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Nearly forty years after leaving her childhood home in Africa, the author of this memoir returns, intent on bringing home a rescue cat. The story toggles between Dar es Salaam in the 1970s and 2017, when she meets Stan the cat, transports him back to Virginia, and attempts to diagnose his aggression toward another of her cats despite his otherwise sweet, but wobbly, disposition. Chapters, beginning with quotes from letters sent to her father in Canada and other literature, are discreet vignettes of memorable moments. Many—about the family's pet mongoose, mispronounced Swahili words, and pranks—are humorous. Some, about MacLaine's beloved family and friends or getting to know Stan and his needs, are tender. Toward the end, the chapters turn serious as the author contends with the deaths of animals and children on a large cat rescue farm she visits several times.
Historical facts about Africa's colonization, Tanzania's independence, and Dr. Livingston, among other African researchers, situate MacLaine's story in a wider one. The book's appeal goes beyond MacLaine's compelling anecdotes to the story about life's lasting impressions, particularly in a place as exotic to non-Africans as Africa. The book's purpose becomes clear progressively. Stan and the big cat casualties eventually dovetail. They shed light on each other and on MacLaine's rescue mentality, characterized by empathy for animals' plights, seen in her care for pets and wild animals, as well as learning from animals' intelligence, passed on to her through generations. As a coming-of-age (in middle age) narrative, the book achieves its aim to understand a lifelong attachment to ailing animals by looking back. It looks forward, too, extending an invitation to learn more about the organization from which Stan came and to contribute.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review