The Cleft

by Doris Lessing

book data

299 ratings, 2.78 average rating, 95 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		6%
4		20%
3		33%
2		24%
1		15%

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published

January 2nd 2007 by Fourth Estate

binding

Hardcover, 288 pages

isbn

0007233434 (isbn13: 9780007233434)

description

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 th

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05/26/08

elisa rated it:

bookshelves: 2008

Read in May, 2008

i was really disappointed in this book. i had high expectations based on the idea of the story, but i wish i wish i wish ... a lot of things. i wish the story was better. i wish she hadn't fallen back on gender stereotyping and gender roles. i wish i liked her style better. i wish someone like marge piercy had written this story instead...

"I have always found it entertaining that females are worshipped as goddesses, while in ordinary life they are kept secondary and thought...more

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03/12/08

Eileen rated it:

Read in April, 2008

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 que...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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02/25/08

Genevieve rated it:

bookshelves: nobel-author

Read in February, 2008

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 change...more

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12/31/07

Jen rated it:

(review of isbn 0060834862)

Read in January, 2008

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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07/23/08

Marjanne rated it:

Read in July, 2008

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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10/16/07

Christina rated it:

bookshelves: fiction

Read in April, 2008

While this is one of the most original tales I've read in a while, I didn't find it particularly amazing. The dynamics between men and women are always going to be discussed, questioned, and even surrounded in myth, but here I felt there was too much of the same old gender stereotypes coming into play. I could appreciate the author's take on the creation of humankind, as the culture she invents is somewhat interesting, but I didn't feel there was anything compelling to add to the larger politi...more

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04/21/08

Kartix rated it:

Read in May, 2008

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...more

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12/08/08

Ouise rated it:

Read in December, 2008

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 descri...more

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08/12/08

Kate rated it:

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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12/01/08

Arf rated it:

Read in October, 2008

I guess when you are nearly ninety and have won awards including the Nobel Prize and written a couple of dozen novels and other works you can write (and publish) whatever you want. This book begins as though it is a parable, but really it's an odd fantasy. The narrator is a Roman senator assessing and amassing an uncertain "history" that purports to account for origins presumably of the Romans or of humans in general. It begins with a society of parthenogenic females. There are few nam...more

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07/28/08

Dave-O rated it:

bookshelves: fiction

Read in July, 2008

recommends it for: people with vaginas or penises.

Lessing's novel proposes a new creation myth, one of a first race of females, the "Clefts", that give birth to males, "Monsters" (later, "Squirts"). That THE CLEFT is both a clever satire of gender roles as well as a thoroughly entertaining book is because of Lessing's talent for humanizing shards of a fictional myth. She does this vis-a-vis an elderly Roman historian who is writing his account of the history of the Clefts. This makes for an interesting, if at times...more

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05/27/08

John rated it:

Read in May, 2008

A book by a Nobel prize winner always seems to pique my interest. Although there are sure to be some disappointments, there are often several gems. In this book, Lessing asks us to imagine an intriguing tale of the beginnings of humankind. In this tale, there are initially only women who beget women. However, through some unknowable evolutionary process, they begin to have male children. They dub them monsters, but are eventually forced to integrate their societies. The tale then meanders throug...more

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03/24/08

sahiga rated it:

Read in June, 2009

Couldn't finish. Doris Lessing lets the (rather cool) concept carry the whole book instead of developing the story in an interesting manner. It would have been way better had it taken place in real time rather than in the historical notes of a Roman scholar. Then again, that would have required Lessing to come up with a reasonable explanation for why the Clefts bled when they cut red flowers and why they stopped being able to reproduce "by the moon" once they started having sex with th...more

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02/06/09

Steph rated it:

Read in January, 2009

This book is probably better than I can attest to. A sort of fable retelling of creation in which female comes before male and mayhem ensues. Anyone who knows me can tell you that fantastical stuff just isn't my thing, and this is no different. By the end, it boiled down to men are competetive and thoughtless and women are nagging bitches. Yay humanity!

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06/22/09

Justin rated it:

Read in June, 2009

I made it about half-way through, but couldn't bring myself to finish. The tale drags and the interjections of the Historian, while intended to illuminate the themes of the myth, end up highlighting the lack of clarity of Lessing's meaning.

Her short stories are leagues above this novel, read those instead.

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08/20/08

Anna rated it:

(review of isbn 0007233442)

Read in August, 2008

how about an alternative creation myth: women came first, and used to procreate without the help of men. They would be fertilised by the sea or the moon. But they started giving birth to deformed babies, which they called Monsters and which they left to die on the Killing Rock. Unfortunately the Monsters (or Squirts) were rescued by Eagles. A shame really, because once they started mating with women, the moon and the sea weren't sufficient anymore, and women needed the men's seeds.

t...more

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03/25/08

Susan rated it:

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in March, 2008

Doris Lessing rewrites the Book of Genesis and almost all mythology. She gives women credit for being the first humans mysteriously giving birth without the aid of a male partner. As they evlove they start giving birth to males which they have no use for and thus the battle of the sexes begin. Eventually women evolve to the point where they are unable to conceive without males.

The last half of the book records tells the tale of an adventure taken by most of the males and a few of th...more

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08/20/08

Sunflower rated it:

bookshelves: fiction-read-2008, library

Read in August, 2008

I have long been a devotee of Doris Lessing, and therefore am glad that this was not the first book of hers that I had encountered. This alternate history of humans starting with women didn't seem to add anything to the world body of literature. It was repetitive, the names clefts and squirts jarred with me, and the story would have been pointless even if it was true. Certainly it highlights things about the relationships between men and women, but they aren't new, and framing them in a story wr...more

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03/19/09

Janet rated it:

Read in March, 2006

Besides being repetitive, redundant and painfully slow, I wanted someone to explain to me what's the big deal about Doris Lessing's writing? What am I missing?

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04/11/08

Ti rated it:

Read in April, 2008

A nightmarish tale about human creation where women are called "clefts" and men are called "monsters" or "squirts". Male babies are sacrificed for years until some eagles decide to save the "monster" babies and to take them to another part of the island they all share..where they grow up to be "squirts".
When the Clefts learn of this, they wander over and thus begins the story of how the human race began. Add animals that feed the babies, ge...more

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