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The Golden Notebook
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2020 2nd Q The Golden Notebook
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Hey all! Hope you are all keeping safe and healthy. If anyone is having difficulty not being able to go to the library at this time, this novel is available as an audiobook on audible and overdrive (depending on your library), and as an ebook on kobo and scribd. It can also be downloaded here for free as an epub file: https://epdf.pub/queue/the-golden-not...
To start us off, here is an author bio and and book summary (hopefully helpful given the unique structure of the book), and some questions for the first month (more will follow in May and June).
Doris Lessing Author Bio (From Brittannica) :
Doris Lessing, in full Doris May Lessing, original name Doris May Tayler, (born October 22, 1919, Kermānshāh, Persia [now Iran]—died November 17, 2013, London, England), British writer whose novels and short stories are largely concerned with people involved in the social and political upheavals of the 20th century. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007. Her family was living in Persia at the time of her birth but moved to a farm in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where she lived from age five until she settled in England in 1949. In her early adult years she was an active communist. In Pursuit of the English (1960) tells of her initial months in England, and Going Home (1957) describes her reaction to Rhodesia on a return visit. In 1994 she published the first volume of an autobiography, Under My Skin; a second volume, Walking in the Shade, appeared in 1997.
Her first published book, The Grass Is Singing (1950), is about a white farmer and his wife and their African servant in Rhodesia. Among her most substantial works is the series Children of Violence (1952–69), a five-novel sequence that centres on Martha Quest, who grows up in southern Africa and settles in England. The Golden Notebook (1962), in which a woman writer attempts to come to terms with the life of her times through her art, is one of the most complex and the most widely read of her novels. The Memoirs of a Survivor (1975) is a prophetic fantasy that explores psychological and social breakdown. A master of the short story, Lessing has published several collections, including The Story of a Non-Marrying Man (1972) and Stories (1978); her African stories are collected in This Was the Old Chief’s Country (1951) and The Sun Between Their Feet (1973).
Lessing turned to science fiction in a five-novel sequence titled Canopus in Argos: Archives (1979–83). The novels The Diary of a Good Neighbour (1983) and If the Old Could… (1984) were published pseudonymously under the name Jane Somers to dramatize the problems of unknown writers. Subsequent novels include The Good Terrorist (1985), about a group of revolutionaries in London, and The Fifth Child (1988), a horror story, to which Ben, in the World (2000) is a sequel. The Sweetest Dream (2001) is a semiautobiographical novel set primarily in London during the 1960s, while the parable-like novel The Cleft (2007) considers the origins of human society. Her collection of essays Time Bites (2004) displays her wide-ranging interests, from women’s issues and politics to Sufism. Alfred and Emily (2008) is a mix of fiction and memoir centred on her parents.
The Golden Notebook Summary (From Harper Collins):
The Golden Notebook is a novel about mental and literary breakthrough and breakdown. Although many have hailed it as a feminist classic, Lessing herself did not intend for it to be so. Rather she wrote the novel during a period of time in which she was interested in questions about writing and about mental functioning. Certainly, however, the book addresses a woman’s position in mid-20th Century society and one woman’s struggles with sex, politics, motherhood, creativity, and success, and in this way it addresses the feminist questions of the time.
What is most noticeable, and most commented upon, is the book’s structure. The book contains a novel “Free Women” that is divided into parts, and between the parts are four separate notebooks kept by the main character, “Anna”, in “Free Women”. The four notebooks are black (outlining Anna’s experiences in Africa), red (describing Anna’s political experiences and especially her disillusionment with Communism), yellow (a novel within a novel in which Anna writes about a heroine named Ella), and blue (which is Anna’s emotional and personal diary). In the end of the book, the four notebooks are woven into one golden notebook in order to represent integration and healing. The structure of the book itself has been seen as both breakthrough and breakdown. On the one hand, Lessing felt that the greatness of the structure had been overlooked and her technique has been called brilliant. On the other hand, readers often complain that the book’s fragmented nature keeps them at a distance and is too self-indulgent or navel-gazing.
More than the words themselves, the book’s structure is Lessing’s commentary about writing and mental process. The fragmented, vertical splits that are the structure of the book are meant to illustrate the self-division that we all live with while we seemingly move forward in life; the notebooks represent crude, failed attempts to organize and compartmentalize experience. At the same time, the project of the golden notebook suggests that integration is possible and the only real way forward. Similarly, through Anna, Lessing examines writing through several horizontal splits (ie, Anna who was successful but now blocked writes about Ella who also struggles with writing, at the end of The Golden Notebook Anna is given the first line for her next book which is actually the first line of The Golden Notebook. These layers often raise the question of whether anyone can write something worthwhile anyhow and Lessing adds to this question by urging students to not to write papers about her and her work but simply to “read what I have written and make up your own mind about what you think, testing it against your own life, your own experience” (p. xxiii).
Questions part 1:
1. Have you read any of Lessing’s work previously/ what did you know about her or this book going in to it?
2. Lessing wrote in the Introduction to the book: “I have to conclude that fiction is better at “the truth” than a factual record. Why this should be so is a very large subject and one I don’t begin to understand”. Is fiction better than fact in expressing the truth? How does this question relate to publishing scandals in which well-known memoirs were found to be less fact and more fiction? Should such works be seen as fact or fiction? Are they the truth?
3. The book is structured by weaving in and out of different themed “notebooks” that define different aspects of Anna’s life and self. How are you liking to the structure so far, and do you think it is setting up/contributing to any larger themes of the book?
4. How are you liking Anna as a character so far? Do any of the secondary characters/figures from her life stand out to you as compelling/interesting?
5. Anna maintains four notebooks (red, yellow, black, and blue) that she then synthesizes in the golden notebook. One central task in the development of the self or identity is the integration of separate aspects of the self and/or moments in time. If you were to do this, what four notebooks would you keep about yourself and your life? How it would look for these notebooks to become synthesized into one golden notebook of your own?
6. How are you enjoying the book so far? Are you curious about the rest of it unfolds?
Discuss!
Here is the explanation of each "book" pulled out of the novel summary above to help readers just getting into it:-The Black Notebook: outlining Anna’s experiences in Africa
-The Red Notebook: describing Anna’s political experiences and especially her disillusionment with Communism
-The Yellow Notebook: a novel within a novel in which Anna writes about a heroine named Ella
-The Blue Notebook: which is Anna’s emotional and personal diary.
-The Golden Notebook: In the end of the book, the four notebooks are woven into one golden notebook.
Mod
1. Have you read any of Lessing’s work previously/ what did you know about her or this book going in to it?I read The Fifth Child a very long time ago and more recently The Grass Is Singing. So I was aware that she was born in Iran and raised in Rhodesia before eventually returning to England.
I've known, more or less, the general idea and structure of The Golden Notebook for a while.
Is fiction better than fact in expressing the truth? How does this question relate to publishing scandals in which well-known memoirs were found to be less fact and more fiction? Should such works be seen as fact or fiction? Are they the truth?
Fiction is better at expressing subjective or personal truth -- how one individual experienced an event or a culture or a time. But a more "factual" or objective truth requires synthesizing many personal view points and sources of information.
Memoirs are like the color purple some a re more factual (red) and some are more experiential (blue), so we may disagree on the exact shade of purple (lilac, violet, lavender), but we all agree that it is purple. So if you buy a purple dress sight unseen, you might not appreciate receiving a turquoise dress.
Liz, your purple analogy is brilliant. Wonderful.
I read The Grass is Singing back in 1962. I can be specific because it was my first year at university and I took an English course on top of my full-time Physical Education studies. I bought the Martha Quest series but got bogged down in them and never finished. The Golden Notebook has grown shabby on my shelves without ever being opened. I am pleased to be finally reading it. I realise I know nothing about it.
I have only read through Free Women: 1 and the associated first round of The Notebooks (about page 254 in my book). 1. I read The Grass Is Singing last year but have not read anything else by her. I did read up a bit about her background before reading that book.
2. Well, truth is such a slippery word. Fiction is quite good at capturing a subjective truth or even multiple subjective truths and framing them so that there is a universal component to it. When reading a memoir or non-fiction you are often dealing with localized or specific to a time and place, issues. Obviously the human brain is very good at generalizing from anything at all and non-fiction can have an enormous power to awe the reader with "the facts", so that the truth is made to seem very concrete. The memoirs that have been "fictionalized" are interesting, although I thought the problem with them was an integrity issue. They purport to be one thing and when you find out they are not they lose their power. You feel cheated or betrayed.
At any rate, I do think Lessing is attempting to corral a number of truths in this book about female/male relationships, the nature of "joining" a movement, the nature of writing so that you are not fictionalizing the key themes of a story even if you change the names, characters and circumstances.
3. The book is structured by weaving in and out of different themed “notebooks” that define different aspects of Anna’s life and self. How are you liking to the structure so far, and do you think it is setting up/contributing to any larger themes of the book?
I have liked some of the contents of the notebooks and not others. I enjoyed reading about the Mashopi Hotel for instance but enjoyed less reading about the affair with 'Paul' (the stand in for Michael). I appreciated the character of Mrs. Marks and the dreams in this section, but I found the section in general rather tedious because although the reader is told that the patient (Anna) has become stronger, we don't see her getting stronger or know why she is getting stronger other than she feels she no longer needs therapy.
4. How are you liking Anna as a character so far? Do any of the secondary characters/figures from her life stand out to you as compelling/interesting?
I have to admit, I do not like the Molly/Anna relationship. Strangely, I prefer the Julia/Ella relationship although it is largely a reflection of the same people's interactions. Julia and Ella seem completely solidly committed to supporting each other and tolerant of each other's foibles. We are lead to believe that Molly/Anna are "real" while Julie/Ella are fiction, when of course, they are all fiction. I can do without most of the men (Max/Willi, Richard, Michael/Paul) although I guess without them it would be a pretty boring book....
5. Anna maintains four notebooks (red, yellow, black, and blue) that she then synthesizes in the golden notebook. One central task in the development of the self or identity is the integration of separate aspects of the self and/or moments in time. If you were to do this, what four notebooks would you keep about yourself and your life? How it would look for these notebooks to become synthesized into one golden notebook of your own?
I think I am not far enough along in the book to answer this one but it would probably run something like this: Family and Friends, Creative Investigations, Work, Books?
6. How are you enjoying the book so far? Are you curious about the rest of it unfolds?
I am not compelled to continue to read it right now although I will finish it before the quarter is out.
Mod
1. I read The Grass Is Singing last year but have not read anythi..."
Gail, I think my opinions mirror yours.
Mod
1. Have you read any of Lessing’s work previously/ what did you know about her or this book going in to it?
I read The Grass Is Singing this year which I enjoyed, so I was looking forward to reading more of her work. I knew nothing of this book before I started. The introduction by the author gave me some insight into the history of the book.
2. Lessing wrote in the Introduction to the book: “I have to conclude that fiction is better at “the truth” than a factual record. Why this should be so is a very large subject and one I don’t begin to understand”. Is fiction better than fact in expressing the truth? How does this question relate to publishing scandals in which well-known memoirs were found to be less fact and more fiction? Should such works be seen as fact or fiction? Are they the truth?
In the book, Anna writes “I came upstairs from the scene between Tommy and Molly and instantly began to turn it into a short story. It struck me that my doing this – turning everything into fiction – must be an evasion.” “Obviously, my changing everything into fiction is simply a means of concealing something from myself.”
“It's because I keep trying to write the truth and realising it's not true.”
3. The book is structured by weaving in and out of different themed “notebooks” that define different aspects of Anna’s life and self. How are you liking to the structure so far, and do you think it is setting up/contributing to any larger themes of the book?
I like that each notebook is clearly defined before reading it. I find having to change characters and storylines a bit jarring. I do think that the setting is contributing to a larger theme and that all books will come together.
4. How are you liking Anna as a character so far? Do any of the secondary characters/figures from her life stand out to you as compelling/interesting?
I am 35% into the story and I am not invested in Anna yet. I liked the first book with Molly and Anna but I lost interest a bit when the book switched to Anna's experiences in Africa because a host of new characters came in and the narrator switched.
5. Anna maintains four notebooks (red, yellow, black, and blue) that she then synthesizes in the golden notebook. One central task in the development of the self or identity is the integration of separate aspects of the self and/or moments in time. If you were to do this, what four notebooks would you keep about yourself and your life? How it would look for these notebooks to become synthesized into one golden notebook of your own?
Hum, interesting question. I guess I would have one notebook of growing up, one as an adult, one as a wife/mother and one of the twilight years looking back over time.
6. How are you enjoying the book so far? Are you curious about the rest of it unfolds?
I am curious how this is all going to come together. I do feel a great sense of politics, feminism, and relationships. This is not an easy book for me to read and it is hard to find a stopping point in the story.
3. How are you liking to the structure so far, and do you think it is setting up/contributing to any larger themes of the book?Weirdly I've read a couple of books recently that have similarly unusual structures -- the weaving of different different narratives together. Lessing's style is not as experimental as U.S.A.: The 42nd Parallel / 1919 / The Big Money, but is a little easier to follow as it is more restrained. The individual notebooks are indicated and used in continuous chunks, so it is easier to follow. But in a way, it is less compelling and perhaps more jarring -- the reader is allowed to settle into a story line for dozens of pages before being unceremoniously dropped into a different story.
4. How are you liking Anna as a character so far? Do any of the secondary characters/figures from her life stand out to you as compelling/interesting?
Anna seems outside herself, looking on almost as a spectator in her story. It makes it hard to connect with her. I was intrigued by the relationship with Molly and wanted to see a little more of the "real world" before delving into the notebooks. We've been told that Anna is nearing breakdown, but haven't been shown it yet.
One central task in the development of the self or identity is the integration of separate aspects of the self and/or moments in time. If you were to do this, what four notebooks would you keep about yourself and your life?
I can't really think of four aspects of myself that are so distinct from each other. I don't think I've had experiences that have changed me, changed my life, made me a different person. Yes, there are different personality traits that will be more more present at work versus at home, but not as if I were a different person in different circumstances.
6. How are you enjoying the book so far? Are you curious about the rest of it unfolds?
I am curious to see more of what Anna is struggling with.
I’m enjoying everyone else’s responses so far, so just thought I’d add my thoughts as well even though it’s been over a year since I’ve read it. It is definitely one of the more difficult books on the list in my opinion, but overall I found it very worth reading. As for the questions:1. I’ve read “The Grass is Singing” (loved it) and this one. Shikasta is also on the 1001 list, but haven’t read it yet. Apparently it’s a sci-fi book, so vastly different from the other two which makes me very curious about it. I knew about Lessing’s life in Zimbabwe and affiliation with communism before reading this one, so the context made a lot of sense going in.
2. I think fiction can be better than fact at expressing grand overall or thematic truths than the factual record because it allows the author to integrate and augment facets of the issue/era in question from multiple people’s factual accounts so that a both more complete and zeroed in picture can be made compared to one person’s experience. It’s kind of like the fictional version of “statistical vs anecdotal evidence” if I could make a science comparison- which I think is cool.
However, I think some of the famous “fake” memoirs (I remember “a million little pieces” being a prime example of this) do wrong only because they’ve marketed these collective truths as their factual individual truth.
3. I remember that when I first started listening to the audiobook it was super confusing until I looked up the structure and then I was good from there. I think it did a great job at portraying the themes of breakdown and breakthrough since Anna compartmentalizes parts of herself into each book (as each person is themselves a conglomerate of their life experiences/fantasies/beliefs) , and from there is able to accurately and meaningfully contextualize these parts into the dynamic whole of who she is (and impart it into the Golden Notebook).
4. I didn’t love her for most of the book when I read it: she’s often aloof and not the most charitable person, she upholds deep beliefs for shallow reasons. But, on the other hand, she has an honesty about so much of this and clarity about it that I respect. I found her compelling even if she wasn’t always likeable- and she does seem fully human. I agree with Gail that I didn’t like most of the men in the novel, but I did find her trials with them interesting.
5. I found this question on a book club forum and thought it was really cool (and also difficult to do lol). I think mine would be:
a. Pink Book: my childhood growing up in rural working class Nova Scotia. Would include a lot of content about my late Grandmere who helped raise me (and her Acadian family), the 4 years I spent being chronically ill and in and out of a wheelchair as a teenager, and my dad serving in the army/when he came back wounded from Afghanistan. Chose Pink because it was my childhood favorite color.
b. Black book: My current life as a PhD candidate in genetics in Montreal. Would include a lot of passages about science, and mental health (since my thesis is about the epigenetic basis of depression/suicide and I work in a psychiatric hospital). The lab books I use are black, so it fits.
c. Green Book: would be monologues I have about political/philosophical beliefs I have. Socialism/capitalism, feminism, environmentalism, and social justice would be big features. Chose Green because I used to work for an environmental NGO and my first real political action was related to that.
d. Yellow Book: Would be the fictional stories I have in my imagination that I haven’t committed to word yet. Since I’m a big fan of history, many of them end up being different historical figures put in a random context together (WWII SOE agents, 1960s civil rights era drama, and sci-fi space epic are all included in there lol). I chose Yellow since it is the yellow traditionally associated with creativity.
e. Golden notebook: I think taken together these books would summarize all of the major things that make me who I am background/values/interests/beliefs wise.
6. I ended up rating this book 4 stars when I read it. I’m interested in how everyone else is going to feel about it as it unfolds.
1. Have you read any of Lessing’s work previously/ what did you know about her or this book going in to it?I read The Grass is Singing and I didn't like it very much. But this book was very different, much more elaborated and complex and I loved it.
2. Lessing wrote in the Introduction to the book: “I have to conclude that fiction is better at “the truth” than a factual record. Why this should be so is a very large subject and one I don’t begin to understand”. Is fiction better than fact in expressing the truth? How does this question relate to publishing scandals in which well-known memoirs were found to be less fact and more fiction? Should such works be seen as fact or fiction? Are they the truth?
Well, I am not sure about this one. In the novel Lessing is talking a lot of this fiction-reality writing. One of her characters is "real" and other "fictional", but as the story unfolds it's hard to distinguish what is real and what fictional: Characters are not set apart. They become one.
3. The book is structured by weaving in and out of different themed “notebooks” that define different aspects of Anna’s life and self. How are you liking to the structure so far, and do you think it is setting up/contributing to any larger themes of the book?
I did like this division of themes at the beginning, but at some point it all blended together and it was hard to distinguish who was experiencing what. I guess that was the goal of this different books. Each should represent different aspect of Anna's life: her work, her beliefs, her own personal story etc. but at the end they could not be compartmentalized any more.
4. How are you liking Anna as a character so far? Do any of the secondary characters/figures from her life stand out to you as compelling/interesting?
It's hard to tell, but overall I did like Anna, her motherhood, her cooking, her strong beliefs. Even some of her falls I liked. It made her more real.
5. Anna maintains four notebooks (red, yellow, black, and blue) that she then synthesizes in the golden notebook. One central task in the development of the self or identity is the integration of separate aspects of the self and/or moments in time. If you were to do this, what four notebooks would you keep about yourself and your life? How it would look for these notebooks to become synthesized into one golden notebook of your own?
I think I could easily keep at least three notebooks of my life. One would definitely be of myself in private life: as a mother and a wife. In the other one I would be completely different myself - this one is about my professional life. Third one would be the only diary I really keep - on books I read. I find myself very close to Anna in this aspect - to think I have some compartments of my life which only sometimes overlap. But I cannot imagine to have "golden" notebook - that would be a real mess.
6. How are you enjoying the book so far? Are you curious about the rest of it unfolds?
Well, I finished the book and loved it. I enjoyed every part of the story as well as notebooks within. Definitely, a must read.
I haven't read any of Lessing's work yet, but am planning to start reading The Grass is Singing in a week or two for another group's BOTM- I just bought an old copy of it. So I was interested to read the notes and comments about The Golden Notebook.Assuming I enjoy The Grass is Singing, I will eventually read The Golden Notebook also. Enjoy.
1. Have you read any of Lessing’s work previously/ what did you know about her or this book going in to it?I read The Grass Is Singing a few years ago. I know that she grew up in Africa and was born in Iran. Aside from that, not a lot of personal details.
2. Lessing wrote in the Introduction to the book: “I have to conclude that fiction is better at “the truth” than a factual record. Why this should be so is a very large subject and one I don’t begin to understand”. Is fiction better than fact in expressing the truth? How does this question relate to publishing scandals in which well-known memoirs were found to be less fact and more fiction? Should such works be seen as fact or fiction? Are they the truth?
I think there is a lot of truth in fiction, and there is a lot of untruth in non-fiction. I think authors naturally incorporate a lot of themselves in their fiction. Also, the human memory can be faulty. Fictionalized memoirs are probably more interesting than what actually happened.
3. The book is structured by weaving in and out of different themed “notebooks” that define different aspects of Anna’s life and self. How are you liking to the structure so far, and do you think it is setting up/contributing to any larger themes of the book?
I like it so far. I think this is a great way to frame a story.
4. How are you liking Anna as a character so far? Do any of the secondary characters/figures from her life stand out to you as compelling/interesting?
I like her. I don't necessarily like some of the company she keeps, though.
5. Anna maintains four notebooks (red, yellow, black, and blue) that she then synthesizes in the golden notebook. One central task in the development of the self or identity is the integration of separate aspects of the self and/or moments in time. If you were to do this, what four notebooks would you keep about yourself and your life? How it would look for these notebooks to become synthesized into one golden notebook of your own?
This, of course, would require more thought and planning on my part.
1) Green notebook - Memories and recollections of family, friends, pets, and relationships from childhood onward. This would probably look more like a scrapbook.
2) Black notebook - The professional aspect of my life, relating to work, education, and the pursuit of knowledge.
3) Purple notebook - Dedicated to my favorite pursuits, such as reading, cooking, traveling, scuba diving, and being creative.
4) Blue notebook - This would be personal aspects of myself that others don't know. It would also be a personal "sandbox" where I can make lists, enter random thoughts, and become more introspective.
6. How are you enjoying the book so far? Are you curious about the rest of it unfolds?
I am enjoying it. I look forward to seeing where it goes.
I have previously read The Grass is Singing and enjoyed it although I can't really recall the specifics. I did know about Lessing's life from reading up on her after reading The Grass is Singing.
In my introduction to this book Lessing explains that she is surprised by how readers interpret her book as having different motives such as feminism, man hating, political etc she even mentions that her favourite letters are from readers who have read it as a story rather than those who are using writing thesis' on it and who write to her seeking critical input because that is what education demands.
I loved her whole rant about the education system and how it is being limited by having to quote other sources and opinions rather than just enjoying a story for itself.
That said after reading her introduction I am scared to read the novel in case I read into it things that aren't actually there LOL. My plan is to treat it as a story and to view any other suspected motives as just that suspect.
If the book is as good as the intro I know I am in for an enjoyable ride.
In my introduction to this book Lessing explains that she is surprised by how readers interpret her book as having different motives such as feminism, man hating, political etc she even mentions that her favourite letters are from readers who have read it as a story rather than those who are using writing thesis' on it and who write to her seeking critical input because that is what education demands.
I loved her whole rant about the education system and how it is being limited by having to quote other sources and opinions rather than just enjoying a story for itself.
That said after reading her introduction I am scared to read the novel in case I read into it things that aren't actually there LOL. My plan is to treat it as a story and to view any other suspected motives as just that suspect.
If the book is as good as the intro I know I am in for an enjoyable ride.
3. I have now finished the book and while at first I enjoyed weaving in and out of the different notebooks I did lose patience with it.
4. Anna is so-so for me I am interested in her daughter and in the son of her friend and how their mothers politics have affected them.
5. Well under lockdown I would have my blue notebook as a personal diary (Blue is my favourite colour) I would have green for work and then red for my political views about the situation which in the UK is making me increasingly angry and just like Anna if you blended these all together you get the same story over and over with just slight changes due to outside perspective.
6. I was curious to see how the golden notebook would blend it all together.
4. Anna is so-so for me I am interested in her daughter and in the son of her friend and how their mothers politics have affected them.
5. Well under lockdown I would have my blue notebook as a personal diary (Blue is my favourite colour) I would have green for work and then red for my political views about the situation which in the UK is making me increasingly angry and just like Anna if you blended these all together you get the same story over and over with just slight changes due to outside perspective.
6. I was curious to see how the golden notebook would blend it all together.
2. This is a topical question for me as I have just read Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates which is a fictionalised version of the Chappaquiddick incident. Oates also wrote Blonde, a fictionalised version of the life of Marilyn Munro, which has been re-released 20 years after its publication because a movie has been made of Oates' version of the story! Objective truth is difficult to pin down because each participant in a life story has their own version of the truth. A novelist surmising what might have happened maybe more accurate than the participants' versions of motive and action.
3. I am answering and posting each question separately because my first very long version disappeared when I tried to post it. I enjoyed the weaving in and out except when I laid the book aside for a week or two and became confused about who was more fictional: Anna or Ella The compartmentalisation emphasised one of the major themes, which was the fragmentation of Anna (and Saul's) personalities.
I identified a lot with Anna's struggles as a woman, a lover and a mother, so I liked her. I also had a close friend at that stage of my life, similar to Molly, with whom I argued about most things, but for us the theme we kept returning to was nature versus nurture. I liked the African story, particularly at the Mashopi Hotel the best and I found Paul a charismatic character.
4. The Black Notebook was about Anna Wulf, the writer, who had written a very successful book about her experience in Africa as a young woman. My Black Notebook would not have been written down, it would be the struggle in my head about finding my identity when I was adopted and knew nothing about my heritage. I never voiced this struggle for fear of hurting the feelings of my adoptive mother. Anna's Red Notebook was about politics and her relationship with the Communist Party in Britain in particular. My Red Notebook would have been about my involvement with an organisation I helped found called Feminist Teachers, which tried to identify gender bias and remove it from the education system. I argued strenuously against a name change to Women in Education. I was wrong. When the name was changed our membership trebled. Anna's Yellow Notebook was her fictional version of her own life, which she was trying to write as her second novel, but was stymied by writers' block. My only writing was professional papers about teaching, physical education in particular. Anna's Blue Book was a diary. My Blue Book would contain all my obligations as a mother, a wife, a dutiful daughter (my adoptive mother and her mother lived with my husband and I and our two daughters), as a teacher and as a sports coach. For the last year, while my husband was dying, we were visited by many former students and players, by our children and grandchildren, and there was much reminiscence about earlier stages in our lives, This would form my Golden Notebook, which would synthesise the various parts of my former focii.
Reading 1001
Books mentioned in this topic
U.S.A.: The 42nd Parallel / 1919 / The Big Money (other topics)The Grass Is Singing (other topics)
The Grass Is Singing (other topics)
The Fifth Child (other topics)
The Grass Is Singing (other topics)
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