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{TEXTBOOK} Under My Skin: Volume One of My Autobiography, to 1949

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{TEXTBOOK} Under My Skin: Volume One of My Autobiography, to 1949 UNDER MY SKIN: VOLUME ONE OF MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY, TO 1949 PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Doris Lessing | 432 pages | 09 Oct 1995 | HarperCollins Publishers | 9780006548256 | English | London, United Kingdom Under My Skin: Volume One of My Autobiography, to - Doris Lessing - Google книги Visiting the past is revisiting the trap, one that she found herself so nearly caught by. And she shrinks away from its walls even as she recalls them. Shrinking away is not the best artistic posture; she is much better now and then when she bursts into full-throated rage. Otherwise, there are a few moments of unclouded evocation--the beauty and freedom of the African back lands, the quiet rhythm of a farm day--but they quickly cloud over. She attempts to portray the neighboring families they knew, but she wards them off by naming them. Her boarding schools are recounted at a numb distance; so is her marriage to a young and rising civil servant. She played the competent, cheerfully quirky young colonial wife and mother to the point of madness. Her husband and children are present but impalpable, as if the scandal and pain of walking out, moving across a stuffy little colonial capital and going to live with artists and leftists were the exchange of matter for anti-matter, with no connection between them, even that of memory. Only imagination--in her fiction--would make a bridge. Toward the end, before she emigrates to England and her literary career, she, Gottfried Lessing and their baby would occasionally picnic with her first family, but she tells it as if two sets of ghosts were sharing the tea cakes. Hot Property. About Us. A life well lived. Mar 23, Laura rated it it was amazing. I've been in a Doris Lessing state of mind since fall , and thankfully I have plenty of work still ahead of me. I read her out loud to Andy. And I wrestle with the decisions she made in her young life in Southern Rhodesia; abandoning her two young children to join the Communist Party, blithely entering into another loveless marriage, having a child with that man while continuing to have affairs, and then leaving with that child for Britain. I fear that she had to do those things to escape a society that was intellectually barren and oppressively racist. And what does that say about the choices we must make now? Apr 18, Lynne rated it liked it Shelves: , biography. I wish I were more familiar with Lessing's many other works. She won the Nobel Prize in It would be useful to see how the raw material of one's life is crafted into art. In this autobiography, she frequently notes which stories or novels are based on certain episodes or people she knew growing up in Rhodesia. She is writing this as an older woman, so either she kept a good journal of her early years as a writer, Communist, mother, and free thinker, part of a white minority in the country t I wish I were more familiar with Lessing's many other works. She is writing this as an older woman, so either she kept a good journal of her early years as a writer, Communist, mother, and free thinker, part of a white minority in the country that would be come Zimbabwe I really wished for more of a story. As Lessing herself observed, "Every novel is a story, but a life isn't one, more of a sprawl of incidents. Dec 09, Andrea rated it really liked it Shelves: africa , memoir. I don't agree with Lessing about everything, nor do I like everything she has written. With that disclaimer, I feel free to say that this is a great memoir. From her early life as a child of white immigrants to "Northern Rhodesia" to her life in South Africa first as a fairly conventional wife and mother and later as a divorced, remarried communist activist, Lessing is honest, witty and thoughtful. Interesting insights into the time period and also into the life of an extraordinary woman. Sep 16, Dierdre Milin rated it it was amazing. Doris Lessing is brutally honest and tells her story with anger, pride, and great wit. I have loved her writtings for so long and was taken aback at the decisions she has made in her life. I was almost disappointed in her but years after reading the book can look back and think wow what a couragous woman for telling her tale. The great strength of the first volume of Lessing's autobiography is that she's reflecting from 60 years on, and brings substantial perspective to the historical currents she lived through in midth-century Africa Rhodesia. She's uber-dark, and very critical. Really interesting person. It bogs down a bit in the second half Mar 15, Keith rated it really liked it. Mar 14, Jane added it. Found the first three quarters fascinating. The profound effects of WWI on multiple generations. The build up to WWII resonates with present political and cultural events. Got a bit bored during her communist phase towards the end. Feb 02, What Possessed Me rated it it was ok. Terrifying woman. Angry, angry. Feb 06, Cheryll rated it it was ok. I like Doris Lessing's novels but this memoir was disappointing. Aug 23, Uli Vogel rated it it was amazing. I recommend any woman should read this. It's amazing how Doris Lessing steps into the mind and motivations of her younger self at any stage of her life. Autobiographies are always a reflection on the past and reliant on the untrustworthy servant of memory. Lessing takes advantage of her skill as a novellist to enter the mind of herself as she was when a child and then a young woman. There can be few accounts that are so vivid of a time between the two world wars of the twentieth century and during the second one long past and place southern Rhodesia changed forever. Although the reader is always aware of Lessing the writer considering her li Autobiographies are always a reflection on the past and reliant on the untrustworthy servant of memory. Although the reader is always aware of Lessing the writer considering her life, the raw emotions and descriptions come from the younger woman and child. The sharpness of the memories is explained in part by her consideration of time as actually experienced. She notes that the story of a life written in these terms would result in seventy percent of the book taking you to age ten and ninety-five percent to age thirty, after which there is the "rush towards eternity. Although she was only starting her career as a novellist at that time, these years were clearly of crucial importance to her view of the world and future development. Feb 05, Maeve rated it it was ok Shelves: two-stars , reads. Doris Lessing is a good writer, but I don't think I would have liked her very much. Some parts of this were super boring, and others interesting. This was required reading in one of my classes. Jun 12, Abigail Smith rated it liked it. A very grudging 3 stars, as I couldn't help but admire her writing style, while increasingly disliking her character as it was portrayed. Mar 23, Gabriel Perlin rated it it was amazing. An excellent autobiography by a strong and fascinating author. Mar 27, Sy DeMaya added it. Apr 20, Barbara Phi rated it it was amazing Shelves: books-read-in A fascinating journey into the life, and under the skin of a fascinating life. Feb 18, Skye rated it really liked it. My interest was piqued when a writer mentioned that Doris Lessing was one of the authors she read when she was young. This book was interesting from the start. But shit got real when she became a Communist. I have never read about non-asian people becoming communist, the process and the reasoning behind it all. Needless to say I was fascinated from there on. Definitely going to check out more of her work, and also more about the experience of communism etc. She also writes beautifully, her storie My interest was piqued when a writer mentioned that Doris Lessing was one of the authors she read when she was young. She also writes beautifully, her stories poetic and poignant. Like many writers, she was a voracious reader and wrote religiously. It would be interesting to seek out what she mentioned reading and read them on my own. These include Keats poetry, Viriginia Woolfe whom I adore and more. Apr 25, Callie rated it it was amazing. Doris Lessing is one of my favorite writers. Tippy top of my list. So of course her autobiography did not disappoint. She is quite simply a heavyweight--she writes candidly about her fraught relationship with her mother, her somewhat casual marriages, her affairs. I loved her writing about Communism. So fascinating. Why she joined the Communist party, why she became disaffected. She is always forthright, never pulls any punches and is also able to look outside herself and be fair to those she en Doris Lessing is one of my favorite writers. She is always forthright, never pulls any punches and is also able to look outside herself and be fair to those she encounters--tries to accurately represent their perspective. She is purely British in this autobiography always writing to serve the reader and not herself. There is nothing of the self-aggrandizing, whiny, self-obsessed, navel-gazing writing that characterizes so much of contemporary memoir and biography.
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