Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight.

Alexandra Fuller. 2001/2002. Read by Lisette Lecat. 7 tapes. 10.25 hrs. Recorded Books. 1-4025-18692. $63.00, Vinyl; content, reader notes. SA*

Lecat is so much the voice of Bobo (Alexandra Fuller) as she narrates her memoir that it is difficult to read the text afterwards and not hear her. Her lovely British voice with its perfect diction, pacing, and ability to speak as a child--as Bobo is through most of the narration-is compelling.

Alexandra (Bobo) was born in England but moved to what was then Rhodesia in the early 1970s when she was about three years old. As that child, she recounts the wars, the fighting, the racism, and her family's struggles with the climate, the land, and the people. They are farmers and everything is difficult. Bobo's view of it all is fresh, matter-of-fact and often naive, as she describes driving through land mine-ridden country, her mother going down the driveway to greet visitors with her Uzi slung over her shoulder, her father leaving for his stint of soldiering in the bush, or the children learning how to take apart and put together the family guns and learn CPR and first aid, "in case all the grown-ups are dead." Pathos, humor, and the details of what life in Rhodesia was like make this a remarkable, startling listening experience. Mary I. Purucker, Beverly Hills P.L., Beverly Hills, CA