Den femte sanningen (1962)

I really struggled with this one, which I suppose makes me a philistine. I've certainly read more difficult books, but the payoff in the difficult books I've liked is a lot bigger than any payoff this book had for me.

My tepid response to it has actually led me to begin to inspect my attitudes toward literature by women. I like a whole lot of literature by women, and some of my favorite books I've read in the last few years have been by women (some of my best friends are X). I don't think I have a chip on my shoulder about literature by women in general. But this book made me think at times of work by male authors whose work feels similar in places but has resonated more with me. For example, although Lessing's style here is very very different from Gaddis's, I feel like there's a kinship between this book and J R. I count J R among my favorite books in spite of its being annoying in some places and uninteresting or melodramatic in others. The books surely deal in similar material -- art and madness and the insufficiency of language and fragmentation of the psyche and of ideologies and of relationships. But Gaddis's book, which treats these topics from a generally male perspective resonates with me, while Lessing's, which treats them from a generally female perspective, does not. Am I just a pig?

None of this is to say that there weren't things to like in the book. There was humor and occasional profundity. There were scenes or ideas that made a lot of sense to me and that worked for me as written.

But there was also just so very much interaction between men and women that simply did not compute for me. I'm capable of imagining relationships and interactions that don't square with my own particular experience of the world. I enjoy it, even. But so much of what transpires between men and women in this book just seems written by someone who has never observed men and women interacting together. Some of this I realize is because of the period in which the book is written. I thought from time to time of work by Ayn Rand (yuck, I know) or of some of the detective novels I've been reading, in which people behave in ways that I know are dated and stilted and not really the ways most people interact anymore. Maybe literary fiction (by men and women) of the 30s through the early 60s is shot through with this sort of writing and I've just missed it all because most of the fiction I've read from the period is postmodern work that's just doing different things that have caught more of my attention than the relationship dynamics. Or perhaps, internet hermit that I am, I'm the weirdo who doesn't know how people interact.

At any rate, for the struggle this book represented for me, I'd really want there to be a lot bigger payoff, and it just didn't float my boat. ( )

This is an immense, dense novel about a lot of things: identity, sexuality, feminism, communism, postmodernism, and postcolonialism. At times, the various notebooks become entangled, and the nature of the story is challenging to suss out. Also, after awhile, I got tired of Anna's sex life falling into a tired pattern. The novel was interesting in some spots and rather fusty in others. ( )

(44) Oh dear. This was tedious for me. A woman writer in 1950's London struggles with her status as an unmarried woman and member of the Communist party. She struggles most with her conflicted relationship with men. She professes to be a modern woman, content to accept sex and companionship without commitment as long as the relationship is fulfilling. But it is clear that this couldn't be further from the truth and that her unrequited desire to be happily married weighs heavy on her mind. Is this because of her own emotional failing, or is this based on courageous rebellion against the oppressive gender roles of the 1950's - I am not entirely clear. The novel's structure is framed by a relatively simple story of Anna and her other single friend Molly - both are single mothers, in and out of "affairs." Woven throughout are Anna's 'notebooks,' individual diaries in which she writes stories loosely based on her own experiences, musings on Communism, and then a personal diary where she analyzes herself, her motivations, her relationships with men (ad nauseum.)

The writing is really quite fine and poignant - especially the parts set in South Africa - I loved reading about her friends in Rhodesia and the Mashopi hotel. I also enjoyed her story about Ella, the single writer, who falls in love with a married doctor. For about 60+% of the novel I was doing fine though grew impatient with the Communist schtick. But then - Good Gawd! - Anna goes off the rails in the last bit of the book and it was difficult to read. Not difficult emotionally in a 'Wow, this is so evocative" way - but difficult in a boring, non-sensical, repetitive, frankly ridiculous way. It did not resonate with me and I found the relationship between her and the American writer just painfully drawn out. I almost abandoned ship when I finally got to the eponymous 'golden notebook' and found it filled with the same nonsense. And the ending - umm, a bit anti-climactic and frankly pointless in my opinion.

All in all, I found this book quite histrionic. Anna's obsession with gender, relationship, and sexual dynamics did not resonate with me. It did not speak to my lived experience. This lack of resonance makes the novel seem dated - did I just not relate because of personal characteristics, or because (thankfully) modern educated women and men have moved beyond these proscribed roles? I don't know - but I do know that I am relieved to be finished. A 3.5 star beginning and a woeful 2 star ending. . . ( )

> Le Carnet d'or par Doris LESSING (Traduit de l’anglais par Marianne Véron, Albin Michel)
Par DUMAS André (Revue Esprit), (1940-) No. 36 (12) (Décembre 1979), pp. 201-202… ; (en ligne),
URL : https://esprit.presse.fr/article/dumas-andre/le-carnet-d-or-par-doris-lessing-35...

Incredible character writing by Lessing, in her magnum opus. The book has five parts, segmented by the mind of the protagonist Anna into her four notebooks and her real life. The writing here is superb, particularly in the dialogue and character development, as Lessing tackles British Communism and Feminism, along with post-Colonial attitudes and life in the nuclear age simultaneously. Each topic is given space to be explored and debated through the characters in the book, and each is given its own life as part of Lessing's flawless prose. Incredible. ( )