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Jump to navigationJump to searchMonkeys in my Garden: Unbelievable but true stories of my life in Mozambique by Valerie Pixley (view source)
Revision as of 09:47, 30 August 2013
, 09:47, 30 August 2013no edit summary
Pixley has a sprawling, meandering style. It's as if you are sitting around chatting together and the conversation often takes a detour or two. This makes for a comfortable, relaxing read - even though events are often far from relaxing! - but I should say that it also means some chapters lose a bit of focus and forget where they're going. You might need to bear with her a bit but she does get there in the end.
Most of all, though, ''Monkeys in my Garden'' tells the story of a life lived to the full, sometimes for good, sometimes for unintended ill, and it's a hugely entertaining, vicarious read. It also raises important questions about environmentalism, corruption in developing countries and what we can or should do to help. But mostly, it's a personal memoir. Some people are just made to be larger than life. And the Pixleys are two of them.
For more African memoirs, you could also look at [[Man in a Mud Hut by Ian Mathie]] and [[Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa by Peter Godwin]]. You might also enjoy [[Child of the Jungle by Sabine Kuegler]], for which the setting is Papua New Guinea.
