Leaving Before the Rains Come

Book menu for Leaving Before the Rains Come by Alexandra Fuller

ISBN of edition I read: 9781594205866 (hardcover)

Food mentioned in Leaving Before the Rains Come:
Wine, 3-4, 16, 59-60, 102, 108, 114, 175, 192, 208
     White wine, 2
      Red wine, 91
Rum Punch, 3
Caviar, 8
Vodka, 8
Snickers, Bars, 12
Beer, 13, 46, 50, 54, 91, 96
     Guinness, 153
     Pabst Blue Ribbon, 224
Coffee, 15
Brandy, 16, 21, 50, 94, 154, 23
Ouzo, 20, 38
Spanakopita, 20
Kamikaze, 38, 40
Tea, 50, 54, 94, 130, 137, 144, 149-150, 160, 193, 231
Curry, 55
Creamed spinach, 56
Gin, 122, 
     Gin & tonic, 57, 100, 102
Cupcakes, 86
Coke Cola, 92, 142
Whiskey, 109
Green beans, 113, 126
Chicken, 113
Pimm's, 115
Strawberries, 118, 142
Champagne, 118, 126, 197
Marmalade, 125
Black pudding, 125
Kipper, 125
Bloody Marys, 125
Oats porridge, 130
Martinis, 130, 153
Pickles, 142
Salsa, 142
Mutton, 153
Lemon cream, 157
Mango, 173
Meatloaf, 250
Casseroles, 250

Books/Authors mentioned in Leaving Before the Rains Come:
Richard Brothers, epigraph
Religio Medici / Sir Thomas Browne, epigraph
Charles Wright (poet), 2
The Vampire Chronicles / Anne Rice, 12
The Official Sloan Ranger Handbook:How the British Upper Class
     Prepares its Offspring for Life / by Ann Barr & Peter York, 17-18, 126
Out of Africa / Isak Dinesen, 24
Nikos Kazantzakis, 38
P.G. Wodehouse, 67, 120
William Shakespeare, 67
Rainer Maria Rilke, 76
The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce / Judith Wallerstein, 84
Arundhati Roy, 107
Beatrix Potter, 113
D.H. Grainger, 114
     Don't Die in the Bundu, 114
     Little Black Mingo, 116
     Little Black Sambo, 116
Mary Queen of Scots / Antonia Fraser, 130
Where There Is No Doctor / David Werner, 159
Alan Paton, 168
The Two Great Sadnesses (essay) / Justus George Lawler, 201
Richard Siken (poet), 212
Bertolt Brecht, 212
A Fortunate Man / John Berger, 239
Inferno / Dante, 241, 244
Down and Out in Paris and London / George Orwell, 243
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly / Jean-Dominique Bauby, 244
Complete Essays / Michel de Montaigne, 245
Karl Jung, 252

Music mentioned in Leaving Before the Rains Come:
Harry Belafonte, 3
Artie Shaw, 5
Doris Day, 5
ABBA, 5, 28, 34
Clem Tholet, 5
"The Warrior" / Ipi Ntombi, 5
Hallelujah Chorus, 8
Tschaikovsky, 8
"Bring Back our Darling", 181
"I Want to See my Mama Once More", 181
U2, 216
Édith Piaf, 231
"Red Sails in the Sunset" / Frank Sinatra, p.258

Movies mentioned in Leaving Before the Rains Come:
Up, 70
Crocodile Dundee, 199

Television mentioned in Leaving Before the Rains Come:
"Bashkaus: Hard Labor in Siberia" (documentary) / Discovery Channel, 14

Libraries mentioned in Leaving Before the Rains Come:
p.82-83 : A month earlier I had gone to our local public library and walked down the aisle of relationship-related books, piling volume after volume into my arms. I made it as far as the help desk with the books before I pictured myself running into an acquaintance in the checkout line or in the parking lot. How would I explain these titles?


Some of my favorite passages from Leaving Before the Rains Come:

p.9 : What I did not know then is that the assurances I needed couldn't be had. I did not know that for the things that unhorse you, for the things that wreck you, for the things that toy with your internal tide--against those things, there is no conventional guard. "The problem with most people," Dad said once, not necessarily implying that I counted as most people, but not discounting the possibility either, "is that they want to be alive for as long as possible without having any idea whatsoever how to live."

p. 67 : And in any case, what life had taught me is that where we come from is a point--not the starting point, not the defining point--just a point. It's where we are that really counts.

p. 204 : There is no way to shut the doors against our contagions, to ward off the effects of our collective stupidity and greed and violence. Those who have an understanding of the mhondoro ceremony were correct when they told me that all beings in a community are connected, that the madness of one is the madness of everyone,  that there is no separation of minds and bodies between people. It was true when they said the wickedness and carelessness and avarice of one would bring pestilence on the whole.

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