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March 2006 Christmas gift from my Literature-addict Mother.
First off, (although it was the second shock I had today,) I was SURE that I'd read Lessing's first work, The Grass is Singing, sometime within the last couple of years; meaning that there would be a review I'd written for it. But there is none. This is the first mention of Lessing that I'm making on my website.
Secondly, I was shocked by how different this book was from her Grass is Singing. To make this clear, I'll now tell a bit about this first book of hers that I read. It was... rather dull. I found it a wonderful way for me to get to sleep, because my interest was never captured by the book; I was never staying up extra late to keep reading. The book sort of carried on, with things happening to people I couldn't care about, which made changes for them -which I cared even less about. It's not that it was a BAD book, but it didn't interest me. The psychology of the characters, (It had a great deal to do with the thoughts of the central woman, and her frustration, and her view of the natives,) didn't speak to me at all. I couldn't relate to their thoughts, or actions, or feelings. So the book as a whole had no great interest to me.
And then there was this book: The Fifth Child. I thought it would be rather the same: Perhaps a mother's thoughts about her child, and the way her life changes. I read on the back, that it was a difficult child, and that it ruined the mother's life in many ways. "Well," I thought, "Let's just get into it. Perhaps it will be more interesting than her last book."
And the beginning of it certainly was. It was set in contemporary England, (70s and 80s,) and was about a young couple meeting, getting married, and putting all their efforts into making their dream come true: to have a big, Family house... a HOME. A place that is the magical base of a true Family, (at a time when divorce rates were blooming, and estrangement in a family was the norm.) And the first fifty pages were just wonderful to read. It's very much like the life I would love to have for myself; The descriptions of the large family gatherings, and the house full of life and action, and the kitchen full of cooking and talking all day long, just warmed my heart. (I've been thinking of the future, of a home, and of a family a fair amount the past year, you see. And here was a description of a wonderful, happy home, which they achieved, through their hard, diligent work.) And then there was the pregnancy of the Fifth Child, which started feeling wrong rather early.
And things got worse from there.
The child proved to be -nearly inhuman. It looked simply like an ugly, unfriendly, aggressive baby. -Which became unsociable. -And occasionally Violent. -and voracious. -and heartless. -and took up all the mother's time and energy, leaving the other children unhappy and deprived. When I turned off the light at night, (about half way through the book,) I had trouble falling asleep; Thoughts about what a terrible curse this child was, thoughts about what it could all mean, thoughts about why this child had turned out so, and fear of such a thing ever happening to me, kept circling through my head. I had to make a special effort of "happy thoughts! Happy thoughts! Happy Thoughts!!!" to make myself assured enough to fall asleep.
I was actually blaming my mother for sending me this book without warning me about it. She should have told me that it was a horror story which would deprive me of sleep!
When I again picked it up, (The third time I went on reading it,) the story offered Some hope of a good outcome, but at the same time, presented new problems, and disturbing insights into who this Child was, as he grew up. I didn't have trouble falling asleep, but I Was afraid of reading that book again. I waited until I had time to get to the end, thinking that I would then at least have Closure, if not a full out, "Happy End". And how was the end then?
Certainly surprising. And I was ever so glad that... some words of "Fiction" were thrown into it. We were led to think that perhaps this child WAS something supernatural: a throw back to the times when goblins and gremlins walked the earth. It was precisely this element of fantasy that made me feel comfortable: Because I had the feeling once more that "It's all a story. This could never happen in Real life; It could never, therefor, happen to Me." -And this really was the largest part of the fear I had at the beginning; Trying to think of how I could possibly behave if it ever Did happen to me. If I should ever have a child who was not just mentally and socially retarded, but vicious, and with underlying evil.
And... besides that, the end was -different. It certainly wasn't the "Happy End," which I had anyhow doubted would come to be. It didn't have any sense of Closure though; The book ends with the Mother sitting alone at the Kitchen table, wondering what this son is going to do; She imagines him having this, that, and another life, when he leaves the family home forever. (Which it is pretty clear he is near to doing.) And, I have to say, this scene was Perfectly written. The image of the huge, Family Table, and the memories it evokes in the mother, as she thinks of the last of her children leaving her home, -is so Powerful. So deeply... resonant in my heart and mind. It was very effective.
But what kind of an ending was it? I can't say. Not at all. It actually had Some elements of a happy end, (At least, as happy an end as could be possible in this book.) The mother can imagine, (As the reader is also able to,) that this son will find some sort of place in the world, and not simply end up in jail, dying, within a year or so. But then, the only way she sees this happening, is if he finds some place within the underworld, (I mean the Criminal underworld, not the land of the dead.) So, is that a happy ending then? If the boy Could in fact lead a life? Even if the only possible life is one of criminality?
Besides all this, there is also a look at the human, psychological side. It deals with people's ideas, ideals, and their failure to confront things they are uncomfortable with. (No one, through the entire book, would agree with the mother that the boy was a little Monster. To every one else, in all the words they used, in every conversation they had, he was only troublesome, hyperactive, over aggressive, and a troubled child. They would never say that he was Abnormally so though.) They could none of them admit that having him grow twice as fast, but to a stalkier, squatter shape than other humans, was truly "Abnormal." The same went with his failure to have even a single normal social contact or bond.
The Author certainly doesn't fear going deeply into the psychology of the characters.
So, Was this a good book? It was masterfully written. It was deeply thought provoking... -but mostly in disturbing ways. And it's not a book that makes me feel -happy. Only, somehow, glad that such a thing could never, Never happen to me. (I cross my fingers that it couldn't.)
Oh, and all this made me curious: I'd like to read Doris Lessing's first book again now, to see if I can have... a better feeling for the protagonist of that story, -now that I know the protagonist of this one. I feel that part of the problem when I read it could have been a lack of association with the protagonist.
May 2006 A Christmas gift from my loving, book-addict Mother.
I can't believe it, but I've been stunned again by this author. Once more, I was utterly unprepared for her writing. I'll recap now: First book I read: The Grass is Singing. This was a deep look at the mind and pathos of a white woman in colonial Africa. -And an exploration of her relation with one particular black man. Ok. I found it a little dull, but somehow got through it. Second book I read: The Fifth Child. This chilled my blood, and gave me dreams that were disturbed nearly to the point of being nightmares. At the very end, there's the slightest hint of the paranormal; The mother of this exceptionally troublesome child starts thinking that it's a throw back to a time when we were Not Humans; But something more primitive, and dark. Something that later became the source of our stories of Goblins and Trolls. But this is all just in her head. There's no reason to feel compelled to agree with her. (Other than the fact that the child was so... inhuman. In so many little ways.) And then I start reading this book. And what is it about? Any guesses?
It starts out being very hard to make any sense of. There's a little bit about an unidentified patient in a hospital, and then a lot about some guy who's shipwrecked in the middle of the ocean. We are soon to discover that the shipwrecked man IS the patient in the hospital. In fact, the two stories are simultaneous; the man in the hospital believing, the whole time, that he in fact is floating around and around the Atlantic; just drifting with the currents.
And what does that all mean? I still have no idea.
But at length, he is given a ride by a dolphin, and gets out of the current, and is somewhere in South America. But no where... normal. (And the whole time, he's Really in the Hospital, right?) So he walks through the Jungle, comes upon a half ruined, long abandoned city, and decides to stay there. Why? Well, largely, because he's convinced that the space ship that took his friends, (the others in his ship, before he was shipwrecked,) will be landing at that city with the next full moon. Now. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN????
I have no idea.
Unfortunately for him, a species of rat people, and then a different one of monkeys come and start living in this city with him. And then they engage in a bloody, awful war. And the Space ship doesn't come, because of all the mess the war has made. At length though, they are all killed, or at least too injured to care any more, and the man can clean up the city enough that the spaceship will come. And then he is taken into the ship as well, and becomes... a super consciousness, at one with his old friends. (And he sees cosmic truths, and so on.)
Now at this point, I thought that I was on normal ground again, at last; I had some idea of what I could expect. But I was wrong. Not long after, this man isn't "dreaming" any more. He's in the hospital, trying to regain his memory.
So was the whole thing just a mad, delirious dream? Was it a journey, but within his own mind, and the city was his own consciousness? (Or some such thing?) Was he perhaps existing in more than one world at once? More than one time at once? We have no answer to these questions.
However, if I had to chose one interpretation, I would think that the Inner Journey is the most satisfying explanation of what was going on. He starts out completely lost in the ocean, (his mind,) without a hold of anything. He then gets hold of something, but is a stranger to it. And at last, he finds the "Ruined City." -Ruined Sanity? All the knowledge that he once had, but is crumbled and useless. BUT... that's where he knows that he'll make his escape. He knows that through this place of his old self, he will get out of the world he's in. OK.
But what's with the warring rat and monkey people? And the other details that I've left out? (Such as the giant bird, that flies him out over the ocean, gives him a look at his homeland and wife, but doesn't leave him there.) I have no theory about that.
-I HAD no theory about that. But if the character has come to represent Humanity, and not One Person within his own mind, then the message is clear: it's a call to peace. It's a cry against the pointlessness of war. The destruction, the Killing, the Misery, and the Breaking down of all social... everything... is pointless, and useless. And then, once we've finished with fighting, and being destructive, perhaps we will be able to clean our selves up, and work together, and become the Cohesive Mass, which is how the Alien Ship is portrayed.
If this were the correct interpretation of the story, then the "Around and around" at the beginning could be the Earth circling around the sun. Or cultures circling through the seasons. But never getting anywhere. Never truly making steps forwards... (In the sense that this book gets at. Later on, we see what Lessing is trying to describe as the ideal goal of humanity.) But still... If the story represents humanity's struggle... then what is with the Doctors? What is the meaning of the two doctors who are trying to help the mad patient?
Regardless of all these complications and unanswered questions, this is clearly a book of high quality. (But is a part of my saying that just a cover for my not being able to understand it? Something like saying "the working of a car motor is a very complicated, tricky thing." -simply because I've never found out how they work, and so saying leaves me looking not so unknowledgable.) Getting back to this review though, I can say that even though Lessing used strange paths, she touched on deep themes, and spoke of important things. (The one which is most prominent in my mind is her telling of the War, and the meaningless, but seemingly inherent violence.)
I'll be ever, EVER so interested if I come across another book by her. And wonder what on Earth, (or off of it) the book could be about.
Aug 2007 Pilfered from my mother's book shelves.
The other bits of the book then... seem to be a parallel dimension. Perhaps. Or it could be that our main character is having intense hallucinations on a semi-regular basis. Or it could be time travel (to an ever so strange future.) Or it could be travelling back in time, but arriving there as ghosts, who can't interact with the people. I would stick with the parallel dimension thing though. True to her style, Lessing explains nothing. She tells the story from the viewpoint of one experiencing it, (her Memoirs in fact.) So the whole way through she refers to "It", which is the falling apart of society on the grand scale, and "There", the world through the wall. No explanation is needed because if the memoirs are written for herself, she knows exactly what It and There are. And if she writes it for anyone around her, they also live in There, and lived through It. So we, (the readers still on Earth, in her past,) get only the vaguest idea of what could be going on.
The Young Girl character was compelling, but a little frightening. I think Lessing intended her to be that way; she is representing the fundamental, deep changes which take place in a girl's soul, as she becomes a woman. The Euphoria she feels, the uncertainty, the dressing up, (which is roll playing, no?) the intermittent return of old affections, the becoming alien to grownups who see her as a child, and a loss of innocence, (in this case, a total loss of ALL innocence.) At least in the child, it seems that Lessing is writing a great book about growing up. (It's also an interesting comment she makes about the girl's role having been to entertain, and to please others. She had always... repressed her own nature for the sake of making the others around her more content and accepting of her.)
The boy, or young man, that the girl has a big crush on... could he also be a way to show deep seeded human traits? Certainly less so. Lessing could be saying that at heart all men, (or at least all young ones, with little maturity through experience,) are promiscuous and can not commit to one woman. I don't feel that this is a point Lessing is trying to make though. It's certainly not the defining trait of the guy; He is also clearly made out to be a natural leader: good at talking with people, at organising people, and at motivating people. In this position of power though, he remains without corruption; He still cares deeply about the people he's taking care of, and about others in the community. He worries about not having enough land and food to take even more people under his wing. His truest heart is shown towards the end, when he tries to save... the "lost Children," who have sunken to a level below primitiveness and brutality. Even where all others long since gave up hope, he still sees a chance of making something positive out of these lives. If the character has one "flaw" in his heart, it's his over-optimism, and not his promiscuity. Could Lessing have been saying that some men are just like that? Incapable of committed love for one person because they are spreading their love around to the entire population.
What about the protagonist though? Doesn't she have an interesting personality? Well... no. She documents things. She stays respectfully out of things. She... writes her memoirs, which are not about her self, but rather about the life and world she lived through.
It's a good book, as long as you don't try to understand too much of what is going on in it.