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30th out of 165 books
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34 voters
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Under My Skin: Volume One of My Autobiography, to 1949
"I was born with skins too few. Or they were scrubbed off me by...robust and efficient hands."
The experiences absorbed through these "skins too few" are evoked in this memoir of Doris Lessing's childhood and youth as the daughter of a British colonial family in Persia and Southern Rhodesia Honestly and with overwhelming immediacy, Lessing maps the gro
...morePaperback, 448 pages
Published
October 11th 1995
by Harper Perennial
(first published 1994)
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Although I felt the narrative of this autobiography was a little dry (thus the 4 stars rather an 5), it is an engrossing history a life spent in Southern Rhodesia. Lessing had the awareness many of us (certainly me)lack of the many contradictions of British white life in black Africa. At an early age, she understood the wrongness of the white occupation, the injustice of the treatment of the native Africans, the blind prejudice of her society and family. I think many of us, in our early years...more
This autobiography feels very honest by the Nobel Laureate author, Doris Lessing. I have only read one book by Lessing before - the Golden Notebook - which I absolutely loved. And I remember as I read that, I thought, I bet this woman has had a life that is really interesting. It seems my prediction was right.
I am amazed how often I read something that made me think - that's just how I felt as a child, as a teenager and as a young adult. While my life is in no way especially similar to...more
I am amazed how often I read something that made me think - that's just how I felt as a child, as a teenager and as a young adult. While my life is in no way especially similar to...more
Doris Lessing erscheint als selbstbewusste (und sich ihrer Reize stets bewusste), kluge, selbstständige Frau, die aber auch ein unglaubliches Bedürfnis nach Babys hat – was mancher modernen Frau als Widerspruch erscheinen mag, aber auch Konstellationen in den Romanen, die ich gelesen habe (Das Fünfte Kind, Und wieder die Liebe) erklärt. Manchmal hat es mich verärgert, dass sie auf ihre frühen Romane verweist, wenn man Näheres über eine bestimmte Lebensphase erfahren will. Hatte dann immer das Ge...more
After Lessing won her Nobel, I began reading her work, as well as whatever interviews and videos were available. I loved the straightforward way she told her stories, I liked the intelligence she put into them, and I appreciated the scope and breadth of her oeuvre. When I learned that she had a two-volume autobiography published I pick it up immediately. It is as frank and enjoyable as you would ever hope it to be. It was fascinating for me to read the story of a proper young girl who would late...more
Sometimes I have to read everything by a writer--everything--before I can be satisfied (Laura Ingalls Wilder, L.M. Montgomery, Louisa May Alcott, Alice Munro). I've been in a Doris Lessing state of mind since fall 2007, and thankfully I have plenty of work still ahead of me. Now that I no longer have my law school mentor to guide & inspire me on a daily basis, I find myself increasingly dependent on Doris Lessing's wisdom, anger and common sense. I read her out loud to Andy. And I wrestle with t...more
I don't agree with Lessing about everything, nor do I like everything she has written. With that disclaimer, I feel free to say that this is a great memoir. From her early life as a child of white immigrants to "Northern Rhodesia" to her life in South Africa first as a fairly conventional wife and mother and later as a divorced, remarried communist activist, Lessing is honest, witty and thoughtful. Interesting insights into the time period and also into the life of an extraordinary ...more
One of the best biographies I've ever read. Lessing is not only one of the great writers in English of the 20th century, she is certainly also one of the most vivid. Highly recommended, and especially if you don't usually read autobiographies.
The great strength of the first volume of Lessing's autobiography is that she's reflecting from 60 years on, and brings substantial perspective to the historical currents she lived through in mid-20th-century Africa (Rhodesia). She's uber-dark, and very critical. Really interesting person. It bogs down a bit in the second half ...
It certainly gave a different perspective on having a cat - in Africa and England, mostly outdoor cats. Some of the story was disturbing, and I had trouble following the thread sometimes.
Granny
added it
A really great book...her honesty is illuminating...her life...difficult...her imagination is fabulous and her self discovery through mistakes in judgment a lesson for us all...
Melanie Messer
added it
Incredible! I loved every page of this and reading about the shape of her mind and writing. I have yet to read Volume II but you can be sure that it's on my to do list.
Loved this book. Would recommend to anyone interested in feminism, modern history of south Africa and socialism.
Another account of growing up in Colonial Africa (a favorite subject of mine!). Beautifully written.
I like Doris Lessing's novels but this memoir was disappointing.
Highly interesting account of Lessings childhood and adolesence.
Doris Lessing is brutally honest and tells her story with anger, pride, and great wit. I have loved her writtings for so long and was taken aback at the decisions she has made in her life. I was almost disappointed in her but years after reading the book can look back and think wow what a couragous woman for telling her tale.
I really liked this book because it describes Lessing's childhood in Southern Rhodesia at the beginning of the 20th century and focuses on the lives of British colonists trying to make a better living in a foreign land.
Keith
marked it as to-read
a Christmas gift I haven't picked up, yet.
She's amazing. Her life is a history lesson.
Terrifying woman. Angry, angry.
Very much enjoyed this.
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Both of her parents were British: her father, who had been crippled in World War I, was a clerk in the Imperial Bank of Persia; her mother had been a nurse. In 1925, lured by the promise of getting rich through maize farming, the family moved to the British colony in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Like other women writers from southern African who did not graduate from high school (such as Oliv...more
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