20th Century | The Golden Notebook
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 13 сен 2024
- A modern classic... but we didn't see eye to eye.
---------------------------------------------------
robertsheard.com
makoprize.org
/ barterhordes
/ barterhordes
/ robert.sheard.7
/ 108115.robert_sheard
Totally agree.
What happened in Broward County is heartbreaking. Laws have got to change. While l listened to the review, l am also thinking about the heavier issues here in the U.S. I teach in a university, and I adore my work and my students. We are losing our precious children in these events . . .
I am sorry for the grief your community is suffering through. I am also deeply grieved that we have not solved this for our nation’s children.
xx
She Writes I just retired from teaching, so this issue has been a part of our professional life a long time. It’s heartbreaking.
Completely agree with this review. I hate read this book all the way, but I still have my copy because I recognize it's objective merit.
I thought about rereading it but life’s too short.
@@Robert.Sheard hahaha!
This is a very interesting review. I haven't read anything by Lessing yet, although I do have a copy of «The Golden Notebook», because it got translated into Greek again (I am Greek) just a few months ago. I said "again" because this is the third translation of that book within 44 yeas (the first translation dates from 1980) in Greece. From your review it sounds that this book "suffers" from the same problems that Thomas Mann's books suffer, at least for me, for example «The Magic Mountain». But still, aren't these kind of books a challenge for us readers? I have a very strong feeling towards books that are challenging, but I know that at the end, or during the reading, I might be (very) disappointed. Anyway, I'm thinking to start my Doris Lessing literary investigation with some other books of hers («The Fifth Child», «Ben in the World», «The Good Terrorist») before getting into the big reading project that is called «The Golden Notebook». I agree with you about books with a plot; with a big and powerful "engine", as Salman Rushdie says again and again. Therefore, I wanted to ask you if you've ever read anything by Nikos Kazantzakis. I'm sure that his books will speak to you and for that matter I would not suggest to begin with his most well known and iconic book «Zorba the Greek». I would more likely suggest to read his most powerful work «Christ Recrucified» and then moving to «The Fratricides», «Freedom or Death», «The Last Temptation of Christ», «Report to Greco». Reading Kazantzakis would be a totally different reading experience, one that I hope you'll enjoy!
I’ve heard of Kazantzakis, of course, but I haven’t read any of his works (yet). Good luck with your Lessing adventure.
Sorry to hear you were close to the terrible events of Valentines Day, my heart goes out to the community there.
I’ve been hearing about this book for years as a modern classic but had no idea what it was about. Thank you for your honest review and now I know I can give this one a miss without feeling too bad!
Jo Smith I feel guilty that I might be talking you out of a read where your experience may be very different from mine.
Please don't, it wasn't even on my TBR, I just knew of it and there are so many other books I want to get to, this would still have been far down the list!
Yes. It's tedious.
Lessing is capable of engaging and effective prose but this book seems to purposely avoid it!
Good Review. All true what you said about the book. As a member of the lower working class, it is for me especially unpleasant to ecounter the elitist attitude of bourgeois intellectuals. Anyway, now Lessings life makes more sense to me: Pseudo-Socialist (for fashion reasons)->self-centered psycho bourgeois-> mysticism.
If you want someone who's bourgeois but doesn't write bourgeois, go for Virginia Woolf :)
I find miss dalloway bourgeois, i.e abstract and full of symbolism and prounounced subjectivism.
@@DemocritusEpicurus Being abstract isn't bourgeois, being subjective is rather normal for any story, but yeah Dalloway isn't my favourite either. Have you tried reading To The Lighthouse or Orlando?
Subjektivism started around 1848-1878 e.g. Impressionism in painting. Or Proust replacing french realism (Balzac...). No coincidence around the time of Bourgeoisie Victory in History and the onset of fighting off Proletarian Art and Philosophy.
To the Lighthouse ist better
I really enjoyed this review. I just finished reading the book and was kind of like "huh". The grasshoppers mating scenes I couldn't help but laugh at.
Hi Cassandra, oh my, yes, the grasshoppers were amazing. I had forgotten about that scene.
I like some of Lessing's stuff and was contemplating ordering this but I'm not now! Sounds in the worthy but dull category. I got a couple of books from charity shops recently purely on their towering reputations but was bored to tears - I give you The God of Small Things and Little Red Chairs. Just dreary no matter how brilliant the writing (and it isn't). Just who decides some literary works are brilliant because often they just ain't readable.
I haven't read Little Red Chairs, but I also was not a fan of The God of Small Things. Lots of people love it, though.
Now for the book, it's an interesting insight you mention about the men. Yes, men who are all one kind of man don’t do much for me either. I wonder if the author was building making a statement about men, or about women who choose married men? Your review left me curious about the book! I don’t think l will like it, but l don’t always have the goal of liking the books l read!
I haven't read a lot of what Lessing has said about the book, but it almost feels to me that she's making a statement more about the times (the 50s) than about "all" men, or "all" women, and perhaps that's why she didn't see it as a feminist book when she was writing it. I guess my biggest issue is that it feels like a thinly-veiled philosophical investigation rather than a piece of fiction. But I'm set in my ways and that says as much about me as a reader as it does about the book.
Thank you for the great review. I am battling with this novel at the moment. It takes a lot of patience. I agree with you about the stereotypical treatment of men and women. The male characters are wooden and Saul Green is horrendous!! Thanks again for sharing these insights.
Thanks for watching, David. "Battling" is the perfect verb for that reading experience.
@@Robert.Sheard I also agree with you that this is a modern classic and worthy of study. But not an easy read!
I was curious if this book was worth reading because it was in Normal People, and because I also have alot of notebooks that I'd like to transform into a single novel, but maybe I should just skip it because I really don't care about polemic novels at all. I prefer stories that exercise a certain atmosphere and that are worth investing intimacy and emotions into, as if you were to get to know people and their most private thoughts. This feels a bit too much for any regular person to handle, maybe even a bit outdated considering how much feminism has evolved since then?
Did you read it? I read it, it toki me a while and while I didn’t enjoy it, I thought it was very engaging and enlightening about the life of a writer, a women and a person of integrity and ideals at the time (after the death of Stalin) - I think the themes really chime with today….
@@stephengow9590 If you actually read my comment, no I haven't read it, but I've been scanning my library and waiting its return so I can at least look into the text and see if it's to my liking.
I'm just afraid it will influence me when it comes to writing my own novel at this point.
@@DarkAngelEU My apologies, I interpreted "I was curious..." as you past tense before you had read it - and then thought you had formed opinions about the book rather than the reviewers review. Certainly take a look at the structure if it becomes available - they are fictional notebooks which just adds to the meta nature of the book - SPOILERS and ANALYSIS FROM HERE - I love the fact that it has layers - Dorris Lessing is the author, writing about Anna Wulf a female, divorced author (with certain elements closely related to Lessing's own biography a communist women living in Africa and London) - who is also writing a short story about Ella, who is also an author/journalist with similar biography to Anna - it really gives insight into the nature of fiction and the "inner-space" of the characters - throughout the book you go deeper into the characters but lose your sense of who is writing - is this Dorris, Anna or Ella - or Anna's fictionalised version of herself.
Is it a postmodern novel!!
Yes, it definitely has postmodern elements, as well as being a feminist novel.
@@Robert.Sheard okaay thank u so much sir.
Man, that is a dense and intense read, particularly for a week like this :/ I hope you enjoy something lighter and less elitist next week!
Was enjoying the video but had to stop it when you started a sentence with, "Towards the end of the book...". I'm planning on reading this very soon! Once I've done so I'll come back and watch again.
I completely understand. I don't think that was leading to a spoiler, but if I were about to read it, I would probably have stopped there as well. Thanks for watching.
@@Robert.Sheard Well here I am, back after having finally read it (2 years after when I said I would ha ha!) and I basically agree with everything in your review. I think Lessing is good on the subject of male/female relationships, and the structure of the book is inventive and interesting, but dear lord does it drag in places. I don't sympathize with the politics of the protagonist either, so I find those sections unappetizing. Oh well, I don't regret reading it.
damn you really didnt like this book lol
haha, yes. I found it very frustrating.
You look like joky teacher
Years ago I dnf’d The Golden Notebook and although I sometimes retry dropped books I probably won’t give this one another chance. Nothing about your review or the comments here make me want to pick it up again.
Also, not sure what it says about me but I wouldn’t mind more coverage of Olympic curling. 🥌
Curling cracks me up. There's a local club in Raleigh one of my former students is involved with. I generally watch a bit every Olympic cycle.