tub to her husband, the author's father Timothy Fuller, aka Dad. BTW, Dad seems to be the only family member to escape a potentially embarrassing nickname according to the List of Main Characters. (I'd need to reread to confirm this.)

There are several themes
- the probable mental illness of Nicola (manic-depression) in spite of which she recovers and continues to care for her family through the tragic death of three small children
- her parents love of Africa, "the warmth and freedom, the real open spaces, the wild animals, the sky at night as well as their acceptance of the extension of colonialism into apartheid by the Ian Smith-led government of Rhodesia. Along with 250,00 white Rhodesians "they were unwilling or disinclined to question the government policy that gave them preferential treatment over six million blacks, instead preferring to believe that theirs was a just and justifiable life of privilege."
- the cruelty of the war over apartheid, both for the blacks and for the sacrifices made by the white population who wanted only to live out their lives on the frontiers of Africa. I had not heard of the biological aspects of the war against the blacks - injecting cans of food with thallium, salting the river water with cholera and warfarin, and the intentional anthrax poisoning with anthrax of over 10 thousand men, women and children living in the Tribal Trust lands. ( )

Life in colonial Africa, and after it was no longer colonial. Insightful, revelatory, and funny. ( )

The companion memoir to Don't Lets go to the Dogs Tonight, author Alexandra Fuller delves into her mother's life. This "fierce, splendid" woman figured prominently and reluctantly in the first book and here we see how she became so. Fuller's matter-of-fact, unapologetic writing style flows quickly and draws the reader in with her vivid recollections of life in Africa. Recommended ( )

I had a hard time rating this one. I think if I had only read this and not her first, Let's Not Go to the Dogs Tonight, I would have rated it higher. I love her writing and the stories, but a lot of it was a repeat of her first book. She expanded on some things, but I felt like I paid twice for the same thing. ( )

Sequel to Fuller’s memoir, Don’t Let’s go to the Dogs Tonight. Selected by The New York Times Book Review as a Notable Book of the Year Fuller returns to Africa to recount the story of her mother Nicola Fuller of Central Africa. Mishaps and tragedies; a story of courage in a changing Africa. ( )