Doris Lessing's justified reputation for her vast output of
outstanding novels, short- stories, opera, drama, poetry,
non-fiction and autobiography goes before her, carrying both
expectation and reward. This latest volume contains four novellas,
each complete and rounded, with unforgettable characters living in
their separate worlds. The title story beguilingly follows the
love-affairs of two young-in-heart grandmothers unexpectedly
sexually attracted to each other's grandson. In Victoria and the
Stavneys, Mary, a poor black girl, seduced by a white boy, finds
that far from her child being disowned by his family, she's claimed
by them; and Mary is gradually enticed into their privileged,
middle-class life-style. The Reason for It is a cautionary fable
which encapsulates brilliantly the rise, development and
degeneration of a potentially ideal community and culture. And
finally, A Love Child, in which World War Two amateur and reluctant
soldier James Reid, is haunted for life, by a brief romance on a
stopover in Cape Town en route to India. (Kirkus UK)
With the four short novels in this collection, Doris Lessing once
again proves that she is unequalled in her ability to capture the
truth of the human condition. The title story, 'The Grandmothers',
is an astonishing tour de force, a shockingly intimate portrait of
an unconventional extended family and the lengths to which they
will go to find happiness and love. Written with a keen cinematic
eye, the story is a ruthless dissection of the veneer of
middle-class morality and convention which manages to be at once
universal and desperately, heartbreakingly personal. A second
story, 'Victoria and the Staveneys', takes us through 20 years of
the life of a young underprivilged black girl in London. A chance
meeting introduces her to the world of the Staveneys -- a liberal
white middle-class family -- and, seduced, she falls pregnant by
one of the sons. As her young daughter grows up, Victoria feels her
parental control diminishing as the attractions of the Staveney's
world exert themselves. An honest and often uncomfortable look at
race relations in London over the past few decades, Lessing
reaffirms her brilliance at demonstrating the effect of society on
the individual.; With these and two other equally brilliant
novellas, Lessing has proven once again that she is one of our most
valuable and insightful living authors.
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