Walking in the Shade
Growing Point, The
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
"The life she describes is heroic...yet astonishingly full, with political work, writing, friendships, lovers and travel."— San Francisco Chronicle
The second volume of Doris Lessing's extraordinary autobiography covers the years 1949-62, from her arrival in war-weary London with her son, Peter, and the manuscript for her first novel, The Grass is Singing, under her arm to the publication of her most famous work of fiction, The Golden Notebook. She describes how communism dominated the intellectual life of the 1950s and how she, like nearly all communists, became disillusioned with extreme and rhetorical politics and left communism behind. Evoking the bohemian days of a young writer and single mother, Lessing speaks openly about her writing process, her friends and lovers, her involvement in the theater, and her political activities. Walking in the Shade is an invaluable social history as well as Doris Lessing's Sentimental Education.
Lessing’s account of a writer finding her voice amidst the political turmoil of the Cold War reveals:
Communism in Britain: A firsthand account of communism’s grip on the intellectual life of the 1950s and the painful, clear-eyed decision to leave the Party behind.1950s Social History: A return to a war-damaged, unpainted London, evoking the bohemian days of artists, thinkers, and exiles navigating a city on the cusp of profound change.The Life of a Writer: Candid reflections on her writing process, from arriving in England with the manuscript for The Grass is Singing to the publication of her groundbreaking novel, The Golden Notebook.A Woman’s Independence: The frank and unsentimental story of a young single mother balancing her son, her lovers, her friendships, and her political convictions while forging a new life for herself.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
More casually written and organized than the superb Under My Skin, this second volume of Lessing's memoirs contains acute, brutally frank comments on topics from book publishing to left-wing activism. She opens with her arrival in London four years after the end of WWII. A 30-year-old single mother with a two-year-old son, Lessing left Southern Rhodesia in search of a place and a means to write freely. Chapters are named for the locations in which she lived--Denbigh Road, Church Street, Warwick Road, Langham Street--and her narrative is similarly episodic. She covers her love affairs, years of psychotherapy, her increasingly disenchanted involvement with the Communist Party, the books she was writing, though she also interpolates musings on current topics (modern book promotion, the yuppification of London). Lessing is reticent about emotions: those who want to know what this period in her life felt like should read The Golden Notebook, whose genesis is discussed here with disappointing brevity. A virtual Who's Who of British culture make appearances--historian E.P. Thompson, playwrights Arnold Wesker and John Osborne, theater critic Kenneth Tynan, philosopher Bertrand Russell, to name a few--but some of the most evocative portraits limn unknowns and relatives. (Lessing's unflinching assessment of her mother's final years is especially notable.) The author isn't capable of being boring, but this rambling chronicle is a disappointment. Photos.
