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The Cleft

2.79 of 5 stars 2.79 · rating details · 1,299 ratings · 221 reviews

In the last years of his life, a contemplative Roman senator embarks on one last epic endeavor: to retell the history of human creation and reveal the little-known story of the Clefts, an ancient community of women living in an Edenic coastal wilderness. The Clefts have neither need nor knowledge of men; childbirth is controlled through the cycles of the moon, and they bea...more

Hardcover, 260 pages

Published April 1st 2007 by Fourth Estate (GB) (first published 2007)

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Aug 19, 2010 Seth Hahne rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Doris Lessing at age 18 so she could see what she would become, lose hope, and never become a writer

Shelves: bookclub

I did not finish this book. In fact I could not. It was my taste as a consumer of books that prohibited me.

Oh sure, I've set aside books before. I've even set aside books with no intention of continuing them in the future. But never with as adamant a certainty that I would never again pick up the book in order to give it a second chance.

Some may question my ability to judge a book based only on a partial reading, which is fair, but trust me: this book is Bad.

Doris Lessing's The Cleft may actuall...more

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Apr 20, 2008 Eileen rated it 3 of 5 stars

A Review…and a Few Questions

In June, 1992, Doris Lessing wrote an Op-ed for the NY Times entitled, “Questions You Should Never Ask a Writer.” The questions that Lessing especially does not want to hear are, “What is the story really about? What does it mean?” In other words, we must take her stories at face value and see them as just that – works of her imagination, nothing more.

After finishing “The Cleft,” however, it seems impossible not to ask those questions. On the surface, Lessing’s latest...more A Review…and a Few Questions

In June, 1992, Doris Lessing wrote an Op-ed for the NY Times entitled, “Questions You Should Never Ask a Writer.” The questions that Lessing especially does not want to hear are, “What is the story really about? What does it mean?” In other words, we must take her stories at face value and see them as just that – works of her imagination, nothing more.

After finishing “The Cleft,” however, it seems impossible not to ask those questions. On the surface, Lessing’s latest thought-provoking novel is a simple tale, told by a Roman historian during the height of the Roman Empire. The historian, a male, recounts the “origin of the species” found in ancient written records. These scrolls are based on an oral tradition handed down through the ages.

In her brief preface, Lessing says that the whole story began with a question, “sparked” by a scientific article, stoked by the imagination. The question: What if the first “human” were a woman, not a man? Suppose our ancestors were females, Clefts, born in the sea, inseminated and nurtured by it. The early Clefts resemble seals, lolling around the shore, on rocks, living in peace until one gives birth to a male, or “monster.”

The fascinating narrative shifts between the myth, or legend, of the Clefts and the Monsters, and the historian’s description of life in ancient Rome. He dwells on gender and family issues in both time frames and invokes more questions. Are females inherently strong, maternal care-givers? Are males basically competitive, irresponsible dreamers?

One of the main themes of The Cleft is that history is by nature subjective. It all depends on who is writing the history books. On page 136, the historian says:

“A community, a people, must decide what sort of a chronicle must be kept. We all know that in the telling and retelling of an event, or series of events, there will be as many accounts as there are tellers.”

Lessing’s historian clings to the “oral tradition,” passed down through memories, as most reliable. Yet, he admits (p. 25), “What I am about to relate may be – must be – speculative.” Much of the “factual” material is “kept locked up.” Our narrator laments, “all this locking up and smoothing over and the suppression of the truth.” Which explains that by the time of ancient Rome, it was already “common knowledge” that the males came first.

So, here is my question, not for Lessing, rather for her readers, for myself. Why Rome? Why is the fable of the Clefts and the Monsters set against the backdrop of the Roman Empire in all its glory? Couldn’t the scrolls have been discovered by a 21st century historian? Why is the story told by a man who despises the coliseum and its gory, violent rites, yet who admits to a voyeuristic, visceral thrill each time he attends? What is the significance of the Eagle, present in the ancient myth of the Clefts as protector of the males, as well as a revered species of Rome?

Perhaps the answer can be found on page 216, in a passage replete with the historian’s own questions regarding the empire’s expansion and his personal loss of two sons to war:

“I…think of how Rome has hurt itself in our need to expand, to have. I think of my two poor sons, lying somewhere in those northern forests. Rome has to outleap itself, has to grow, has to reach out…Why should there ever be an end to us, to Rome, to our boundaries? Subject peoples may fight us, but they never can stop us. I sometimes imagine how all the known world will be Roman, subject to our beneficent rule, to Roman peace, Roman laws and justice, Roman efficiency…Some greater power than human guides us, leads us, points where our legions must go next. And if there are those who criticize us, then I have only one reply. Why, then, if we lack the qualities needed to make the whole earth flourish, why does everyone want to be a Roman citizen?”

Why Rome, indeed? Lessing has said that if she wants to write about a subject or situation, she does just that. Still, there’s a question I’d love to ask her.
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Feb 25, 2008 Genevieve rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: nobel-author

An interesting alternative view to evolution, but at its heart it was "Men are From Mars Women are from Venus" meets "The Lord of the Flies". A quick read that seems to drive home the differences between the sexes, sometimes annoyingly so. I enjoyed the narrator's viewpoint as a male in the Roman society illustrating, in a much less hit-you-upside-the-head style, that the differences remain. And of course as a modern reader it causes one to consider that if not much changed between Paleolithic a...more

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Jan 21, 2008 Jen rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I should caveat this review by saying that I did not finish this book. While it was an interesting premise (a society entirely comprised of women begins bearing males), its message was very obvious and heavy-handed. It was also very repetitious (the narrators continually define and redefine the terms they use for male and female). I would have enjoyed it much more as a short story as it became wearisome to read, but it did have a lot of interesting suggestions about how groups of people react to...more

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Jul 29, 2008 Marjanne rated it 2 of 5 stars

This book was ok, but it really didn't do anything for me. Essentially it is a creation story where women are the original humans and can spontaneously conceive, until baby boys start being born. Anyhow, I think the story is supposed to be revolutionary, but it really wasn't. It has a 'Lord of the Flies' feel, but not nearly as good a read. This is the first novel I have ever read by Ms. Lessing. I hope her other books are good, because she won a Nobel for her writing. Personally, this book woul...more

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Jun 02, 2008 Kartix rated it 2 of 5 stars

I actually liked the premis of the book but as I was reading it, I found it hard for me to finish.

Basically, the book is about the world which the first sex was female and others than that are freaks. Told by a historian from the Roman empire, this book become so boring I barely finish it.

I have no experience reading Doris Lessing and this was not an impressive first encounter. I would like to read her short stories though, even if it turns out to be a boring, it will not last long.

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Nov 19, 2011 Jeanne rated it 4 of 5 stars

I love to go to library sponsored book sales. And whenever I find books at these sales that have won a nobel prize or a pulitzer I shell out the $1 (or in this case 75 cents) and buy it. What the heck! It can't be that bad and I may learn something! "The Cleft" won the Nobel prize for literature in 2007 and it fulfilled its obligation to be interesting and memorable. The premise is that in the beginning there were only women, no men, and they reproduced asexually. Women of course are obviously t...more

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May 23, 2010 V. rated it 1 of 5 stars

I'm on page 243 of this book, but I'm going to call it "read" because even though every line has been a struggle, I'm going to finish it this week.

The book is an alternative creation story shared by a narrator writing during Roman times. It is the story of the Clefts, a society of women who live within the cracks and crevices of the coastline of some unknown island (or is?).

Transcribing from historical documents, the narrator, an older, upper class gentleman, muses and speculates and infers the...more

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Jan 21, 2010 Sammy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: c-the-okay

Well that was certainly unique. That's probably about the nicest thing I can say about this book. This was my first foray into the writings of Doris Lessing, who I can see has a brilliant skill worthy of all the recognition she's received, so I don't know if this is a typical Lessing book or something completely different.

For me the book was just too hard to follow. I didn't find any connective thread linking everything together, no story arc, no real central conflict, no climax, no central char...more

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Oct 16, 2009 Thurston Hunger rated it 2 of 5 stars

This may be a book better served upon a second reading, or perhaps assigned in a class to really pour over it? Or maybe not? Seems to me a bit overly ambitious in retrospect. Perhaps the author's drive here is to connect the fount of history and myth, and show how blurred both can be? According to a fellow book club member, Lessing has stated that her next book will be her last. So maybe Lessing is looking out over the chasm of time more than most of us, and closer to the edge of it.

One's last b...more This may be a book better served upon a second reading, or perhaps assigned in a class to really pour over it? Or maybe not? Seems to me a bit overly ambitious in retrospect. Perhaps the author's drive here is to connect the fount of history and myth, and show how blurred both can be? According to a fellow book club member, Lessing has stated that her next book will be her last. So maybe Lessing is looking out over the chasm of time more than most of us, and closer to the edge of it.

One's last book has got to be a pretty tough concept as an individual to wrap one's head around. Few of us get to the first one. Another tough idea to wrap one's head around is where men and women came from, this book offers the idea of these lazy, mermaid, wo-manatee types (the Clefts) juxtaposed to the males that come about by accident and are called Monsters. This is her genesis, her creation myth. The women almost seeming like large amoebic beings, cleaving themselves perhaps?

The boys pushing, driving out, the old women happy to laze about in the sun on the rocks...um, well stereotypes are unfair, but this is not always so far off the mark. The men afraid to admit mistakes, getting lost on a trip, and not exactly the best of care-takers. I like how Lessing alludes to the source of war being neglected children forming tribes against their absent fathers.

This is only my second book of Lessing's I have completed, the other...the "Fifth Child" also features a sort of harsh relationship between mother and son. Read into it what you will, all relationships are battles of will, she did have one son as a single mother in London, having given up her two toddlers to their father upon splitting up. I suspect her story is a complicated and difficult one, apparently we'll have to wait for Michael Holroyd to decode it all.

Anyways, inserting the Roman narrative, with the crucial role of the Eagles in the pre-history Cleft/Monster and other overarching notions (Roman gods and goddesses erupting form the altering creation myth). The focus seemed to be sharply on the Cleft/Monsters, but the book does start with our Roman historian. And some of the tales from Roman times (the first wife trying to prevent the narrator for being too ostentatious such that Nero would claim his spoils) were intriguing, but again mostly minor it seems.

Ultimately I just don't think this book hold together, but I intend to read some more of her work (I have read a little of Ben, the "sequel" to the Fifth Child). I'm a closet fan of curmudgeons, and the "Cleft" curmudgeons are most rare...I suspect Lessing is one!

(less)

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Feb 11, 2011 Kimi rated it 4 of 5 stars

i'm surprised this book has such a low rating on goodreads. maybe i shouldn't be. lessing's idea here, that women came first, and men evolved later, might be shocking or disgusting to some people. this isn't a 'normal' novel in that there aren't characters, per se, that one follows their development (though lessing does give a few names to key players in her narrative). the story is told by a roman historian who is sifting through documents, trying to make a cohesive story of the beginning of hu...more

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Sep 21, 2010 Kinga rated it 2 of 5 stars

there were moments when I truly enjoyed this book. It grabbed my attention and made me think a lot. Mostly about it's flaws.
The book seems to be written by an amatheur. It is fragmented and poorly composed, the tale seems to have no credibility at all, and the narrator constantly repeats himself (which has been driving me mad). On top of that, the author seems to be strongly influenced by stereotypical thinking.
However, I cannot believe she would write something this bad if it weren't on purpos...more

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May 24, 2012 Beth rated it 4 of 5 stars

In the Cleft a Roman historian is chronicling the history of The Clefts, the beginning of people. Clefts were women who lived on this island and gave birth to other clefts (women). Then one day a "monster" or boy was born and everything changed. He chronicles what happens after the first boy was born and how it changed the clefts way of life.

The Cleft had a very mythological feel to it. And while it did deal with gender roles some, for me I saw it more as an evolution of thought. How a group of...more

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Mar 06, 2013 Betsy rated it 4 of 5 stars

I expected to whip through this book but found that I needed to read it a little slower to absorb what the author was trying to convey. I almost didn’t finish it. Around page 160, I was completely frustrated on how the book was written and decided to read some reviews to help clarify what the author was trying to do. Well, I’m glad I did! It changed my whole attitude. After one review, I realized how brilliant the author was by how realistically portraying how a Roman would have told his story....more

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Jan 15, 2011 Jenny rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is not so much a novel as a fantasy wrapped around a theory. The theory is that humans came from the sea and started off by reproducing parthogenetically. Here, a Roman historian describes the quirks of early humanity, based on old written documents which are a transcription of still older oral histories.

The story is that women started giving birth to men, and, considering them deformed, put them out to die. Some of the men survived and then began rescuing the new male babies. After a lot...more

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Dec 22, 2008 Ouise rated it 3 of 5 stars

I liked the unusual, story-telling, almost biblical style of this story. You have the feeling that you are sitting near the chimney at a time when tv, radio and the internet did not exist and that you are listening to a story told by a wise elder.
I also liked Doris Lessing's observation of the human nature, the description of women that "are" and men that "do", of women that give and care about life and men that are restless and seek to discover and conquer. The description of this fundamental h...more

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Mar 18, 2012 Queirosiana rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

«Foi apontada a possibilidade de a estirpe humana básica e primordial ser feminina e de o aparecimento dos homens ser mais tardio, à semelhança duma reflexão cósmica posterior.»

Tinha muita expectativa neste livro e não saí frustrada.

A Fenda trata uma história muito peculiar: E, se em tempos muito idos, as mulheres tivessem sido os primeiros seres humanos. E, ao contrário da história de Adão e Eva, o homem nascesse da mulher e não o contrário?

Esta ideia mexeu muito comigo, aliás, foi isto que me...more «Foi apontada a possibilidade de a estirpe humana básica e primordial ser feminina e de o aparecimento dos homens ser mais tardio, à semelhança duma reflexão cósmica posterior.»

Tinha muita expectativa neste livro e não saí frustrada.

A Fenda trata uma história muito peculiar: E, se em tempos muito idos, as mulheres tivessem sido os primeiros seres humanos. E, ao contrário da história de Adão e Eva, o homem nascesse da mulher e não o contrário?

Esta ideia mexeu muito comigo, aliás, foi isto que me fez ler o livro. O narrador, é um cidadão romano que, paralelamente, nos vai dando alguns exemplos muito singulares da sua experiência marital e familiar.

A história começa com as Fendas, figuras femininas, que dão à luz outras Fendas pelo poder da Lua ou do Grande Peixe. A comunidade em que vivem, podemos caracterizá-la como tranquila, até ao momento em que começam a surgir os primeiros "Monstros", seres estranhos, repulsivos que sem dó nem piedade, Elas atiram do penhasco abaixo... no entanto, alguns são salvos pelas Águias que os levam para o Vale onde sobrevivem graças à amamentação dos veados.

A partir daqui, começa a transformação desta comunidade feminina, cujo auge da "mudança" surge quando Elas decidem subir a montanha e ver o Vale e aí se deparam com os Monstros, a quem passaram também a chamar de Esguichos. A mudança começa a surgir com Maire e Astre, que dão à luz os primeiros bebés Fenda/Monstro. A partir daqui, dá-se uma alteração, as mulheres deixam de dar à luz bebés sozinhas, começam a precisar dos homens.

Na história, contudo, a duas comunidades são sempre independentes uma da outra... as mulheres vivem no litoral e os homens no Vale, visitando-se mutuamente. A história termina com as mulheres a terem de ir viver com os homens para um novo litoral... uma nova fase da história, em que já se dizia que o primeiro ser humano tinha sido um Homem...

"Mas vocês não querem saber de nós? Perguntava Maronna a Horsa" e esta pergunta tilintava constantemente na cabeça deles, os Esguichos. (less)

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Nov 22, 2011 Nicole rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Historical story lovers~ Those who like different stories of how the human race first started.

Recommended to Nicole by: Literary Criticism (Class)

Shelves: education

I must say, when I started this book, I didn't quite realize what I was getting myself into. Half the time I don't quite take the time to know what my school books are about. So finding out I was reading something along the lines of a fictional novel depicting how the human race first began and what it was like for them to exist is one thing. A completely altering addition is that Doris Lessing, our author, stood by the claim that women were the first people to have existed--not men. This odd tw...more I must say, when I started this book, I didn't quite realize what I was getting myself into. Half the time I don't quite take the time to know what my school books are about. So finding out I was reading something along the lines of a fictional novel depicting how the human race first began and what it was like for them to exist is one thing. A completely altering addition is that Doris Lessing, our author, stood by the claim that women were the first people to have existed--not men. This odd twist of things makes so much sense in her reasonable, thoughtful, provoking method of writing. But we enter a completely new and strange dynamic as well when we realize that our narrator is the historian who was given these documents to decipher for the world telling us this story. But that's not all. He's a Roman. An ancient Roman, in the times of Rome's military conquests and world-wide expansions in an attempt to become the greatest empire in the world.

What a dynamic we're thrown into! Doris Lessing does her best to twist our viewpoint into something unfamiliar and uncomfortable--every which way she turns our eyes!

Why then, with this peculiar, intriguing concept did I give the book only a three out of five? The writing is simple and easy to follow. It's provocative and brings out various reactions from the reader--there it has no want. The storyline itself is gripping and unusual, so that cannot be the cause. Simply placed, it is not in the line of my fancy. While I enjoyed the novel--yes, very much so! I was not dulled by a moment of it!--neither was I thrilled and engaged to the extent I felt that I could have been. Perhaps it is only me, and perhaps others will find this a novel much worth the fussing and fretting over. In my case, however, I read it with the casualness of one hearing someone ramble about a viewpoint that you don't necessarily agree with, but you don't want to be rude about and so you nod your head and make sure not to interrupt. Did I find it intriguing and entertaining? Yep. You bet I did. I still feel something was lacking from it though.

Perhaps it is her casual phrasing? Perhaps it was that it was written through this historian's view, giving us facts and suppositions, events as they happened and changes. But that is not enough to draw someone in all the time, even if the subject has allure. I get it. She was trying to make a point and going for the aspect of credibility rather than a riveting method of storytelling, taking for granted or purposefully knowing that her subject was what she wanted people to focus on, not the adventure of the book itself. And I feel that does take away an essential aspect from a book. You can sit back and casually read it, practically flip through it, and come away and say, "Well that was a beneficial read. What's the next thing on the list?" It doesn't leave you wanting, mulling, anything. It's done the moment the story ends. You don't spend all that time wondering about what could have happened afterwards, because there is very little emotional attachment to the characters within the tale. Even our narrator doesn't give us anything to hold on to half the time. And what he does portray is strange and bewildering. Which makes me believe that this is how Doris Lessing wanted the novel to be written, and to come across to us readers.

Story and concepts appreciated, Mrs. Lessing! But I'm afraid that I hunt for more engaging rather than argumentative and educational reads. Thank you for your efforts though. They were interesting, for the duration.

If you'd like to try this book, readers, give it a go in a library first, or pick it up used. But I don't recommend you going out and buying it. Not at all. You may find you enjoy it, or that you like it more than I did. But this is a book I wouldn't advise you to take the risk on initially, before you know what you're getting yourself into.(less)

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Jan 25, 2011 Josh Ang rated it 3 of 5 stars

A mythical retelling of the origins of the human species, albeit with a feminist slant expected of Lessing... This strange 'new/old' society is made up entirely of women, the titular 'Clefts', whose birth cycles are entirely independent of sexual procreation... until one of them gives birth to a 'Monster' (or a 'Squirt' as the first male is called in time).

The rest of the story centres round the attempted extinction of the squirts by the Old Shes (hoary matriarchal beings), and how the two sexe...more

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Sep 05, 2009 Anya Behn rated it 1 of 5 stars

I really want to like Doris Lessing. A long time ago, I read the myth of The Cleft in the New Age bookstore where I worked in beautiful downtown Pasadena, so I was very interested to read her take on it. This book is written in two voices....the voice of a Roman historian, and one or more Cleft people from the distant past. It doesn't fit together as one book, and it is very distracting to read it written this way. Like, what does the life of the Roman's young wife and her brushing off her son h...more

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May 14, 2012 Ângelo rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A Fenda
"Vi isto hoje.
Quando as carroças vão chegando da herdade à medida que o verão se finda, trazendo o vinho, as azeitonas, as frutas, um ar festivo inunda a casa, e eu participo dele. Das minhas janelas observo os escravos da casa, enquanto se põem à escuta, à espera de ouvir o rangido da carroça que os bois vêm a puxar na curva da estrada."

Partindo de um pressuposto em que no inicio da humanidade só existia um género sexual da estripe humana, nesta caso o feminino, designadas pelas Fendas,...more A Fenda
"Vi isto hoje.
Quando as carroças vão chegando da herdade à medida que o verão se finda, trazendo o vinho, as azeitonas, as frutas, um ar festivo inunda a casa, e eu participo dele. Das minhas janelas observo os escravos da casa, enquanto se põem à escuta, à espera de ouvir o rangido da carroça que os bois vêm a puxar na curva da estrada."

Partindo de um pressuposto em que no inicio da humanidade só existia um género sexual da estripe humana, nesta caso o feminino, designadas pelas Fendas, estas procriavam sob o ciclo da lua, ou talvez devido a outro acontecimento, onde o aparecimento do "fluxo vermelho" aparentemente era o causador da engravidez das Fendas, que originalmente e durante varias eras (uma era como um ciclo temporal semelhante a um ano, uma decada, um seculo) somente davam à luz Fendas. Estas Fendas tinham um comportamento muito singular por exemplo não choravam era sossegadas sem birras uns anjinhos.
Esta comunidade vivia em grutas, grutas banhadas a seus pés pelo vasto oceano, devido a isso as fendas era eximias nadadoras e estavam organizadas consuante as suas actividades (i.e. auxiliar da água, apanhadora de peixes, etc...) e como "orientadoras" dessas Fendas "menores" existiam as Velhas Elas que imponham a sua ordem.
Então um dia uma Fenda dá à luz um bebé do sexo masculino, um Monstro ou um Esguicho com foram designados pelas Fendas, este nascimento também surge muito nubloso sem algum tipo de orientação ou justificação. Os primeiros Monstros são mutilados e oferecidos às águias para que estas os matem. Este ritual mantém-se durante eras.

Marie uma Fenda inquieta (só a atitude de se auto chamar Marie é considerado um ato de rebeldia pelas Velhas Elas) decide um dia explorar para alem das montanhas e descobre ai uma comunidade repleta de monstros a sua curiosidade impele-a a ir ter com os Monstros. É violada e dessa violação nasce uma Fenda, e toda a relação entre Fendas e Monstros é alterada.

Doris Lessing parte de um tema interessante e que bem explorado daria uma enciclopédia universal, isto do ovo e da galinha tem destas coisas. A narrativa foi deixada, e na minha opinião nada inocente, a um Romano com pretensões de ser senador. São várias a analogias entre estes dois universos, o criado por Lessing e o universo Romano ex: "Não eram como os nossos meninos mimados, sempre debaixo do olhar atento dos seus escravos.. (pág.. 127)", D. Lessing impõe uma certa nudez nas características básicas humanas, tem o condão de fazer com que os homens sintam este livro escrito por uma feminista, que luta pelos seus ideais, tal como as mulheres sentem um certo desrespeito pela sua identidade feminina tal como são descritas no livro. Eu senti uma escrita feminista "pura" (implicância minha), mas lá no fundo penso que terá sido esse objectivo de D. Lessing, e digo isto devido a passagens deste tipo; "Eles nasceram normais, mas depois parece que não pensam noutra coisa senão nos esguichos (pág.. 128) " ou então "ao fim de tantos meses passados na companhia dos homens, já se tinham esquecido que as mulheres significavam, calor e generosidade. (pág.. 203)", mas também entendo um certo amargo das mulheres quando são descritas com uma leviandade uma falta de sentido explorador, falta de sentido criativo, D. Lessing cria assim o efeito adverso ao feminista (mas isto só o descobri depois de falar-mos abertamente do livro em grupo), não entendo ou não concordo com uma certa predominância física masculina, pois penso que as Fendas, pelo apresentado, teriam um porte substancialmente "mais bem" constituído que os monstros.

Não é um livro fácil de ler, uma escrita muito repetitiva nas ideias centrais e nada fluida tornam o livro pouco acolhedor, repleto de lacunas e interrogações que lhe dão um colorido diferente mas que não chega para saciar as dúvidas, assim um livro que recomendo com muitas reservas. (less)

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Aug 30, 2008 Kate rated it 1 of 5 stars

I'm within 80 pages of being done with this book and I just can't bring myself to finish it. The premise sounded so interesting. But the author's generalizations about men and women were almost comical...and I don't think that was her intent. Anyway, I give up!!!

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Apr 16, 2012 Laura Rittenhouse rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is a fictional pre-history tale. It relates the story of humans from the beginning of time, when women were the only humans around, to the beginning of humans as we know them. Long ago (whenever that was) the women gave birth and reared their young as a community without the need for or existence of men. When the first "monsters" were born, things got a bit complicated.

This novel is almost a dystopia, it is definitely a philosophical work. I found it both a pleasant read and thought p...more

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Apr 25, 2012 Alexia rated it 2 of 5 stars

The first page excited me , as did the premise, but I was disappointed. Although Lessing is a rich writer, her novel was a bit of a bitch to get through. The idea that women were the human archetype thus breeding resentment from men today is an interesting one but I wish she'd developed the theory further and come up with some relatable conclusion. As it were, she refers back to gender stereotypes (apparently we nagged in cavemen times too) and ends the novel without really getting anywhere.

Fur...more

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Jan 05, 2010 Dergrossest rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is a delightfully told reimagining of the origins of the species ultimately betrayed by its old-fashioned stereotypes of men and women. The story of women, capable of parthenogenesis, as the first humans who had their idyllic existence destroyed by the birth of men, is unexpectedly interesting. Unfortunately, also unexpected is the book’s ridiculous portrayal of women as uniformly sweet, nurturing and wise, and its portrayal of all men as rakish, selfish and slightly stupid. Does the author...more

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Sep 02, 2012 Ideasmith rated it 1 of 5 stars

This is an example of a mediocre (even bad) book with a promising blurb. The story of human creation, where the first beings were not men but only women (called Clefts). Boy children first appeared as anomalies of birth and then a trend that threatened and changed the social structures as they were. The book is probably an attempt to trace the source of tensions between the sexes, the mixture of fascination & mistrust with which we regard each other. Just like any other long-running war, thi...more

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Apr 25, 2012 Natasha rated it 4 of 5 stars

A challenging read, but worth it. I've read Doris Lessing interviews where she says that being defined as a feminist author is too limiting, boxing her in, and that she never sets out with feminism as her primary subject. But there it is. When thinking about my own relationship to feminism- the weird extremes I've contemplated if never committed to, and the complex and hugely important layer of my life that it is now, Lessing's books have been important along the way. I do not agree with her all...more

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Aug 11, 2012 Biogeek rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Imaginative and thought-provoking. The Cleft conjures up the era when males first appeared in a society of only women, the clefts. Lessing creates a society before sex and gender, and slowly introduces us to the changes "The Monsters" or "Squirts" bring with their existence. Jealousy, ownership, ambition, time are some of the concepts Lessing's fiction attributes to this one major new development.

The pre-historic tale is framed by the story of a Roman historian attempting to make sense of the no...more

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Aug 18, 2009 Derrick White rated it 2 of 5 stars

This is my first Lessing novel. It is an historical construction, similar to Deepak Chopra's recent "Jesus," where the author takes some historical and scientific facts and builds around them a new historical narrative. Narratives that are not necessarily, perhaps rarely, contradictry to our current understanding of our past and evolution. Regrettably, I found both Lessing's Cleft and Chopra's Jesus too simplistic. While character development of the respective protagonists is healthy and respect...more

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Jul 16, 2011 April rated it 2 of 5 stars

An interesting book. It read like a historical research paper, but it was unique. I didn't particularly like the historian's intrusions, every time he saw fit to add something. I got bored half way through the book, but trooped on. I owe Doris Lessing that much. I didn't learn anything new, which is a prerequisite for any book I read. This book reminded me of that movie that came out last year, "The Wicker Man." I'm not sure what Lessing was doing here - perhaps experimenting? (chuckle) Some bit...more

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About Doris Lessing

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 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 Olive Schreiner and Nadine Gordimer), Lessing made herself into a self-educated intellectual.

In 1937 she moved to Salisbury, where she worked as a telephone operator for a year. At nineteen, she married Frank Wisdom, and had two children. A few years later, feeling trapped in a persona that she feared would destroy her, she left her family, remaining in Salisbury. Soon she was drawn to the like-minded members of the Left Book Club, a group of Communists "who read everything, and who did not think it remarkable to read." Gottfried Lessing was a central member of the group; shortly after she joined, they married and had a son.

During the postwar years, Lessing became increasingly disillusioned with the Communist movement, which she left altogether in 1954. By 1949, Lessing had moved to London with her young son. That year, she also published her first novel, The Grass Is Singing, and began her career as a professional writer.

In June 1995 she received an Honorary Degree from Harvard University. Also in 1995, she visited South Africa to see her daughter and grandchildren, and to promote her autobiography. It was her first visit since being forcibly removed in 1956 for her political views. Ironically, she is welcomed now as a writer acclaimed for the very topics for which she was banished 40 years ago.

In 2001 she was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize in Literature, one of Spain's most important distinctions, for her brilliant literary works in defense of freedom and Third World causes. She also received the David Cohen British Literature Prize.

She was on the shortlist for the first Man Booker International Prize in 2005. In 2007 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

(Extracted from the pamphlet: A Reader's Guide to The Golden Notebook & Under My Skin, HarperPerennial, 1995. Full text available on www.dorislessing.org).(less)

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