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A review by cookedw
The Cleft by Doris Lessing
2.0
The Cleft is told through the voice of a Roman historian in the age of Nero. The story is essentially the “real” creation myth, with the contrary starting point being that women were the primary beings, and men began as an anomaly. From this basic beginning, Lessing spins a new yarn, touching upon themes of sex, war, and other primal social interactions.
Considering the story pivots around the basic point of “no it wasn’t men, it was women,” I was quite startled and put off by the complete lack of feminist perspective in the book. The book largely takes place centered around stereotypes—women nagging men, men being impulsive and reckless, cattiness between women, men being the explorers, etc. On the one hand, because the narrator is a Roman man who I expect to hold these views, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. But it seems awfully difficult to see the point in this story if the author actually wanted to inject a feminist view. I mean, her female-only/female-dominant society doesn’t even adhere to some of the basic precepts of such matriarchal cultures that have existed throughout history.
While the myth arc propels nicely, and I appreciated the interjections of “modern” Roman parallels in the historian’s voice as a reminder of how these types of histories have been laid down throughout time, I was never able to escape my fundamental confusion over what the author was trying to achieve here. It just invites and furthers stereotypes of gender…it seems like she has simply taken what could have been a feminist idea and instead utilized it to engage in mythic storytelling. And to me, it isn’t just that this becomes a missed opportunity as a result—it’s that the fundamentals of the story escape credulity and a fleshed out rationale. The myth is so one-dimensional in its male/female dynamics that it is just as dull as the various creation myths with which the reader is already familiar. It makes it impossible to care about the characters.
I really would love to know whether there is some secret to this book that I’m missing—but judging by other reviewers, it doesn't seem like it. While the writing was paced reasonably well for the style and fairly cohesive, I could only find the book itself to be stodgy and frustrating and would not recommend it at all.
Considering the story pivots around the basic point of “no it wasn’t men, it was women,” I was quite startled and put off by the complete lack of feminist perspective in the book. The book largely takes place centered around stereotypes—women nagging men, men being impulsive and reckless, cattiness between women, men being the explorers, etc. On the one hand, because the narrator is a Roman man who I expect to hold these views, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. But it seems awfully difficult to see the point in this story if the author actually wanted to inject a feminist view. I mean, her female-only/female-dominant society doesn’t even adhere to some of the basic precepts of such matriarchal cultures that have existed throughout history.
While the myth arc propels nicely, and I appreciated the interjections of “modern” Roman parallels in the historian’s voice as a reminder of how these types of histories have been laid down throughout time, I was never able to escape my fundamental confusion over what the author was trying to achieve here. It just invites and furthers stereotypes of gender…it seems like she has simply taken what could have been a feminist idea and instead utilized it to engage in mythic storytelling. And to me, it isn’t just that this becomes a missed opportunity as a result—it’s that the fundamentals of the story escape credulity and a fleshed out rationale. The myth is so one-dimensional in its male/female dynamics that it is just as dull as the various creation myths with which the reader is already familiar. It makes it impossible to care about the characters.
I really would love to know whether there is some secret to this book that I’m missing—but judging by other reviewers, it doesn't seem like it. While the writing was paced reasonably well for the style and fairly cohesive, I could only find the book itself to be stodgy and frustrating and would not recommend it at all.