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Mara and Dann #2
The Story of General Dann and Mara's Daughter, Griot and the Snow Dog
In her visionary novel Mara and Dann (published in 1999), Doris Lessing introduced us to a brother and sister battling through a future landscape where the climate is much changed -- colder than ever before in the north and unbearably dry and hot in the south. In this new novel the odyssey continues.
Dann is grown up now, hunting for knowledge and despondent over the inadequacies of his civilization, traveling with his friend, a snow dog who brings him back from the depths of despair. And we meet Mara's daughter and Griot with the green eyes, an abandoned child-soldier who, in this strange and captivating adventure, discovers the meaning of love and the ability to sing stories.
Like its predecessor, this brilliant new novel from one of our greatest living writers explains as much about the world we now live in as it does about the future we may be heading toward.
Dann is grown up now, hunting for knowledge and despondent over the inadequacies of his civilization, traveling with his friend, a snow dog who brings him back from the depths of despair. And we meet Mara's daughter and Griot with the green eyes, an abandoned child-soldier who, in this strange and captivating adventure, discovers the meaning of love and the ability to sing stories.
Like its predecessor, this brilliant new novel from one of our greatest living writers explains as much about the world we now live in as it does about the future we may be heading toward.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
About the author
Doris Lessing
464 books3,248 followersDoris Lessing was born into a colonial family. 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 later 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).
In 1937 she moved to Salisbury, where she worked as a telephone operator for a year. At nineteen, she married Frank Wisdom, and later 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).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
June 30, 2013
The frequent description “future fable” just exactly describes this wonderful novel, a richly detailed tapestry of lives and themes and meditations on the world as it might well become. The tale of the young man Dann, who had experienced and accomplished so much in a preceding novel, is both deeply sympathetic and sad, and this reader, any reader in fact, does not need to have read the prequel to make connections with his character.
The story is set some millennia on from now, at a time when a thaw is beginning in the new Ice Age that has seen the glaciers and ice sheets reach the southern shores of Europe and lower the sea levels in the Mediterranean. Dann and his contemporaries inhabit the northern fringes of Africa (somewhere around present-day Tunisia perhaps) where rumours of war are commonplace and refugees are frequent. There are recognisable descendants of Africans, Asians and Europeans peopling this world but the action is mostly set in the ruins of ‘the Centre’, where museum exhibits and sealed-in books provide a barely translucent window on a past rapidly disappearing from view and receding from human understanding.
The language of The Story of General Dann is simply couched but never simplistic. The novel is suffused with the theme of narrative, from Dann’s brief occupation as a story-teller to Griot’s attempt to make real the storyline in his own head: the rise of a leader who will inspire an army, recover lost knowledge and found a new civilisation; and others have already pointed out the obvious, that the name Griot is a West African term for a story-teller.
Dann himself is suffering from a bipolar disorder exacerbated by the fallout from forced opium use in his earlier life. The theme of polarities is echoed in many other ways, not least in the use of differently coloured cloaks by different armies, red by one, black by another. Dann is hero-worshipped by Griot, a former boy-soldier, who hopes that Dann will provide a focus for order, direction, conquest and the preservation of knowledge – all the elements in fact that may allow a dimly-perceived civilisation to be resurrected in the marshy foothills of the Atlas mountains. All are groping in the dark, and while there is a resolution of sorts in the closing pages of the novel, it is clear that civilisation will have to emerge anew rather than from the ruins of its former manifestation.
The final point I want to make concerns Lessing’s portrayal of the female characters in the book. It is in these individuals – Dann’s deluded and drug-addicted former partner, his bullying daughter, his niece (the daughter of his sister Mara), the natural healer – that the author’s fable-telling is most manifest. Yes, these are individuals, but they are also almost stereotypes, and while we feel for them – their strengths, their foibles, their victimhoods, their successes – they appear, as with the male characters, somewhat distant. This is not just because they are in some never-never land in the far future; it is because, I think, these characters could be each and every one of us if we found ourselves in such a situation. And if it makes us pause and think, ‘Would we manage any better in such circumstances?’ then that is only one of many positive aspects of this thoughtful and haunting novel.
The Story of General Dann reminds me of Ursula Le Guin’s speculative novels: there is the same melancholy, the avoidance of trite formulae, the consideration of the individual’s relationship to society. Though this is my first Lessing story, its predecessor Mara and Dann: an adventure is already tempting me from the bookshelves.
http://wp.me/p2oNj1-qO
The story is set some millennia on from now, at a time when a thaw is beginning in the new Ice Age that has seen the glaciers and ice sheets reach the southern shores of Europe and lower the sea levels in the Mediterranean. Dann and his contemporaries inhabit the northern fringes of Africa (somewhere around present-day Tunisia perhaps) where rumours of war are commonplace and refugees are frequent. There are recognisable descendants of Africans, Asians and Europeans peopling this world but the action is mostly set in the ruins of ‘the Centre’, where museum exhibits and sealed-in books provide a barely translucent window on a past rapidly disappearing from view and receding from human understanding.
The language of The Story of General Dann is simply couched but never simplistic. The novel is suffused with the theme of narrative, from Dann’s brief occupation as a story-teller to Griot’s attempt to make real the storyline in his own head: the rise of a leader who will inspire an army, recover lost knowledge and found a new civilisation; and others have already pointed out the obvious, that the name Griot is a West African term for a story-teller.
Dann himself is suffering from a bipolar disorder exacerbated by the fallout from forced opium use in his earlier life. The theme of polarities is echoed in many other ways, not least in the use of differently coloured cloaks by different armies, red by one, black by another. Dann is hero-worshipped by Griot, a former boy-soldier, who hopes that Dann will provide a focus for order, direction, conquest and the preservation of knowledge – all the elements in fact that may allow a dimly-perceived civilisation to be resurrected in the marshy foothills of the Atlas mountains. All are groping in the dark, and while there is a resolution of sorts in the closing pages of the novel, it is clear that civilisation will have to emerge anew rather than from the ruins of its former manifestation.
The final point I want to make concerns Lessing’s portrayal of the female characters in the book. It is in these individuals – Dann’s deluded and drug-addicted former partner, his bullying daughter, his niece (the daughter of his sister Mara), the natural healer – that the author’s fable-telling is most manifest. Yes, these are individuals, but they are also almost stereotypes, and while we feel for them – their strengths, their foibles, their victimhoods, their successes – they appear, as with the male characters, somewhat distant. This is not just because they are in some never-never land in the far future; it is because, I think, these characters could be each and every one of us if we found ourselves in such a situation. And if it makes us pause and think, ‘Would we manage any better in such circumstances?’ then that is only one of many positive aspects of this thoughtful and haunting novel.
The Story of General Dann reminds me of Ursula Le Guin’s speculative novels: there is the same melancholy, the avoidance of trite formulae, the consideration of the individual’s relationship to society. Though this is my first Lessing story, its predecessor Mara and Dann: an adventure is already tempting me from the bookshelves.
http://wp.me/p2oNj1-qO
October 1, 2007
I honestly picked this off of the library's "new" shelf because of its title. What the heck is a "snow dog"? Reading the descriptives in the book flap, I found it even more interesting, with promises of survival and new civilization rising from the ashes of our contemporary society, set far into the future. I'm a sucker for that kind of thing, and as it turns out, Doris Lessing writes about it (and just about anything else she tries her hand at) better than most.
To my detriment, I hadn't read anything by Lessing until this book. She's a rare breed in today's literary world, an aged British woman with a fine grasp of the nuances of the English language, awash in a long, long list of quality novels, paperbacks, and other publications that she's released to quiet critical fervor.
I'd heartily recommend this book (and it's prequel, 'Mara and Dann: An Adventure', to anyone who hasn't experienced Lessing's work before. She's a writer who captures both dark and light in ways that expose details I hadn't seen before, at turns haunting and beautiful and at others crushing and sad.
To my detriment, I hadn't read anything by Lessing until this book. She's a rare breed in today's literary world, an aged British woman with a fine grasp of the nuances of the English language, awash in a long, long list of quality novels, paperbacks, and other publications that she's released to quiet critical fervor.
I'd heartily recommend this book (and it's prequel, 'Mara and Dann: An Adventure', to anyone who hasn't experienced Lessing's work before. She's a writer who captures both dark and light in ways that expose details I hadn't seen before, at turns haunting and beautiful and at others crushing and sad.
December 22, 2007
This book takes place with Maura and Dann grown up. Maura dies (off camera) in the first 10 pages. Dann is General Dann and he lives in the Centre where many refugees come, fleeing wars and drought. Griot, his friend, manages everything while Dann wanders off on a journey. When he wanders back, Griot has a whole army ready for General Dann to command. Does Dann do that? No he mopes about.
Do you ever read a book and it just goes on and on and you wait for the big thing to happen and you realize that there are only about 30 pages left and the big thing isn't in fact going to happen? This is one of those books. Sadly, it wasn't that great.
Do you ever read a book and it just goes on and on and you wait for the big thing to happen and you realize that there are only about 30 pages left and the big thing isn't in fact going to happen? This is one of those books. Sadly, it wasn't that great.
November 12, 2019
Mara and Dann is my favorite book of all time. I just re-read it and had to follow it up with another read of this book, its sequel. It was hard to see Mara and Dann end, so I love this book for being there to continue the journey. The beginning is awesome, aside from Mara's death, which is so hard since she's one of my all time favorite literary characters. Dann reaches the edge of Yerrup as the ice falls away in massive sheets, yearning to see what lies beneath. Seeing the world through his eyes is sad and at times hopeless, but was important after Mara and Dann's previous journey. Not the adventure that the other book is, Story of General Dann and Mara's Daughter, Griot and the Snow Dog is still an important work and continues the powerful ideas that Lessing conveys about war, love, technology, impermanence and the mysteries of royal adoration. Animal lovers will enjoy the deep relationship Dann has with the snow dog, an almost mythical companion who replaces Mara on some level.
October 26, 2010
Where Mara and Dann is more concerned with survival in a post-second-Ice-Age world, this sequel focuses on the preservation of information --what little of it remains-- against losing odds.
Lessing's stripped-down writing style leaves me wanting more sometimes in this novel (which makes it a slightly-less-great read than its predecessor), but by the book's end I wondered if it was meant to mimic Dann's shy attempts at storytelling.
Lessing's stripped-down writing style leaves me wanting more sometimes in this novel (which makes it a slightly-less-great read than its predecessor), but by the book's end I wondered if it was meant to mimic Dann's shy attempts at storytelling.
March 11, 2018
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2961084.html
The setting is a post-apocalyptic world where Europe is covered by melting ice sheets, the Mediterranean has dried up but slowly starting to fill again, and the remnants of humanity are trying to hold onto and maybe rebuild civilisation. Dann is thrust into a leadership role despite his bad health, and, surrounded by his companions of the title, is drawn into a quest to save a library of knowledge from the old days. The prose is terse, but the setting and the characters conveyed effectively, Dann's personal drama very closely linked to the question of what will happen to the cultural heritage now under threat from the changing climate. It's also fairly short.
The setting is a post-apocalyptic world where Europe is covered by melting ice sheets, the Mediterranean has dried up but slowly starting to fill again, and the remnants of humanity are trying to hold onto and maybe rebuild civilisation. Dann is thrust into a leadership role despite his bad health, and, surrounded by his companions of the title, is drawn into a quest to save a library of knowledge from the old days. The prose is terse, but the setting and the characters conveyed effectively, Dann's personal drama very closely linked to the question of what will happen to the cultural heritage now under threat from the changing climate. It's also fairly short.
September 9, 2007
This is one of those books I finished reading because I was hoping that it would be worth it in the end.
It wasn't.
I LOVED Mara and Dann, and was looking forward to continuing their story, but this book just doesn't come close to Mara and Dann. It's sorta meandering, infused in futility, and emotionally flat where it's not whiny. When it ended abruptly without resolution (which I think was probably the point but that doesn't make it good to read), I wanted to throw the book across the room.
Despite being short, it took me over a week to read because I kept having to put it down.
It wasn't.
I LOVED Mara and Dann, and was looking forward to continuing their story, but this book just doesn't come close to Mara and Dann. It's sorta meandering, infused in futility, and emotionally flat where it's not whiny. When it ended abruptly without resolution (which I think was probably the point but that doesn't make it good to read), I wanted to throw the book across the room.
Despite being short, it took me over a week to read because I kept having to put it down.
September 21, 2017
In the NE corner of Africa, in nowadays Morocco, ancient people had built a huge"Centre," filled with the shared knowledge and machines if Yerrup, or Urrup, before the Ice came and forced the humans to Africa. Here, General Dann and his ever-faithful Captain Griot assemble the"Red Blanket Army" out of the never-ending arrival of refugees from the war-torn East.
Lessing knows how to tell a good tale, and the ending makes it clear that General Dann, Captain Griot, Ali the doctor and tutor of Tamar, Dann's niece, will be back.
Lessing knows how to tell a good tale, and the ending makes it clear that General Dann, Captain Griot, Ali the doctor and tutor of Tamar, Dann's niece, will be back.
July 9, 2018
What makes Doris Lessing's scifi books so great is that they feel as though they're set in the past and the future at the same time. This one, which takes place during the melting of the ice caps, somehow bemoans mankind's idiocy at repeating the same old mistakes, and respects a handful of people's efforts to learn from the past and move forward. Lessing was in her eighties when she wrote this novel and her perspicacity and imagination are as impressive as ever.
June 30, 2020
I enjoy Lessing because she carefully reveals how different patterns and roles in society get their start. In the world she has created you see the characters striving to re-build things that we easily recognize (the songmaker, the administrator, the elite, and so on). Out of the devastated world she creates she asks what it is about these roles that necessitates their re-birth.
October 13, 2023
The sequel to Mara and Dann, the adventure continues. Dann is a general, has demons he struggles with including an issue with poppy use, suffers losses that he can't cope with but bonds with a dog. Griot is a young soldier who admires him & tries to help him. Didn't enjoy this as much as the first novel but I had to see it to the end.
November 13, 2017
Hadn’t heard of Mara and Dann. I knew who is Doris Lessing thanks to YouTube. Found this book at a book fair down in Sri Lanka. Only book of Lessing’s in it. I consider myself as lucky.
It has a melancholy in it, but a page turner. . She captivated me for several hours.
It has a melancholy in it, but a page turner. . She captivated me for several hours.
August 5, 2019
This is my first book by this author. The story is an interesting one but the writing I felt was a let down. At times it felt like I was reading a book for children. I loved Ruff the snow dog though.
November 14, 2025
I might have liked this book more if I’d read it closer to when I finished Mara and Dann. The story rambled for me, there was no climax , and it ended abruptly while I was waiting for something to happen. It felt very incomplete to me.
August 21, 2018
I've had a hard time finding books by Doris Lessing - I have a list of "want to read" books and each time I find one, they are 5-star.
February 20, 2019
не увлеклась.
May 6, 2021
This is legitimately the worst book I have ever forced myself through.
August 16, 2021
Secuela muy pobre con respecto a la primera historia y a la gran ficción especulativa Fe memorias de una superviviente. Me recordó por momentos a Patrick Rothfuss.
August 17, 2021
Inició buenísimo ! Flojo el final muy optimista
October 9, 2021
Not as transcendent as the first one, but has one of the most haunting scenes I’ve ever read.
December 18, 2021
I bought this book because it had such a long title! It was OK.
February 27, 2026
Non all'altezza del primo.
November 16, 2012
This book felt more like a long epilogue than a sequel. It was only about a quarter or at most a third the length of the original book and had a much smaller scope, but nonetheless I enjoyed it almost more than the first book. The book focused on Dann, and the first half of the book was from his perspective. It was a lovely description of his visit to the melting ice caps and life with the island people. He came across as much more emotional when the story was from his own perspective and I think I liked him more. The second half of the book was from the perspective of Girot, the man who was putting together an army for Dann at the centre. It was quite strange as Girot seemed to have been the "boy" character mentioned in Mara and Dann. However, in Mara and Dann it came across pretty explicitly, at least I thought so, that the "boy" and Dann were having a sexual relationship. This was not the case in the sequel, where either the relationship had been rewritten, or Mara had been reading far too much into it. The most interesting thing about this book was the loss of knowledge and the repetition of history. The characters were living in the remains of a museum and library that had been built by the refugees from Europe to preserve knowledge. It was really interesting to see that even though the people had worked so hard on trying to preserve the knowledge, so much of it was lost. The most interesting part was finding the hidden room, the remains of the sand libraries, where scholars worked trying to understand the old and lost languages and learn of the history that was written there before they were destroyed by the encroaching flood. The fact that they took this knowledge, or parts of it, and tried to build a new centre of knowledge in their new country was one of the most optimistic parts of the book. I found it frustrating that one of the first things that happened was the news that Mara had died in childbirth. Having had such an arduous journey only to be killed at the end of it seemed particularly sad. It also seemed like perhaps it would have made a better ending for a book than a beginning. But overall I found I really enjoyed this book, perhaps even more than the first (though it couldn't be read without having read the first). It was enough to convince me that I should definitely read more of Doris Lessing’s books.
July 15, 2010
I read this book in one day. It is not a page turner, but has some gentle redeeming qualities. The picture is painted of a future world after an ice age and as the ice melts to refill the seas. The hero is a wanderer who can never accept his position as leader of his people. The most interesting character is the boy soldier who grows up to idolise him and want great things of him. In the end the boy soldier, Griot, creates a better world for them all, but could not do it without Dann the hero as the leader.
there were some interesting interplays between Griot and Dann. That was the most intriguing relationship in the book. I liked the unfailing love of the snow dog as a parallel to the love Griot has for Dann.
This is the sequel to another book that I had not read, and I may have got more out of it if I had had that previous knowledge of the characters.
In the end, too much repetition, we got the point, but it was laboured so many times. The happy end seemed just too neat and quick, but it was a relief!
Lessings style is probably not for me, but before I condemn her to my 'not to read' pile, I'll try one of the major works to see if there's somethings there I am missing.
there were some interesting interplays between Griot and Dann. That was the most intriguing relationship in the book. I liked the unfailing love of the snow dog as a parallel to the love Griot has for Dann.
This is the sequel to another book that I had not read, and I may have got more out of it if I had had that previous knowledge of the characters.
In the end, too much repetition, we got the point, but it was laboured so many times. The happy end seemed just too neat and quick, but it was a relief!
Lessings style is probably not for me, but before I condemn her to my 'not to read' pile, I'll try one of the major works to see if there's somethings there I am missing.
August 16, 2011
A sequel to “Mara and Dann: An Adventure,” “Story of General Dann and Mara’s Daughter, Griot and the Snow Dog: A Novel” begins basically where its predecessor left us, at the dawn of a slowly unifying culture in a far-future Africa virtually destroyed by climate change.
I felt that “Mara and Dann,” while a good read, was a bit too long and unfocused, too “adventurous” as opposed to analytical and somewhat lacking in psychological depth. This sequel rectifies all that: it’s compact, streamlined, deeply contemplative and well in touch with its characters. I did feel again that a lot of the potential was left unutilized, but as an artistic whole the novel works completely.
It was wonderful to read more about Dann, who in the previous book was completely overshadowed by his heroic sister and left at a very flat stage. Now Lessing breathes life into him, creating a nuanced portrait of a torn and flawed man who struggles with infinite responsibility, war, politics and drug addiction.
I wonder if Lessing has plans to continue this post-post-apocalyptic saga even further. By the end of “Mara and Dann” I found it odd she had ever decided to pen a sequel, but after finishing the sequel I’m hungry for more.
I felt that “Mara and Dann,” while a good read, was a bit too long and unfocused, too “adventurous” as opposed to analytical and somewhat lacking in psychological depth. This sequel rectifies all that: it’s compact, streamlined, deeply contemplative and well in touch with its characters. I did feel again that a lot of the potential was left unutilized, but as an artistic whole the novel works completely.
It was wonderful to read more about Dann, who in the previous book was completely overshadowed by his heroic sister and left at a very flat stage. Now Lessing breathes life into him, creating a nuanced portrait of a torn and flawed man who struggles with infinite responsibility, war, politics and drug addiction.
I wonder if Lessing has plans to continue this post-post-apocalyptic saga even further. By the end of “Mara and Dann” I found it odd she had ever decided to pen a sequel, but after finishing the sequel I’m hungry for more.
December 14, 2019
Esta novela es del 2006, o sea con Lessing octogenaria, ya de vuelta de sus grandes novelas, y nada, del principio al final, permite adivinar el nombre de la autora (al menos a mí, que habré leído casi diez de sus libros).
Es una novela totalmente juvenil, para lectores jóvenes quiero decir. Los personajes existen pero van y vienen sin mucho fundamento y poca vida interior o apenas presentada. La trama particular casi no existe aunque está incluida en un cambio de eras en el planeta que es interesante.
Al norte está Yerrup que durante cientos (o miles) de años fue arrasada por los hielos, y sus habitantes viajaron al sur, a Ífrik. El mar interior se secó. Pero luego los deshielos inundaron el mundo y actualmente se ven ciudades enteras bajo las aguas que siguen subiendo. Por eso los personajes buscan tierras altas y abandonan las marismas. Las guerras civiles nunca acaban, y el conocimiento actual es un fragmento del que existió. En ese marco no son muy importantes las aventuras del general Dann.
Dann hizo mucho mientras el impulso de la juventud lo movía; luego reconoce que es una gota en el océano, que sus años son instantes en el tiempo. Tiene razón Lessing, pero la novela es demasiado simple.
Es una novela totalmente juvenil, para lectores jóvenes quiero decir. Los personajes existen pero van y vienen sin mucho fundamento y poca vida interior o apenas presentada. La trama particular casi no existe aunque está incluida en un cambio de eras en el planeta que es interesante.
Al norte está Yerrup que durante cientos (o miles) de años fue arrasada por los hielos, y sus habitantes viajaron al sur, a Ífrik. El mar interior se secó. Pero luego los deshielos inundaron el mundo y actualmente se ven ciudades enteras bajo las aguas que siguen subiendo. Por eso los personajes buscan tierras altas y abandonan las marismas. Las guerras civiles nunca acaban, y el conocimiento actual es un fragmento del que existió. En ese marco no son muy importantes las aventuras del general Dann.
Dann hizo mucho mientras el impulso de la juventud lo movía; luego reconoce que es una gota en el océano, que sus años son instantes en el tiempo. Tiene razón Lessing, pero la novela es demasiado simple.
July 29, 2012
I think it’d be impossible to write a sequel to a book like Mara and Dann, at least one as good, and I don’t think this is as good as Mara and Dann, but I still think it’s a great book despite a lot of the comments in the one and two star reviews below. In fact I think it’s a great book because of those very things people are complaining about.
Yes, Mara dies off stage early on. Yes, Dann mopes for much of the book, doing nothing except wallowing in self-pity. So did Achilles. These aren’t problems. These are design features. As with Mara and Dann, Lessing undercuts a lot of expectations one brings to genre books, especially ones that delve with mythic notions (granted winning a Nobel Prize for literature does give a person a lot of leeway to do as they please in their books), but one is trained to expect a certain speed and immersion, and Lessing didn’t do that in Mara and Dann, and she doesn’t do it here. She simply answers the question “then what happened...” and tells a story. It’s not the same story as the previous book, nor is it one crafted to sell a trilogy, it’s simply another story.
Yes, Mara dies off stage early on. Yes, Dann mopes for much of the book, doing nothing except wallowing in self-pity. So did Achilles. These aren’t problems. These are design features. As with Mara and Dann, Lessing undercuts a lot of expectations one brings to genre books, especially ones that delve with mythic notions (granted winning a Nobel Prize for literature does give a person a lot of leeway to do as they please in their books), but one is trained to expect a certain speed and immersion, and Lessing didn’t do that in Mara and Dann, and she doesn’t do it here. She simply answers the question “then what happened...” and tells a story. It’s not the same story as the previous book, nor is it one crafted to sell a trilogy, it’s simply another story.
March 28, 2013
I have found again the post-apocalyptic world, nearing the end of the next ice age. Dann suffers from the Ulysses syndrome and can not stop at the farm with her sister and her new companions. We discover that he founded a small (but not so small for that world) army, but he leaves it in the hands of his lieutenant to venture into what remains of the Mediterranean Sea, drained by glaciers. Wandering the wastelands of a world beyond recognition, he meets new people.
The second part of the novel sees Dann facing badly grief and the responsibility of the army Griot has trained in his absence and his reluctance to command it in the conquest of most fertile lands, as well as his relationship with the living image of Mara, her daughter Tamar.
As and perhaps more than the previous book, Doris Lessing uses a writing sad and thoughtful on humanity and the sense of (personal and cultural)memory. In short, a good “part two” that is not only a pretext to reveal the fate of the characters, but also an expansion of the themes of “Mara and Dann”.
The second part of the novel sees Dann facing badly grief and the responsibility of the army Griot has trained in his absence and his reluctance to command it in the conquest of most fertile lands, as well as his relationship with the living image of Mara, her daughter Tamar.
As and perhaps more than the previous book, Doris Lessing uses a writing sad and thoughtful on humanity and the sense of (personal and cultural)memory. In short, a good “part two” that is not only a pretext to reveal the fate of the characters, but also an expansion of the themes of “Mara and Dann”.
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