She has a score of novels and many other works. Doris Lessing (1919 - ) is the 2007 Nobel prize winner in literature. It is an interesting novel set in southern Africa on a small farm. It lacks the strong feminine perspectives, dialogues, analysis, and commentary of her later works. It is never clear whether shДЄs I post this review, I have read three of Lessing's novels from three time periods in her career. In the beginning, her own emotional and (I would guess) physical reactions, are both too wonderful and horrid for her to bear. Her mind is ripe for destruction when she meets a native who has the power to seduce her affections in a way that her husband never could. Her self-reflection is an inch deep and she blames her impulses from one second to the next on false causes. Even when life is not as complicated as will eventually be, she has no idea of herself. She is a boiling pot of emotions that are all jumbled together and meaningless in her mind. She loathes in them what she loathes about her own life. They represent two things that frighten her the most: 1- All things earthy and physical. And so she takes out her confused misery and blind fury on the easiest targets the locals. She has put herself in a position that is so similar to her childhood desolation, lack of control, unwanted physical contact. Its so strong that he sees it right off the bat.

Any positive feelings she has towards Dick (pitying him when she sees his childish qualities) are always crushed by her loathing of him as a man. Many of her reactions don't fit the crimes. Once she marries, her irrational feelings begin to bloom (as if they've been triggered). Even though she was happy, other saw something terribly wrong with her. When she hears her friends speaking badly of her, her 'success' is absolutely smashed to pieces right in front of her and she discovers that she is profoundly different than the people around her. She feels herself successful because she feels she now fits comfortably and happily into popular society. In some ways, she is completely detached from her womanhood, almost refusing to acknowledge it (such as her 30th birthday). 'She felt sentimental at weddings, but she had a profound distaste for sex there had been little privacy in her home and there were things she did not care to remember she had taken good care to forget them years ago.' Mary is also unable to take on the physical appearance of a woman, although she doesn't realize it. Also, there is a statement on page 39 that I thought might have been referring to her parents, but it seems intentionally vague. Lessing also makes several vague statements about her relationship with her father, such as the fact that after her mother died, he finally left her alone. Lessing describes her ability to remain detached from deep human contact as 'aloofness', but when it came down to physical contact, it was utter 'repulsion'. No messes at work, no messes in relationships. Her happiness was brought about by everything being in order and in its place. The first detail was her aversion to intimacies, whether in friendship or love. Because of several particular details early on, it was during her 'happy years' that I began wondering if the subject of sexual abuse would enter the picture.

The grass is singing characters