My copy of the book contains a list of Lessing’s works. The complacency and cruelty of white colonial society are laid bare, as issues of racism, injustice and sexuality are explored with insight and sensitivity. She produces penetrating portraits of the central characters, enabling us to comprehend the reasons underlying their behaviour. Her writing conveys the harsh landscape and the oppressive climate. Much of her aggression is taken out on a succession of black servants, who find it impossible to satisfy her demands.Įventually she develops an obsession with a houseboy called Moses, and the reader witnesses a tragedy unfolding. Mary becomes increasingly discontented, particularly when she realizes that Dick is, fundamentally, incompetent. Her thoughts often drift to her previous existence in town, where she enjoyed a career and an active social life.Įlke Wetzig under CC-BY-SA licence under Creative-Commons licenseĭoris Lessing This title is from What the Thunder Said in The Waste Land by TS Eliot.Ī white farmer, Dick Turner, is passionate about his land however, his wife Mary is utterly fatigued and frustrated by the relentless heat and grinding poverty. The evocative setting was to inspire her first novel, 1950's The Grass is Singing. Lessing was raised on her father’s farm in Southern Rhodesia.

Doris Lessing was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007, and this month on the forum we are celebrating her achievements.

Wiki the grass is singing