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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is the first novel of D. Lessing and, considering it was first published in 1950, very enlightened. It is compelling and troubling Set in Rhodesia between the [world] wars, it traces the marriage and decline of a white woman, Mary Turner, and the evens that lead to her murder by the house servant, the “boy”, Moses— with whom she may or may not have had a sexual relationship, it’s hard to tell. I think she does the unforgivable thing, in the whites’ eyes of the time, of recognizing his (Moses’s) humanity and then retreating when a white manager comes. She definitely goes crazy in the end and Lessing does a really good job of portraying the closed-in, prisonlike atmosphere.
Not the good time read of the year. In this book it's almost impossible to not pity and despise all of the characters. Set in Rhodesia, this is Doris Lessing's first novel and she pulls from her experience growing up in Africa.
Page 1. Mary Turner has been murdered on the farm where she and her husband Dick live. That's about as pleasant as the book gets. So be warned. Lessing goes back from this gruesome scene to explain how Mary left her pleasant single life working in the city and ended up miserable in the African bush on a farm that is nearly always bankrupt and with a husband who repulses her. Farm and an unhappy marriage drives Mary further and further into herself until she is hardly recognizable.
Lessing has a fairly severe commentary on this time period (40's or 50's I think?) and makes clear judgments on everything from the reasons for marriage to the proper way to farm, but most significantly she critiques the treatment of the native African people by the whites. Absolutely appalling. Even the staunchest bigot would feel a little uneasy reading her commentary on the poor treatment of the farm hands, and the white's assumptions about them.
I'd definitely recommend this book for those who can handle being in a bit of a funk for 200 pages. It's a quick read and a perspective on pre-Apartheid southern Africa. Lessing's psychological mapping of Mary as she deteriorates is intense and chilling.
Page 1. Mary Turner has been murdered on the farm where she and her husband Dick live. That's about as pleasant as the book gets. So be warned. Lessing goes back from this gruesome scene to explain how Mary left her pleasant single life working in the city and ended up miserable in the African bush on a farm that is nearly always bankrupt and with a husband who repulses her. Farm and an unhappy marriage drives Mary further and further into herself until she is hardly recognizable.
Lessing has a fairly severe commentary on this time period (40's or 50's I think?) and makes clear judgments on everything from the reasons for marriage to the proper way to farm, but most significantly she critiques the treatment of the native African people by the whites. Absolutely appalling. Even the staunchest bigot would feel a little uneasy reading her commentary on the poor treatment of the farm hands, and the white's assumptions about them.
I'd definitely recommend this book for those who can handle being in a bit of a funk for 200 pages. It's a quick read and a perspective on pre-Apartheid southern Africa. Lessing's psychological mapping of Mary as she deteriorates is intense and chilling.
Spoilers off ;)
It's definitely a great story, a lot realistic! Its ending kind of shocked me. The plot is so intense and passionate, definitely passionate. Also, power's role plays an important part in this book. It begins with power and it finishes likewise. 'The Human Being thing' plays such an incredible role, here.
Highly recommended to those who should appreciate what they own and who they are, more than what others have and who they come from.
It's definitely a great story, a lot realistic! Its ending kind of shocked me. The plot is so intense and passionate, definitely passionate. Also, power's role plays an important part in this book. It begins with power and it finishes likewise. 'The Human Being thing' plays such an incredible role, here.
Highly recommended to those who should appreciate what they own and who they are, more than what others have and who they come from.
One of the most interesting takes on a protagonist I have seen. You start of loving Mary and wondering why on earth anybody would want to kill her but as the novel progresses you begin to despise her. Mary's racism is truly shocking, especially seeing as Lessing describes it as a separate entity to her individuality (suggesting that it is not an intrinsic part of her but something that has been distilled by her childhood). There is definitely a Freudian approach being explored here and if you're familiar with his work, it is a perfect (fictional) casestudy to apply what you know.
Not only this, but the imagery is beautiful. At first, it is dismal and two dimensional but as Mary looks up, it is rich and full of wonder. There is a particularly enchanting passage which describes the South African night sky.
Not only this, but the imagery is beautiful. At first, it is dismal and two dimensional but as Mary looks up, it is rich and full of wonder. There is a particularly enchanting passage which describes the South African night sky.
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Depressing tale of a disfunctional farming couple in mid-century Rhodesia, and the white supremacy they are complicit in. The ending of the plot is already established at the beginning, the story gradually reaches its climax. Distubing amount of physical and mental violence of native black community. Beautifully descriptive of landscape and location, however.
Mary, an independent woman who don't need no man, reluctantly marries Dick Turner. We get to follow their financial problems, their life on their farm and Mary's descent into madness(?) during 1940's apartheid South Africa.
Oh my god, so boring, too repetitive and too long, even though it was barely 200 pages.
Oh my god, so boring, too repetitive and too long, even though it was barely 200 pages.
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
That heat,that loneliness, this book describes hell. Impressive