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58th out of 68 books
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4 voters
Love, Again
The first new novel from Doris Lessing in more than seven years, "Love, Again" tells the story of a 65 year old woman who falls in love. Or rather, Sarah Durham falls into a state of love, which is another country altogether and struggles to maintain her sanity while there. Widowed for many years, with grown children, Sarah is a writer who works in the theater in London. W...more
Paperback, 368 pages
Published
February 27th 1997
by Harper Perennial
(first published January 1st 1996)
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Lessing, Doris. “Love, Again.”
New York: HarpersCollins, 2007
Doris Lessing‘s novel, Love, Again, is about an aging woman by the name of Sarah Durham. Sarah is in her mid-sixties and, having been widowed by the time she was in her mid-thirties, believes herself to be past her prime when it comes to love. The story opens with Sarah trying to piece her life together when she unexpectedly falls for two men: a director half her age, yet mature for his own, and a young actor almost forty years her jun...more
New York: HarpersCollins, 2007
Doris Lessing‘s novel, Love, Again, is about an aging woman by the name of Sarah Durham. Sarah is in her mid-sixties and, having been widowed by the time she was in her mid-thirties, believes herself to be past her prime when it comes to love. The story opens with Sarah trying to piece her life together when she unexpectedly falls for two men: a director half her age, yet mature for his own, and a young actor almost forty years her jun...more
One reason I like this book is that I find Lessing's voice comforting. She's intelligent and insightful and wry, and I trust whatever she tells me. Hard to find that in daily life. This is the story of a woman of a certain age, an intelligent, together, successful theater director who falls in love unexpectedly with a younger man.
I can't finish this. That says something because I'm what I call a 'generous' reader--I'll hang in with a book for some time if I like the author, have liked his or her work in the past, like certain aspects of the writing, hoping that things will improve...
But this novel by Lessing, written by her late in life, reads very differently--as least by my memory--from her earlier work. I have found myself repeatedly pulled out of the narrative flow by word choices, overlong and overly meandering pass...more
But this novel by Lessing, written by her late in life, reads very differently--as least by my memory--from her earlier work. I have found myself repeatedly pulled out of the narrative flow by word choices, overlong and overly meandering pass...more
Eine Frau Mitte 60, die nicht mehr mit Liebesverwicklungen rechnet, sich stark mit ihrer Arbeit identifiziert und sich während der Inszenierung eines Stückes über eine ungewöhnliche Frau zu ihrer eigenen Überraschung in einen der wesentlich jüngeren Schauspieler verliebt. Und auch alle anderen am Stück Beteiligten kämpfen mehr oder wenige mit ihrem Gefühlschaos. Daneben schildert Lessing auch gut die eigene Welt, die beim Proben und Inszenieren eines Stückes von dem Ensemble Besitz ergreift; die...more
I'm not into AmDram and life's too short for this to be a pleasure so I will be sending this one to the charity shop as it really didn't hold my interest. There are no points awarded for valiantly struggling on to the end.
I didn't like the characters, the plot - well there didn;t appear to be one and I couldn't stick with it to find out if anything developed. For a book that's supposedly about love, it's enough to put you off it entirely! I tried, I really tried.
And there's no button option to m...more
I didn't like the characters, the plot - well there didn;t appear to be one and I couldn't stick with it to find out if anything developed. For a book that's supposedly about love, it's enough to put you off it entirely! I tried, I really tried.
And there's no button option to m...more
.
One doesn't read Doris Lessing for plot or action. She's read for well-formed characters on emotional journeys. And then the reader is gifted with her mastery of psychological insight. In the latter, she's a modern-day Eliot.
Love, Again (1996) isn't my favourite, but nevertheless Lessing still managed to make me feel. And not in the obvious ways. Not in grief for the dying or sadness for unrequited love. Instead, for the in-between emotions. The states of turmoil, confusion, and even numbness,...more
One doesn't read Doris Lessing for plot or action. She's read for well-formed characters on emotional journeys. And then the reader is gifted with her mastery of psychological insight. In the latter, she's a modern-day Eliot.
Love, Again (1996) isn't my favourite, but nevertheless Lessing still managed to make me feel. And not in the obvious ways. Not in grief for the dying or sadness for unrequited love. Instead, for the in-between emotions. The states of turmoil, confusion, and even numbness,...more
In lots of ways, this is probably a 3 star book. It's not very exciting. Most things that are suggested may happen never happen. But as with the other Lessing book I've read, the quality of the insight is so good that it can't be discounted. Usually I copy my favorite passages from dog-eared pages into my Goodreads review, but this time there were 20 of those pages and they required their own Google Doc. And, like with the other book, they're a little scary.
I liked this book right away, because...more
I liked this book right away, because...more
Doris Lessing can be wonderful, but not this time. At first, I was so happy to be in her capable hands, and so often she would delight me with some witty, astute observation about life and people. But then - the story here is such a pointless downer, about hopeless, inappropriate love and how much it sucks to get old. Which could be valid, but wasn't. Complete with very predictable and useless tragic ending for one of the supporting characters and an irritating Freudian epiphany for a topper tha...more
Mar 23, 2012
Juan
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
british-writers,
romance
Doris Lessing explora en este libro cómo vive el amor una mujer mayor de este mundo moderno en el que vivimos. Es un tema provocador, la sociedad actual parece que sólo concibe al amor como algo que se vive en la juventud, cuando las emociones y necesidades del cuerpo se encuentran desbordadas, y después de eso la vida de amorosa de las personas se extingue y es sustituida por una especie de compromiso afectuoso entre personas.
Esto es algo que retoma Lessing. Sarah, la protagonista, no se puede...more
Esto es algo que retoma Lessing. Sarah, la protagonista, no se puede...more
Doris Lessing's 1997 novel Love Again is the story of 65-year-old Englishwoman Sarah Durham's encounters with love--being loved, desiring love, falling in love, being the object of desire--as she produces a musical/play--an entertainment--about a mulatto woman named Julie Vairon who, her time at the other end of the same century, was the subject and object of impossible love. A beautiful woman who attracts the desire and love of Frenchmen whose nobility or social status out-caste her and render...more
I had a lot of hope for this book. Doris Lessing is, after all, a Nobel Prize winner in literature. Briefly, it's about a 65 year old woman who wants to love once again and feel passion for someone.
The story is about a theater group who come across the true story of a woman, Julie, and her varied adventures. They decide to mount a musical, a play, based on this woman. I really enjoyed the first third of the book as Julie's story was told and her background explored, how Julie's music was incorpo...more
The story is about a theater group who come across the true story of a woman, Julie, and her varied adventures. They decide to mount a musical, a play, based on this woman. I really enjoyed the first third of the book as Julie's story was told and her background explored, how Julie's music was incorpo...more
I found it intriguing until midway through the book. Lessing pulls off a difficult trick: she creates a character, Julie Vairon, that all her characters are supposed to find so fascinating they can't get her out of their minds. That's not the trick - the trick is that Julie actually IS fascinating to the reader, which is hard to do. So frequently characters who are meant to be charming to all the other characters in the book are not charming to me.
That said, having pulled off that difficult tri...more
That said, having pulled off that difficult tri...more
This is a good book to read when you're in a state of unrequited love. It's about a woman coping with getting older, and about various kinds of hopeless love that she and her friends experience. It's seen me through a bad break-up, but isn't as good when you're not in that particular state of misery. When you are, this book can be comforting, like a friend who knows what you're feeling.
La única razón de peso para terminar este libro es la habilidad que tiene Doris Lessing de crear personajes fuertemente estructurados y con una sólida base psicológica. Por lo demás la trama no me resultó atrayente, quizá por la brecha de edad que me separa de los protagonistas, aun que se pueden rescatar pasajes interesantes entre las reflexiones hechas por la protagónista el ritmo general del libro es lento
Unfortunately, the story within the story in Love, Again was the most compelling part of the book. As the discussion of Julie Vairon and her travails fades into the narrative, the overall plot drags a bit. I enjoyed Lessing’s commentary on the weight of young heartbreak but overall considered this book only average.
An examination of love's agonies and anxieties ("the mix of anguish, incredulity, and--at the height of the illness--a sick sweet submersion in pain because it is inconceivable that anything so terribly desired cannot be given, and if you relinquish the pain, then the hope of bliss is abandoned too") as thorough and exacting as you'd expect from Lessing. She remains unequaled at seeing clearly and speaking plainly of drives and motivations you'd pretended to keep half-hidden and barely understan...more
The story of a 65-yr-old woman (sound familiar?) who falls in love again and again and again to her extreme anguish. Although I really enjoy Doris Lessing's writing, I couldn't really identify with her main character. Enjoyed the behind the scenes of theatre in Europe.
That the other reviews of this book go from 1-5 stars pretty much says it. You will relate to it or you won't. I'f you are a true Doris Lessing fan you will get that. It is not meant for everyone. Is it my favorite or her best? No. But it was nice to experience the way she has of writing what you might be feeling , thinking.... Exactly. It was those exquisitely written words that kept me dog earring and reading through some of the other tedious aspects of the book. It was the reflections, irrati...more
This is an interesting story, Sarah is an older women and falls in love again, whilst others also fall in love with her. A lot of angst and some tragedy, but really enjoyed it. There are no chapters, but still easy to read.
Disappointed. Too cerebral, literary, and just downright frustrating. I must say the writing is very good but the topic could generate so much more than this predictable psychological treatise.
Initially a slow start, but I really got into this book. An almost Ian McEwan-like skill in writing inner dialogue, an immensely likeable protaganist, and fun passion-flung prose.
She writes about a woman in her sixties or thereabouts falling in love with a younger man. I am only in my thirties so I think I'll reread it again when I'm "old".
I have never read anything by Lessing so I gave this one a try. It was ok but I just couldn’t get into it. I read about 100 pages but it just didn’t get it.
What I liked about it were the insights about the changing lives of women of age. Plot didn't intrigue me, but I kept going in search of the good quotes.
Nov 29, 2008
Naomi
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
any woman who has ever been in love
Recommended to Naomi by:
a colleague
Doris Lessing has a wonderful ability to get into the mind of the main character, Sarah, and describe in minute detail the emotions she is feeling.
This is a book about old people who fall in lust with everything that moves & then sink into a deep depression. Depressing.
Easy read, reads like danielle steele. light fun book. could find deeper meaning if you are interested.
Book club book for December. I was sold on it being a non-sentimental book about falling in love -- and I think it was, though it was certainly dramatic. Though I wonder if this was because the character that kills himself "for love" (because of being brokenhearted) is male, rather than the typical woman we see in short after story. The main character operates in the world of the theatre; Lessing captures this milieu accurately. While overall I liked the book, it didn't really grab me -- it wasn...more
¿No lo han leído? No lean nada más hasta no tenerlo en sus manos... :D
Well-written, but sort of impenetrable for me. I think I'll have to read this again in 15 years, and again in 30 -- this is one of those books that I suspect I'll interpret differently as I age. Not really an upper, but I could certainly see it being a good book for discussing.
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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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“Aber ist es nicht außerordentlich merkwürdig, wie einem der Zufall Bücher in die Hände spielt, die etwas mit der eigenen Situation oder Lebensphase zu tun haben?”
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1 person liked it
“Stundenlang saß sie da, wägte sorgfältig Worte ab, lauschte ihrem Klang: verführerisch. Musik, vor allem, wenn sie bereits gesungen, sie schwirrten ihr durch den Kopf – wie allen, die mit Sprache umgehen. Wörter tauchen im Kopf auf und tanzen dort Rhythmen, die aus dem Unterbewusstsein auftauchen. Wortsplitter und –fetzen: Manchmal liefern sei einen Hinweis auf einen verborgenen Geisteszustand. Manchmal klimpern und klingeln sie tagelang und machen einen ganz verrückt. Und manchmal sind sie wie ein unsichtbarer Film, wie eine durchsichtige Folie zwischen einem selbst und der Wirklichkeit”
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1 person liked it
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Sep 24, 2007 03:34pm