Mimi's review
The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
Even though I read this book over 30 years ago, I remember how affected I was by its writer protagonist, and her various notebooks. I was a single mom, working and going to junior college, and Lessing's book was one I read in my first "Feminist Lit" course. It inspired me to try writing in various journals: I named one "Rage & Anger," another one "Dreams & Visions," and another "Magic & Madness." There were others, but I eventually went back to one journal when all those spirals were filled. I've read other works by Lessing, and other than an occasional story or essay, nothing else measured up to The Golden Notebooks. I was thrilled to learn that she was awarded a Nobel Prize this week for her body of work! She is only the 11th woman in the history of this prize, and she deserves it. So that's why I decided to list her book first on this bookshelf. I wish I had time to read it again.
Mimi
I'm with you ...
I have never been here before so I hope it's ok to write an opinion that is at odds with most of the other posts that came before Mimi's. So many of you have raised so many terrific questions that go beyond the scope of TGN I find myself not knowing where to start. So I think I'll address the book first: TGN was not Lessing's first book. She had published at least 5 novels and many SS before she wrote TGN. I too read it in a class and was grateful that I had a Lessing scholar teaching the class. I think I would have drowned very quickly if I had not been taught how to read contemporary fiction.
ONe of the major points about Lessing's work adn TGN in particular is that you don't get it in one reading ... it's too complicated, too multi-layered, addresses not only the politics between men adn women and women and women but politics of countries on the verge of blowing up into civil wars ... (remember the scene with the grasshoppers? ... that was there for a reason and if you go back and look at it you will see that it's not about grasshoppers (the metaphor) but about Communism, survival, safety, repopulation, nature welcome and not) [oh geesh I'm preaching ... sorry ... I just have very passionate feelings about this book and Doris Lessing as an icon and someone who broke literary and social ground with all of her writing.)
Just one more thing and then I will go away ...
well two really ... TGN is a frame story ... which is another layer that makes it so difficult ... you are really reading 2 novels at the same time; and believe it or not she wrote all three notebooks simutaneously ... imagine keeping track of all of that in a straight line?
I cried when I heard she won the Nobel. I was afraid she might not live long enough to receive what should have been hers years ago. She took it on the chin when the committee removed her name because of her science fiction series ... but someone there had his head on straight.
I hope this makes some kind of sense ... Mimi I too began different journals and became very sensitive to what I was reading by any writer.
Thanks for getting this far those of you who did.
Dear Barbara,
Thanks so much for your insightful response! I was a little surprised to see your comment, as I've only listed 3 books (so far) with Good Reads, as I don't want to list anything without a comment (stars alone don't really mean anything to me: I want to know what people Thought about the book!) So I appreciate your thoughtful response. I'd also like to know more about the Lessing scholar who taught your class, and where the class was held.
I first read Lessing in an English class at Santa Barbara Community College. The instructor, Dr. Barbara Lindeman, was fresh out of an Ivy League college (Smith or Vassar, I believe) and also taught the first Women's Studies courses at SBCC--a very wonderful time to be in college, in the early 70s.
Thanks for writing. Feel free to write back directly to me at <wheatwind@yahoo.com>
