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A review by kinklekota
The Cleft by Doris Lessing
there were moments when I truly enjoyed this book. It grabbed my attention and made me think a lot. Mostly about its flaws.
The book seems to be written by an amatheur. It is fragmented and poorly composed, the tale seems to have no credibility at all, and the narrator constantly repeats himself (which has been driving me mad). On top of that, the author seems to be strongly influenced by stereotypical thinking.
However, I cannot believe she would write something this bad if it weren't on purpose. A hundred of possible explanations for her terrible plot managing comes to my mind. Maybe she tried to mimic a poor storyteller, who doesn't remember the order of events well and omits some parts of the tale because he finds them irrelevant or refers to the events he hasn't told about yet, etc. Maybe she wants us to experience the feeling of a scholar faced with repetitive and yet meagre material and hardships of reconstructing the story from bits we are provided with. And the stereotypes are in fact somehow twisted, because I have always thought that ancient people did not respect women at all, just grabbed them by hair and haul them into a cave, and it's totally different here (still, I would prefer it to be less modern).
I would have given it even four stars if it were more serious. Or if I KNEW that she is just mocking the reader with her style. Unfortunately, I only SURMISE it is so, and that's not enough to convince me that it is a good book.
The book seems to be written by an amatheur. It is fragmented and poorly composed, the tale seems to have no credibility at all, and the narrator constantly repeats himself (which has been driving me mad). On top of that, the author seems to be strongly influenced by stereotypical thinking.
However, I cannot believe she would write something this bad if it weren't on purpose. A hundred of possible explanations for her terrible plot managing comes to my mind. Maybe she tried to mimic a poor storyteller, who doesn't remember the order of events well and omits some parts of the tale because he finds them irrelevant or refers to the events he hasn't told about yet, etc. Maybe she wants us to experience the feeling of a scholar faced with repetitive and yet meagre material and hardships of reconstructing the story from bits we are provided with. And the stereotypes are in fact somehow twisted, because I have always thought that ancient people did not respect women at all, just grabbed them by hair and haul them into a cave, and it's totally different here (still, I would prefer it to be less modern).
I would have given it even four stars if it were more serious. Or if I KNEW that she is just mocking the reader with her style. Unfortunately, I only SURMISE it is so, and that's not enough to convince me that it is a good book.