Rainbow's End: A Memoir of Childhood, War and an African Farm

Being ten years older than Lauren St John I had an even more idyllic childhood than she did, growing up in the "sticks" in Zimbabwe. Her book brought back all my fondest memories and saddest ones too. I was not able to put the book down. She has an easy style, with an honest, open approach when penning her own personal life.
I was pleased she remembered the Viscount being shot down although the second one was not given a mention. These are all forgotten tragedies of the war that most liberals fail to remember. Loss of life was not just one sided.
Lauren has managed to write a book that I shall want my children and one day my grandchildren to read. That they might have an insight into a lost way of life and a lost country, and how wonderful it all was.

Derivative (2/2 people found this helpful)

I have to agree with Historian. Being an ex-Zimbabwean myself, and also Lauren's age, I gobbled the subject matter up. But this isn't nearly as well written as Don't let's go to the dogs tonight (Alexandra Fuller). You can see that Lauren clearly used the latter as her model though - especially in the "evoke lots of tastes and smells of Africa" area! There are some really good bits, esp. the prologue which is memorising (and horrific), but the whole is not as good as the sum of its parts.

Peter Godwin is still the master of this genre, with Alexandra Fuller a close runner-up.

Re-Awakening the African Experience... (3/3 people found this helpful)

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, from the various anecdotes on bush life, local characterizations and the old "product" reminders. It does encapsulate the rose-coloured view many of us teenagers held of our country growing up in this period, despite the horrors of the bush war. Her descriptions of many areas of African life brought back vivid memories, and whilst many of my fellow ex-countrymen are often accused of too much nostalgia, how many of the "critics" can pick up such literature on their own childhood memories that will bring a smile to their face. If you are from the Southern African region you will enjoy this book for the images it will envoke. If you are not, you will enjoy it for the wistful look at African life as lived by a minority society, before the sweeping reforms transformed a nation.

Imitative, "When we were in Zimbabwe" tell-all.... (3/9 people found this helpful)

Rainbow's End is an addition to the expanding genre of wistful, `When we were in Zimbabwe', autobiographical tell-alls in the line of Alexandra Fuller and Peter Godwin, except that it lacks their style or impact and seems in many ways derivative (even imitative) of these works. Whilst perhaps being of passing novelty value interest to people with no intimate knowledge of Africa (or nostalgia value to Rhodesians), the book is really a long series of anecdotes in the style of "and then I did this, and then we did that, and then my dad did this...".One finds oneself waiting for the writer to get to the point, which never really happens. This is a subject matter that is a little tired now and St John's work really does not move the subject on in any meaningful way. She, like thousands of others, was a white girl growing up in an era that straddled the change from Rhodesia to Zimbabwe; her family was not perfect; she felt the ennui and restlessness for travel common to most adolescents. So what?

Memories... (14/15 people found this helpful)

Whilst browsing through a bookstore last week, I found myself drawn to the cover photograph on the dustjacket of Rainbow's End. The child on the front reminded me of someone. Upon discovering what the book was about, I rushed to the till, paid my money and before I knew it, found myself sitting at home reading.
It didn't take too long to realise that this book could have been written about ME. Lauren St John writes about her childhood on a farm in Zimbabwe in such a way that I found myself transported back in time. I was reminded of memories that had been all but forgotten. I caught myself laughing out loud at the references to zambezi mud, corn curls, lifebuoy soap and creme soda, nodding my head in agreement to thoughts about the wonderful African staff who worked for our parents and of lying awake at night awaiting the sounds of gunfire, thinking back to picnics on river beds surrounded by crocodiles and hippos and, ultimately, sitting in my bed reading the last chapter with tears streaming down my face.
It was a privilege to live in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe during this time and, although my farming father was threatened with his life and felt he had no choice but to remove his family from the situation, my memories are primarily positive. Ms St John and I grew up leading very similar lives and our thoughts and fears, whilst reading every page, seemed to merge into one. I will be forever indebted to Ms. St John for her ability to awaken all those memories that had been tucked away for some time.

Rainbow's End: A Memoir of Childhood, War and an African Farm

Lauren St.John

Reader Reviews:

Rainbow's End by Lauren St John (0/0 people found this helpful)

Derivative (2/2 people found this helpful)

Re-Awakening the African Experience... (3/3 people found this helpful)

Imitative, "When we were in Zimbabwe" tell-all.... (3/9 people found this helpful)

Memories... (14/15 people found this helpful)

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