Great book (The Grass is Singing - Doris Lessing)

Member Name: G-TOP3

Product:	The Grass is Singing - Doris Lessing
Date:	25/05/09 (64 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Extremely well written

Disadvantages: None

The Grass is Singing was the first novel to be published by Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing. The book is set in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in southern Africa during the 1940's. My lasting memory of the book is the oppressive, scorched earth which, with all it's vastness and boundless space, managed to consume its inhabitants with a steady, seething despair.

The protagonist, Mary, spends part of her life living as an independent woman in the city but for various reasons marries a farmer and moves away from the comforts of urban life. The result is the slow decline of her sanity and the loss of her compassion. Her situation isn't helped by the fact that her husband isn't able to sort out their home in such a way that would enable them to deal with the suffocating heat. He is a kind man who is concerned about the land and treats it with a respect that isn't apparent in workings of the other farmers but while their wealth grows Mary and her husband continue with their harsh unabating struggle.

There is a horror to reading this novel, a horror that under similar circumstances you too could end up as wretched as Mary. It is a compelling book and a study into human nature and how it copes or is unable to cope with adversity

Summary: Well worth a read