Doris Lessing is eight-four years old and for more than fifty years
has distinguished herself as one of the most intelligent,
provocative, influential and courageous writers in English. Her
body of work includes novels, novellas, short stories, essays,
political treatises, plays, operas, poetry, memoirs and an
autobiography. The breadth of her work stretches from life on the
veld in South Africa to life on other planets. Her themes center on
the relationships between women and men; the painful side of
interactions between children and parents; how individuals perceive
themselves in society and how they believe society perceives them;
how personalities are shaped or shape themselves as a result of the
circumstances and experiences of the individual lives they
represent; and the way political actions affect the populace and
the role the individual needs to employ as a result of the
political system under which they live. She believes that most
psyches employ extraordinary feats of emotional, social and
cultural compartmentalization in order for life to move on.

Lessing has been lauded as a staunch supporter and defender of
feminism (she denies categorically this interpretation of her
work). She writes about communism; her commitment to it and her
later rejection of the entire movement. With no fear of exploration
and an insatiable thirst for knowledge, she adopted the Sufi way of
life. This "conversion" came after she reviewed a book about it,
which inspired her to read everything about this mystical yet
pragmatic belief system. To find a coherent path that rejects
propaganda, prejudice and ideology was a gift for Lessing. The
tenets of the Sufi way of life reinforced her already cemented ways
of thinking. Her novels are considered especially important because
of their daring and wide range: she moves from realist narrative to
science fiction and fantasy without losing her focus. She is
fearless and is considered one of the most forward thinking and
groundbreaking writers of the twentieth (now twenty-first)
century.

Her latest book, THE GRANDMOTHERS, is comprised of four very
different novellas. Each one is a prototype of how Lessing
perceives the possibilities available to the individual and human
dramas that fill every life. These four tales emerge as a prism
through which readers can catch a glimpse of the myriad issues
Lessing has nurtured from her early fiction, THE GRASS IS SINGING
and her feminist opus THE GOLDEN NOTEBOOK, to her visionary and
cautionary books like BRIEFING FOR A DESCENT INTO HELL and MEMOIRS
OF A SURVIVOR.

The first story in THE GRANDMOTHERS uses the book's title for its
own and begins, " …six people were making the gentle ascent,
four adults and two little girls, whose shrieks of pleasure" were
prompted by reaching Baxter's, a local café where they would
be rewarded with goodies for good behavior. "Two handsome men came
first … then two … handsome women of about sixty ---
but no one would dream of calling them elderly." The little group
settled in comfortably, the waitress knew them and brought them
their regular treats. "They all sighed, heard each other and now
laughed, a full frank laugh that seemed to acknowledge things
unsaid." The mood quietly relaxed and intermingled with some secret
the adults share and enjoy with looks and smiles.

The Grandmothers of the scene at the hillside rest came about
because two little girls who met in primary school instantly became
best friends. They have always been as close as sisters and live
their lives as though this were true. When they finish school, Lil
becomes a competitive international swimming star while Roz turns
to drama and the theater. They enjoy a double wedding, move into
houses on the same street and give birth to their sons at the same
time. The women have very different personalities but are more
devoted to each other than anyone else. Roz's husband shouts at
her, "It's you, and Lil. Always. And what difference would it make
if you were [lesbians?] Obviously sex doesn't matter that much. We
have … more than adequate sex but it's not me you have a
relationship with." Roz is slightly bewildered but feels no great
loss when her husband leaves.

On the other hand Lil is always worried that people will think they
are "lezzies." But they are so far from being homosexuals that by
an unspoken agreement and cunning desire they each bed the other's
son. These liaisons go on for years with much joy had by all. The
whole concept raises issues of possible incest, the role of mothers
in the lives of their male offspring, how to define the boundaries
of different kinds of love and the impact of an arrangement like
this on the development of these boys as they mature into men.
Lessing presents this story without judgment on the women or the
sons and clearly wants the reader to ponder the decisions these
people have made and what it has cost them … if
anything.

"Victoria and the Staveneys," the second piece, works on a
different plane. Here, a young black girl from "the projects" or
council housing has a terrible childhood filled with loss,
abandonment, illness and death. She loses her mother, is
reluctantly taken in by her aunt, who develops cancer, and while
she is dying insists that young Victoria take care of her. When the
aunt passes away a close friend, Phyllis, who is a social worker,
moves Victoria into her tiny apartment with her three children and
an old, ailing grandfather.

The years pass. Victoria grows up with the knowledge that she is
somehow different; she has always felt herself an outsider but
makes strides to overcome her deprecating concept of herself. She
develops into a stunner, which is a constant worry to her guardian,
who knows too well how easily a good-looking girl can ruin her life
with one act of recklessness. And, of course, Victoria does. After
a series of jobs that didn't always pay well, she meets and has an
affair with a middle-class white boy, becomes pregnant, doesn't
inform the father, has the baby (a "mocha" little girl) and keeps
her. A few years later she marries a musician who, despite always
being on the road, manages to impregnate her and she gives birth to
a black little boy, Dickson, who is unmanageable and "sweats too
much." Soon after he is born, his father is killed. More years
pass, and one day Victoria decides to tell Thomas he is Mary's
father. This decision holds many terrifying possibilities for the
future relationships Mary will form.

His entire family takes the news in stride. They are all
liberal-minded, educated and, though sometimes feckless people,
truly fall in love with the little girl. As a result of their
affection, status, connections and money, they can offer her a life
filled with the opportunities her mother never even dreamed of.
Victoria must make the most painful decision of her life. Her
daughter's entire future depends on it.

The third narrative is "light science-fiction" about a place that
had once been conquered by another nation. However, in this piece,
that was good because the old culture was infused with learning,
storytelling and beauty, all seeped in a high sense of morality,
loyalty and peace. Like all oligarchies, not every leader was
benign, but the most influential was Destra who, as a child, was
chosen out of twelve (The Twelve) to be taught how to care for
their world and everyone in it. Under her watch this place was a
glorious paradise, an Edenesque landscape. But when she dies, her
son is elected by the other eleven to take her place. From that
moment on, their world becomes barbaric --- warring, poorly managed
and grotesque. The narrator, the last of The Twelve, tells his
story in slow and with deeply felt emotion, as a storyteller
should. This gives readers a chance to conjure up the images he
brings forth.

This is one of Lessing's cautionary tales. In it, she harkens back
to her communist days for a taste of laissez faire living with each
contributing to the best of her/his ability. In other words, she
flips to black --- the dark side of humanity, of how worlds erode,
grow dim, lose hope and regress back to primitive levels of
survival. This theme is tightly woven into the fabric of Lessing's
oeuvre, as seen in some of her early works, BRIEFING FOR A DESCENT
INTO HELL and MEMOIRS OF A SURVIVOR. All of these novels speak to
the downfall of societies, where corruption and wrong- minded
people are able to take power for their own agendas. Lessing
believes that when a society loses respect and interest in its
culture, art, music, language, books, freedom to think and debate
and discuss, that community will not survive. When nature is
desecrated and people squander the riches of the world, only
barbarism, ignorance and flat-mindedness will result.

The fourth and final addition to this collection is "A Love Child,"
an enigmatic, World War II love story that takes place in South
Africa and then in India. James Reid is an Englishman who, with his
mates, boards "… that great ship in its camouflage dress,
designed to make it look … like a blur or a cloud or perhaps
a school of flying fishes, at any rate something ephemeral, now
seemed solid, sinister, even furtive. Five thousand soldiers with
their attendant officers crammed the dockside" waiting their turn
to board the vessel that was designed to accommodate seven hundred
eighty passengers and crew. Lessing describes the voyage in painful
detail, as nothing worse than a passage through Hell. The men
suffer enormously from seasickness, blazing heat, lack of space and
fear. When the ship finally reaches port in Cape Town and the
soldiers began to descend the gangplank, it was obvious they had
had a bad time. They were more like invalids than soldiers, holding
on to handrails and not looking healthy.

A lonely married woman named Daphne is a volunteer "hostess" who
agrees to shuttle the men from the port to various places where
they can recoup their energies. By chance, James stumbles into her
car and over a four-day period he convinces himself that she is the
love of his life and they have an affair. She becomes pregnant and
to him this is a lifelong commitment. Then he is sent on a mission
and fully expects her to be divorced and ready to marry him if/when
he returns from the battle. She, on the other hand, is conventional
and provincial, despite her indiscretion, and has no desire to
speak to him or ever see him again. This romantic man and the
pragmatic woman represent a major feature in Lessing's work, i.e.,
the miscommunication between intimates that leads to heartbreak,
disillusionment, even madness. The way she details their
psychological and physical problems makes for fascinating reading
--- she points to another way to view human behavior and its
consequences, regardless of the chilling effect it may leave.

In her early memoir, "A Small Personal Voice," she talks about the
plethora of letters she receives from young women wanting answers
to the "big" questions of life. While somewhat flattered, she is
more frustrated with these readers. She wants them to explore the
issues she raises and analyze the ideas she proposes. THE
GRANDMOTHERS is a perfect vehicle with which to approach Lessing's
work if you have not read her before. Fans can rest assured that
these novellas are pure Lessing, radiating with everything that
brought you to her work in the first place. She has always had the
chutzpah to say what she believes, even when she is not willing to
explain why. And at the end of "A Love Child" much is left to the
reader to decipher. This collection is a keeper!