Under My Skin

Doris Lessing's autobiography traces her political and emotional development from her earliest childhood memories to her growing, overwhelming, disenchantment with provincial (as she saw it) small town life. "Small town" life for her was pre-WWII Salisbury in the (then) British colony of Southern Rhodesia. Salisbury was a complacent capital city of 10,000 white settlers in a country the size of Spain.
Lessing is quick to debunk the myth of the prosperous, close knit, white farming community - poverty was a real fact of life both for blacks and whites. Her most vivid childhood memories are of escaping from the family home and off into the limitless veld. The emptiness of the veld parallels her youthful emptiness and her growing convictions that the communist party represents a real hope for the world.
The book, a masterpiece of autobiographical writing, is brutally honest in parts and wilfully obscure in others. Some of her emotional mistakes are hardly glanced at (leaving her first two children, for example) but others (the joys of being part of a fast, hard drinking sect, embracing radical politics) are wonderfully engaging. Reading her thoughts you could be forgiven for thinking that the "party" was the only opposition to conservative white rule in Salisbury. This is what makes her book so appealing, her supreme skill as a novelist allowing us to enter the heady world of rushed meetings, leftist newspaper deliveries, drinks on the sports club verandah and back in time to find the cook still waiting to prepare supper. Naturally it couldn't last and Lessing is far too intelligent to think that that is all there is to life. The book ends in 1949 as she arrives in London, apprehensive and hopeful in the capital city of her parents.
This is more than a 'who-did-what' from a long time ago, times and dates are (probably deliberately) rarely mentioned. It is the personalities and the ideas - most of all the ideas - sliding from youthful enthusiasm to mature realism which fuse the book with life and vitality. 'Under My Skin', published in 1992, is that rare thing, a candid autobiography written by a consummate novelist with skills to spare. Doris Lessing is a national treasure.

This is a candid autobiography with as main themes love, sex (good sex, as Doris Lessing calls it, is a right for everybody) and politics in South-Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) ruled by a blank minority.
It is a gripping, moving and realistic picture, wherein the author tries to find answers to personal and more general human questions: why was she so outspoken rebellious and, on the contrary, so strictly loyal to the communist movement?
Why are people fighting relentlessly each other, and on the other hand, striving for happiness?
Are the people of her generation all children of World War I? Why was her father a freemason?

This book is written like an irresistible waterfall. Not to be missed.

I loved every moment of reading this book.

It begins with the story of how Doris Taylor's parents' met in the aftermath of World War I, in the hospital where her mother was a nurse and her father was recovering from the loss of a leg. With remarkable vividness she describes her earliest experiences, first in a country house in the mountains of Persia (now Iran) and then in the city of Teheran.

The Taylors then moved to a farm in Southern Africa. Except the farm wasn't actually there yet - when they got there, the land had to be cleared and the house built. Doris describes her father sitting and smoking with the native African foreman of the crew that was building the house, talking with great profundity but just a few words, while the little Doris played nearby. This scene stood out for me, because it seemed to explain why the young Doris always took it for granted that the indigenous people were human beings deserving of equal rights, when the society she was growing up in was based on the premise that they were not. Yet she never mentions her father, whom she also describes as criticizing her mother for speaking disrespectfully to the servants, as a positive influence in this area.

I loved the book's evocation of landscape; the plants, animals, earth and sky of southern Africa. The girl whose story this is seems a part of that landscape, a creature of bush and veld and vlei. She struck me as unflappable, irrepressible, sensual, and somehow larger than life. When she describes the first money she earned, by shooting some birds and selling them to the local butcher, I imagined her a bronzed Artemis, striding through the bush with a rifle over her shoulder. It seems this was her true home, which she loved passionately, yet where she could not live, because the exploitation of the indigenous people was intolerable and would have driven her insane if she'd stayed. She hasn't exactly described the loss, in so many words, but I feel it, poignantly.

This autobiography is also a remarkable piece of history, vividly documenting British colonialism in Southern Rhodesia during this period, as well as World War I and its effects on an entire generation, World War II, and the influence of colonial racism in pushing whites who couldn't stand the injustice into communism.

If you are a Doris Lessing fan, you must read this book. If you'd like a first-hand history of the first half of the 20th century, read it. If you're not a Lessing fan because you've tried to read her work and found it too wordy or intellectual, you might really enjoy this one. Loved it!

Kate, a middleclass London housewife on the cusp of midlife, becomes ungrounded and goes in search of her life's purpose. The strange things she encounters while traveling through Europe -- a bizzare tryst with a much younger man, an impoverished villa in nowhere Spain -- an then back again to London suck you with such subtleness, you won't know you've been charmed. Lessing expertly threads Kate's journey with a recurring dream and gives the characters that aid Kate's discovery a surreal edge that's surprisingly convincing. You won't stop reading, and what this book says about the point of a woman's life will blow you away.

I was going to attempt "The Golden Notebook" as an introduction to Doris Lessing but lost my nerve when I saw how voluminous it was. The Contemporary Reading List recommended "The Summer Before The Dark" as an alternative and I wasn't disappointed. The novel starts off promisingly with a vividly drawn portrait of a 45 year-old middle class Englishwoman (Kate Brown) at the crossroads of her life. Realising that she has devoted most of her adult life to her husband (Michael) and children without a thought for herself, she sets out tentatively on a journey of self discovery when decides she doesn't like whom she sees in the mirror. She throws herself into a temporary job translating for a global food conference, which leads to an affair with a younger man (Jeffery) and culminates in a startling confrontation with herself when she gets to know a young girl (Maureen) whom she shares temporary accomodation with while her family is away. Maureen may not know what she wants to be (she has proposals from suitors of all persuasion) but what she does know is that she doesn't want to end up like Kate and her own mother. While her good friend, the selfish and amoral Mary, isn't a role model, she has always retained that sense of self that has gone missing from Kate's life. A large part of Lessing's prose consists of internal monologue, words and responses from Kate's mind and soul, all tremulously spoken. The recurring dream sequence with the "seal" is deeply poignant and symbolic of Kate's search for her own identity. The novel is a wonderful example of feminist literature exploring issues that will have eternal relevance for women all over the world. Lessing's beautifully written prose often leaves me breathless. Read it !

"You are young, and then you are middle-aged, but it is hard to tell the moment of passage from one state to the next. Then you are old, but you hardly know when it happened." Thus Lessing opens her novel, announcing that her character, Kate Brown will be the exception. Lessing has created a character who bridges the midlife transition in a single summer, from typical upper-middle-class British housewifery to corporate executive to older-woman-younger-man romance to denouncing the hair color that masks her age. By the end of Kate's summer, she is not entirely certain who she is, but quite clear who she is not. Lessing is recognized as one of the important writers in the English language, and the body of literature on midlife women is enriched by her genius and wisdom.

The Empire of Sirius, formerly the enemy of Canopus, has now for some time been its uneasy and mistrustful ally. Though highly advanced technologically, and despite being sophisticated social engineers, the Sirians are suffering some upheaval because of the many members of their population who feel that their life lacks a worthy purpose. Ambien II, a member of the Five who govern the Empire, is befriended by Klorathy, an agent of Canopus, in the course of their mutual dealings upon and around the planet Rohanda. Ambien II's education in the means and motives of Canopus, and her eventual realisation that, doubtless unique in the history of galactic diplomacy, Canopus means what it says and does what it promises, is the major subject of The Sirian Experiments. Doris Lessing has written, "I could like Ambien II better than I do;" which is a pity, for Ambien II, along with Rachel Sherban in Shikasta and the incensed innocent Incent in The Sentimental Agents in the Volyen Empire, is one of the most appealing characters in the quintet. Her growth from efficient, obedient social scientist (who deplores the changing of our planet's name from Rohanda (Fertile) to Shikasta (Wounded) as showing "a mixture of poeticism and pedantry typical of Canopus") into willing pupil, sometime rescuer, and eventually into that amazing paradox, the clear-headed visionary, is a triumph of characterisation. Her report - careful, thorough, just and drily humorous - betters Shikasta in its fusion of the personal with the cosmic, and contains one of the most spectacular set-pieces in the whole series, as well as some of its most poignant personal encounters. The ending is quietly ironic, without the sense of definite progress which was present at the end of the previous two books - the major breakthrough here takes place inside Ambien II herself, though further, exterior victories may just possibly be on the way. This book (not to mention the quintet as a whole) is the kind of thing science fiction was meant to be all about.

This was the first Doris Lessing book I ever read. Because the protagonist is a dry technocrat, the writing is written in that style. Nevertheless, I found the book gripping. Lessing gives a fascinating and enlightening perspective of the development of human society as a whole. Of course, the awakening that takes place in the protagonist's mind as she works with the Canopeans has its own gems of wisdom buried in it. Of the five books in Canopus in Argos: Archives, this one is my favorite.

The final, and funniest, instalment of the Canopus in Argos: Archives quintet finds Klorathy, the Canopean agent who befriended Ambien II in The Sirian Experiments, dispatched to the Volyen Empire to rescue a fellow agent who's fallen victim to the dreaded disease of Rhetoric. The Volyen Empire, until now a minor outpost of the collapsing Sirian Empire, is in the throes of revolutionary independence, and the intense prevalence of rhetorical disorders on all sides has made the inhabitants nearly as crazy as those poor unfortunates on Shikasta. The Canopean victim, Incent, alternates between charging about the system trying to reform everyone, and collapsing into hopeless languor when his efforts go inevitably askew. Klorathy introduces a Hospital for Rhetorical Diseases (tactfully disguised under the name Institute for Historical Research) and, in between chasing Incent around the place and apologising for his own occasional lapses ("Incent, WHAT are we going to do with you?"), manages to bring matters in the Volyen Empire to a fairly satisfactory conclusion. The conclusion to the quintet, however, is more than just fairly satisfactory. The light touch Lessing brings to this work may seem at odds with the epic or lyrical tone of the preceding four, but it enables the author to do two very difficult things. First, she can finish her massive enterprise on a suitably Canopean note - neither triumphalist nor sentimental, nor even, thanks to the satiric style, capable of being interpreted in a triumphalist or sentimental fashion. Second, she can point to a partial solution for some (most?) of the problems she's been talking about all along. It's slightly discomfiting to find that the super-civilised Canopean archivists list Tchaikovsky and Wagner under "Nineteenth-century Emoters and Complainers"; but the discomfiture serves to show how profoundly human beings are addicted to Rhetoric of all kinds - verbal, musical, emotional, physical. Cold turkey in our own case is undoubtedly a very bad idea, but we can at least recognise our condition and try to discipline it into working for us rather than against. The Sentimental Agents in the Volyen Empire shows the kind of perspective we need if we're going to manage that before it's too late.

i thought it was grea

This little book is a gem in every way. Lessing's loving account of how she got along when she first came to London/England is warm, witty, funny and written with an admirable insight into the minds of people she met. It is never less than very good, and it digs deeply into "the English character", if there is such a thing...

I read this brilliant and much beloved book of Doris Lessing every year. And I learn something more from it each time I read it. There is one page near the end of the book which is rippled with my tears of past readings. Each time I read it, I think that I won't cry this time. And yet when I arrive at the bumply page, my tears unleash yet again.

This is a profoundly moving story, yes, a brilliant and touching love story. Yet, it is much more than that. It is a map of transformation, one of the deepest, truest ones which I have found.

I am the author of six metaphysical books myself, and this beloved book of Doris Lessings, along with the rest of her inspirational "Canopus in Argus" series, has played a profound part in my own personal growth and transformation. For this, I am extremely grateful. Thank you Doris Lessing for writing so exquisitely about what is usually only known deep within our core beings!

Shikasta is my all-time favorite sci-fi book -- and I've been reading sci-fi for over 40 years! If you like Ursula LeGuin's work, you'll love Shikasta, by Doris Lessing. It is a gripping, visionary tale. Written over 20 years ago, the story seems prophetic, as it describes much that is happening on our planet today. But it's not a sociological treatise. Far from it! The story revolves around the lives of three siblings, and the agony of trying to remember and then fulfil the reason they decided to reincarnate on Earth during a time of global crisis.

Shikasta ties together the very personal, the immediate global, and the cosmic at the heart level. While there is plenty of action, this is not Buck Rogers. The story of Shikasta is the story of real people, human and non, struggling with the issue of how an individual can make a difference.

I'm buying another copy because I lent my tattered one to someone who kept it!

Professor Perrakis brings together almost a dozen writers onspiritual issues in the writing of one of the great British writers ofthe century--Doris Lessing. The authors of these essays write across the range of Lessing's later fiction and offer useful insights into her work.

I finished reading "Mara and Dann" weeks ago but still think of it daily! Doris Lessing has produced a book of many layers including the obvious almost epic adventure story. Her characters are real people with whom her readers can identify and empathize. What struck me most about this novel, however, was her exploration of who we are, when stripped of everything. Characters often experienced similar drastic events leading to near starvation and thirst but who they were as individuals came through as their values were reflected in their actions. Also the will to survive, despite all odds, was a dramatic part of the novel, culminating in an ending in which humanity is victorious. It is a great novel by a great author and should be enjoyed by many.

The only reason I picked this book up is becuase my sister's name is Mara. It's the best job I've ever done of judging a book by its cover. In "Mara and Dann", Lessing has produced a simple, and yet utterly profound and inspiring novel. Set in Africa in the distant future, we follow the travels, and life story of Mara, and her brother Dann. The novel is a tale of great adventure and romance, but it is also a moving portrait of the bond shared by siblings. Like no other novel I have ever read, "Mara and Dann" captures the exasperation, heartache, joy and ultimately friendship that come from having a brother or sister.

"Mara and Dann" is both a creative, engaging adventure, and work of amzing depth and heart. It will not disappoint.

Doris Lessing is writing some wonderful books these days, and Mara and Dann is one of her most interesting tales. My initial impression is that this book holds it own with some of her masterpieces. Suffice it to say that it is simply wonderful.

Mrs. Lessing's strong imagination and narrative control results in a fully developed future world that reads more like history than science fiction. The novel is set at the presumptive beginning of the end of an ice age far in the future. We follow Mara and Dann, the two protagonists, on their quest from drought-stricken south central Ifrik, what we call Africa, towards the undefined North. A permanent drought has developed where they live, and the region no longer supports human life. The North becomes the symbolic goal of their quest, an undefined something where things simply have to be better. This is an heroic quest, but the characters are seeking a life, not a throne.

The book is brutal, and the characters live unforgiving lives. In a time when there is not enough, people steal basic necessities from others and look upon death in a roadway as just another part of life. Children die, are left in the desert, and no one grieves for them. Ifrik is changing so that only insects and reptiles thrive. Humans have changed inexplicably, but the protagonists have no frame of reference to explain what is different. Some groups seem almost Neanderthal, living in caves and rock villages, and some villages contain only people who are exact copies of each other.

As the characters move North on their quest, they pass through many cities, towns, and villages. There are moderately benign states that ignore the expanding drought to their ultimate detriment. There are river towns that live in more or less anarchy. There are states ruled by incredibly stupid generals. There are frontier cities where money is still the most important thing and women can be won and lost at dice. The pictures Lessing paints of these different ways of life is for me the most fascinating aspect of the book.

Mrs. Lessing continues to amaze me with the range and depth of her talents. "What did you see?" I saw a world that is hard to forget.

HIGHLY recommended.