Alfred and Emily - Doris Lessing

56%
19.10.09

You could use her great age as an excuse for her detached and fragmented style, but I found the same with her first novel, "The Grass is Singing". This one made marginally more sense, at least if you can buy into the 'fictional (auto)biography' that comes before the more harshly real memoirs. Perhaps some interesting issues raised on women's roles, family relationships and what could have been, but otherwise unengaging.

The Grass is Singing - Doris Lessing

55%
06.07.08

A seminal novel of the 20th century, apparently. That's probably why I didn't understand it. A comment on colonialism, racism, feminism, clearly, and the prose is understated and elegant. But for me the bleakness obscured the sense - should it really be necessary to read around it to try to get some context? And to make things worse, I can't help thinking, 'The grass is singing... for me and my gal.'