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Title: The Grandmothers : Four Short Novels by Doris Lessing ISBN: 0-06-053010-3 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 06 January, 2004 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (3 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Lessing gives idea after idea in these novellas.
Comment: Each idea in these 4 novellas and the characters involved is fascinating. Over and over I found myself unsure with which side I agreed . Given the real life choices her characters faced, what would be the best course to follow? I was never sure.If you have read Lessings' work you will see her returning to problem areas she has tackled before. I am grateful she did.These novellas remind us how complicated it is to be sure of why we think as we do.The issue of betrayal, of love outside the boundaries set in society, of race and class divisions, of war, of the chaos in crumbling modern societies and of living a life that is 'not your own' --these are just a sampling of the bounty here.
Rating: 3
Summary: Two Disappointing, One Okay, One Beautiful
Comment: While the title story in this collection of four novellas isn't wholly unbelievable, its characters are. Roz and Lil are the "the grandmothers" in question and they have been best friends since youth, sharing everything...including their own sons. It gives away nothing of the story to say that Roz and Lil have each been the lover of the other's son until their 30s. At that time, both Roz and Lil made a decision to end the affairs for the good of their sons. Do Roz and Lil regret their decision? Do their sons? The answer may surprise you, but, on the other hand, it might not. I think Lessing is less than innovative in her handling of this novella and I was disappointed with it.
Even more disappointing, however, was "The Reason for It." This is a science fiction/fantasy piece that seems jarringly out of place in this collection. In it, the last inhabitant of "The Cities," Twelve, is recording its downfall. In particular, Twelve wants us to learn of DeRod, the person responsible for the The Cities blatant militarism and banishment of literature and music. Personally, I think Lessing is far from her best when writing science fiction/fantasy and I didn't like this story at all. It had potential, but I think it would have been best handled by another writer.
Things improve in the novella entitled, "Victoria and the Staveneys." This story concerns a young black orphan, Victoria, and her affair with a white man named Thomas, a man she met through his sweet and caring brother, Edward. Although Victoria has romantic dreams about the large Staveney household, she comes to fear it (and the Staveneys) when she and Thomas have a daughter of their own. I liked this novella, but I felt that all of the characters, with the possible exception of Victoria, were quite stereotypical. Even Victoria is not as fully-developed as she could have been.
The best novella of the group is "The Love Child." "The Love Child" is the story of James Reid whose encounter with a woman named Daphne in Cape Town (on his way to India) produces (so James thinks) a "love child" he pines for the rest of his life. James is a dreamer, to be sure, but he is very different kind of dreamer than is Victoria in "Victoria and The Staveneys," yet both Victoria and James must come to some acceptance of the fact that life and love have somehow escaped them and that all they are left with are dreams of "what might have been" through the fault of no one but themselves.
The biggest problem I have with all of these novellas (with the exception of "The Love Child") is that Lessing seems to be fashioning her characters's emotions and reactions to suit her plot contrivances. With the exception of "The Love Child," these novellas feel both forced and more than a little false and Lessing is certainly a better writer than to resort to falseness in anything. Lessing is really a wonderful writer, one whose writing has much power and richness. While I haven't read all of her work, I've found what I have read to be on a par with "The Love Child," the best novella in this group of four.
That said, "The Love Child" is a beautiful, sad and haunting novella. It is this novella that rescues the entire collection. James Reid typifies the "romantic dreamer" who never really loves, who never really lives because of his deep and abiding belief that love and life are something "over there" that "other people" enjoy...but not him. While the other three novellas felt forced and somewhat false, Lessing is pitch-perfect in "The Love Child." It's a beautiful novella and worth the price of the book for it alone.
I would recommend this book only to fans of Doris Lessing. With the exception of "The Love Child," it certainly isn't a good indicator of the quality of her work. I would give "The Grandmothers and "The Reason for It" three stars, "Victoria and the Staveneys" four, and "The Love Child" five. Overall, that gives the book a little more than three stars.
Rating: 4
Summary: Worth it just for "Love Child"
Comment: Doris Lessing's compilation of four novellas (called "short novels" in the title) shows Lessing at both her best and worst. Only the last, "Love Child" comes close to showing her sheer power as a writer, and this novella is so artfully written, even as it meanders through a man's life, that it's well worth enduring the others to get to it.
The most annoying of these novellas are "The Grandmothers" and "The Reason For It," the latter because of its allegorical didacticism. In a collection otherwise about impossible love, "The Reason For It" stands out as not belonging, for it concerns the lessons of unearned (and unreasonable) power. "The Grandmothers" fails for a different reason: it is simply too neat, too devoid of true emotion, too hard to accept as something more than an exercise in fiction. Two women, largely indistinguishable except by name, have two sons, also indistinguishable. Each woman, for no believable reason, takes the son of the other as a lover. The two sons grow up, marry indistinguishable women and have between them two indistinguishable daughters. The women are repeatedly described as "pretty" with "brown legs" and their sons are "handsome" and "desirable." At times well-written and other times bland, this novella ends up being only mildly interesting. Especially after recently reading Paul Theroux's THE STRANGER AT THE PALAZZO D'ORO, I wonder why such skilled but aging writers are exploring older women being lovers of younger men when they can't write convincingly about it. At least the novella following "The Grandmothers", "Victoria and the Staveneys," an exploration of love and race, manages to find the emotion in an unusual situation.
And then, finally, the reader, if she hasn't given up already, reaches the last novella, "Love Child." Here, Lessing takes her time to develop the circumstances of a lower middle class man who is drafted while still in college to serve during World War II. Slow to unfold but honest at every turn, this novella is a delight in detail and character, with its protagonist James earning the right to the reader's affection. With a few minor exceptions, what happens is both convincing and natural. By the end of it, I felt Lessing had redeemed herself both as a writer and an observer of the human condition.
"Love Child" alone makes this collection worth reading. Thank goodness Lessing chose to include it, for otherwise I would have been greatly disappointed.
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