THE GOLDEN NOTEBOOK by Doris Lessing >> How is this the first Lessing I've ever read??
The Foxed PageShow Notes
Whether you love this iconic, culty, groundbreaking novel or you don't get the hype; whether you believe it's a feminist treatise or a meditation on the promise and the shortfalls of communism, you'll finish this lecture feeling like you've gotten some SERIOUS LITERATURE under your belt.
If you haven't read this 1962 phenomenon--or haven't for a while--this lecture is a good (re)introduction to why the unique structure and radical candor about everything from motherhood to post-War politics in Southern Rhodesia, to the difference between the clitoral and vaginal orgasm (at least in Lessing's [somewhat hilarious and highly suspect] opinion) make this worth its 600+ pages.
More from The Foxed Page
Did you love this GIGANTIC bestseller from nine years ago? Let me remind you why! It was SO fun to dig in to how Ng makes fiction do what fiction does best: her narrative stance, structure, plotting and characterization are so strong.
NO READING REQUIRED! I READ THE WHOLE (super short) SHORT STORY TO YOU!
To be completely honest, I picked this up because I thought I saw it on the Booker long list. I was mistaken (!!) but WOW am I glad I read it. How is this his first novel???
This book is SO smart. Listen in to appreciate its richness, depth and complexity. ALSO, an hour from now you'll know the crucial difference between extraction skimming and reading as a means of real understanding.