Doris Lessing

[marilynmonroe]

i've just finished the Fifth child and loved it. I love how she writes simply but powerfully.

can anyone recommend any of her others to read?

thanks

The Martha Quest series of book absolutely gripped me as a teenager, it was easy to relate to the grumpy, sulky Martha (if not to her life in Rhodesia just before WW2!) when you're about 16! I really enjoyed re-reading one or two of the set many years later as well. They are some of Lessing's earliest books, I think.

I also read The Golden Notebook but can't remember very much about it although I think it's widely regarded as the book that sealed her reputation as a writer to be taken seriously. She's written science fiction and dystopian fiction too.

However, I didn't really like The Fifth Child ( or its sequel, Ben in the World) so I may not be the best person to recommend anything to you!

The Golden Notebook
The Good Terrorist
The Sweetest Dream

She is brilliant and she writes the lived experience of the Left like no-one else.

The Grass is Singing

Doris Lessing is prolific, so you're spoilt for choice! I loved the first four of the Martha Quest series - book five went a bit weird, though. The Good Terrorist is a great read. I haven't read The Golden Notebook for many many years but was impressed at the time. I do wonder actually if some of her stuff might be a bit dated now, with all that angst about being a member of the communist party.

The two volumes of autobiography are worth a read, though - she knew lots of famous writers so they're quite gossipy, iirc.

The only one of hers I've read is Briefing for a Descent into Hell. It was fucking weird.

yeh her futuristic/sci fi stuff is fucking weird, no doubt.
there's a great book of short stories called London.
and the diary of Jan somebody, that she wrote to see if she could get published under a different name.
I love Dot, she is our very own literary treasure.
there's a marvellous youtube video of her getting out of a taxi with her food shopping to be told she had won some prize or other and she was so..........excellent.

Autobiographies are great

She is a legend and talks the most sense about feminism and women's rights.

I loved Mara And Dann - maybe too sci-fi ?