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Sad tales from an African childhood; The locale is exotic but the sorrow in this memoir is all too commonplace.(FEATURES)(BOOKS)(Book review)

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From: The Christian Science Monitor
Date: 20060509
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Byline: Yvonne Zipp

If Leo Tolstoy were still around, he might want to rethink that opening sentence in "Anna Karenina": "Happy families are all alike; but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." What is startling about Casting with a Fragile Thread, a new memoir about growing up in Africa, is how sadly familiar the troubles seem, despite having occurred thousands of miles away in a country that no longer exists.

Wendy Kann grew up during Rhodesia's civil war (1965-1979), before the country became Zimbabwe. But she was living in Westport, Conn., when she got the ...

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