Status
Available
Genres
Publication
Harper Perennial Modern Classics (2008), 272 pages
Description
Fiction. Literature. Historical Fiction. HTML: "There is passion here, a piercing accuracy, a rare sensitivity and power. . . . One can only marvel." â?? New York Times Set in Southern Rhodesia under white rule, Doris Lessing's first novel is at once a riveting chronicle of human disintegration, a beautifully understated social critique, and a brilliant depiction of the quiet horror of one woman's struggle against a ruthless fate. Mary Turner is a self-confident, independent young woman who becomes the depressed, frustrated wife of an ineffectual, unsuccessful farmer. Little by little the ennui of years on the farm works its slow poison. Mary's despair progresses until the fateful arrival of Moses, an enigmatic black servant. Locked in anguish, Mary and Mosesâ??master and slaveâ??are trapped in a web of mounting attraction and repulsion, until their psychic tension explodes with devastating consequen… (more)
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LibraryThing member baswood
Doris Lessing moved to London in 1949 and because of her involvement with radical politics was banned from her native Southern Rhodesia until black majority rule in 1980. Her first novel written while she lived in Rhodesia was published in 1950 and was a stunning debut; that brutally exposed the
The novel opens with the murder of Mary Turner and mental breakdown of her husband Dick and the arrest of the black houseboy Moses. Within the first twenty pages of the first chapter Lessing has told the reader all he needs to know about the repressive racist culture that existed in Rhodesia in the 1940's. We are plunged into a society of masters and slaves, but where the masters are beginning to look over their shoulders. Charlie Slatter and a Police Sergeant arrive at the crime scene and their thoughts are only about clearing away the messy situation as quickly as possible. Tony Marston a trainee farm manager just fresh from England is shocked by the attitudes of the White Rhodesians and Lessing says:
"when old settlers say 'One has to understand the Country' what they mean is 'You have to get used to our ideas about the native' They are saying in effect 'Learn our ideas or otherwise get out: we don't want you. Most of these young men were brought up with vague ideas about equality. They were shocked for the first week or so, by the way the natives were treated. They were revolted a hundred times a day by the casual way they were spoken of, as if they were so many cattle; or by a blow or a look. They were prepared to treat them as human beiings. But they could not stand out against the culture they were joining. It did not take them long to change.
The novel is not about young Tony Marston but tells the back story of Mary and Dick Turner and how they come to such a terrible end. Mary is a city girl who finds that her fear of marriage and of intimacy has left her only with a casual circle of younger friends as she moves into her thirties. She no longer fits and so when Dick Turner a farmer from the veldt asks her to marry him she accepts. Dick is a struggling farmer who cannot seem to make anything work, he has ideas about cultivation that are progressive, but in spite of working hard on the land he cannot carry a project through. He takes a more lenient approach with some of the natives and his unwillingness to involve himself socially with his farming neighbours makes him also a person who "does not fit." The book is about the Turners struggle with their environment, their social and sexual relations and the culture which they buy into, but does not work for them. They are two people who are hopelessly ill equipped to cope with any of the challenges facing them and their ruin and disintegration is inevitable. Lessing ruthlessly exposes their lives concentrating on Mary, whose treatment of her native houseboys is as bad as the culture will allow; she seems to be taking out her frustrations on them and when Moses arrives at the end of a long line of houseboys Mary is seriously and mentally ill and a point is reached where a line is crossed from where there is no turning back:
Remembering that thick black neck with the lather frothing whitely on it, the powerful black stooping over the bucket, was like a goad to her. And she was beyond reflecting her anger, her hysteria, was over nothing, nothing that she could explain. What had happened was that the formal pattern of black-and-white, mistress-and-servant, had been broken by a personal relation; and when a white man in Africa by accident looks into the eyes of a native and sees the human being (which is his chief occupation to avoid, his sense of guilt, which he denies, fumes up in resentment and he brings down the whip.
The Turner's inability to exploit the land and to exploit the natives as well as their neighbours leads to their financial ruin, but this is not the whole story and it is Lessing's brilliant dissection of the Turners characters and relationship that makes their total disintegration so believable. Their inability to fit even with each other and the hints of child molestation in Mary's past explains her frustration and fears of being intimate with Dick. This together with an unrelenting climate and an invidious culture leads inexorably to their tragedy. An excellent novel which I would rate as 4.5 stars.
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culture of her native country. This is the overriding theme but also the novel deals with psychological and mental breakdown and sexual repression.The novel opens with the murder of Mary Turner and mental breakdown of her husband Dick and the arrest of the black houseboy Moses. Within the first twenty pages of the first chapter Lessing has told the reader all he needs to know about the repressive racist culture that existed in Rhodesia in the 1940's. We are plunged into a society of masters and slaves, but where the masters are beginning to look over their shoulders. Charlie Slatter and a Police Sergeant arrive at the crime scene and their thoughts are only about clearing away the messy situation as quickly as possible. Tony Marston a trainee farm manager just fresh from England is shocked by the attitudes of the White Rhodesians and Lessing says:
"when old settlers say 'One has to understand the Country' what they mean is 'You have to get used to our ideas about the native' They are saying in effect 'Learn our ideas or otherwise get out: we don't want you. Most of these young men were brought up with vague ideas about equality. They were shocked for the first week or so, by the way the natives were treated. They were revolted a hundred times a day by the casual way they were spoken of, as if they were so many cattle; or by a blow or a look. They were prepared to treat them as human beiings. But they could not stand out against the culture they were joining. It did not take them long to change.
The novel is not about young Tony Marston but tells the back story of Mary and Dick Turner and how they come to such a terrible end. Mary is a city girl who finds that her fear of marriage and of intimacy has left her only with a casual circle of younger friends as she moves into her thirties. She no longer fits and so when Dick Turner a farmer from the veldt asks her to marry him she accepts. Dick is a struggling farmer who cannot seem to make anything work, he has ideas about cultivation that are progressive, but in spite of working hard on the land he cannot carry a project through. He takes a more lenient approach with some of the natives and his unwillingness to involve himself socially with his farming neighbours makes him also a person who "does not fit." The book is about the Turners struggle with their environment, their social and sexual relations and the culture which they buy into, but does not work for them. They are two people who are hopelessly ill equipped to cope with any of the challenges facing them and their ruin and disintegration is inevitable. Lessing ruthlessly exposes their lives concentrating on Mary, whose treatment of her native houseboys is as bad as the culture will allow; she seems to be taking out her frustrations on them and when Moses arrives at the end of a long line of houseboys Mary is seriously and mentally ill and a point is reached where a line is crossed from where there is no turning back:
Remembering that thick black neck with the lather frothing whitely on it, the powerful black stooping over the bucket, was like a goad to her. And she was beyond reflecting her anger, her hysteria, was over nothing, nothing that she could explain. What had happened was that the formal pattern of black-and-white, mistress-and-servant, had been broken by a personal relation; and when a white man in Africa by accident looks into the eyes of a native and sees the human being (which is his chief occupation to avoid, his sense of guilt, which he denies, fumes up in resentment and he brings down the whip.
The Turner's inability to exploit the land and to exploit the natives as well as their neighbours leads to their financial ruin, but this is not the whole story and it is Lessing's brilliant dissection of the Turners characters and relationship that makes their total disintegration so believable. Their inability to fit even with each other and the hints of child molestation in Mary's past explains her frustration and fears of being intimate with Dick. This together with an unrelenting climate and an invidious culture leads inexorably to their tragedy. An excellent novel which I would rate as 4.5 stars.
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LibraryThing member LisaMaria_C
I read this in one sitting--not so much because it's short--although it's a relatively short novel--but I found it nigh un-putdownable, which is a bit odd, because this novel has several aspects I'd ordinarily find off-putting. It's on an ugly subject--racism, with characters impossible to like but
This is set in what was Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) around World War II. We're told the ending from the first sentence: Mary Turner, wife of Richard Turner, a farmer at Ngesi, was found murdered on the front verandah of their homestead yesterday morning. A sentence that would head many a whodunnit. Except we're told paragraphs in their houseboy Moses seemingly did it, and this isn't a mystery novel really. I don't know I'd even call it a whydonnit--since that also is telegraphed early on. It's more about how did we get here. It's like those ancient Greek tragedies where we all know where things are headed with all the morbid fascination of a train wreck. I couldn't take my eyes off it. And it's an ugly scene. Especially in that first chapter the word "nigger" rains down on us. Both Mary and Dick Turner use the word unsparingly--as well as using "boy" even for elderly black Africans.
Yet somehow there's nothing routine about this treatment of racism. Too many stories of racism fall between two stools. Even when written by whites, white racist characters are often dehumanized so the reader can comfortably think, well, that's not me. Or else the racism is there simply to set off the heroic Noble White Liberal (tm). Lessing doesn't take those easy ways out. Lessing grew up in Southern Rhodesia from the time she was five years old until thirty when she headed to England in 1949 with the manuscript of The Grass is Singing: her first novel. You just know she's known people like the Turners. She takes advantage of her omniscient perch to be scathing and acerbic about white colonial attitudes--and yet...
Well, Lessing's pitiless in her depiction of Mary, but she makes you crawl inside of her skin. I can't say I ever liked Mary, and I'm not sure empathy is quite how I'd describe what I felt for her; even aside from her racism she's a chilly, neurotic character. Yet at times I did feel an identification with her, especially early on, and Lessing was masterful in showing her deterioration--and how it was fed by her attitudes towards the "natives." Dick has a decency despite his racism but is frustrating in his fecklessness. Moses is more a cipher. He only gets a point of view toward the very end, and is far less knowable, though never pitiable the way the Turners are--he's not a simple victim, a noble martyr--and I think the opacity of his character is deliberate.
Besides the characterizations, I was also hit by the luminosity of Lessing's prose. She certainly conjures up the African landscape and climate, the isolation of the farm and its shabbiness and exudes an atmosphere that was suffocating and oppressive. Even that interiority of the narrative contributed to that, I think. I would definitely seek out Lessing again.
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I found oddly compelling, and it's very interior--with pages, even chapters--where you'll find very little to no dialogue.This is set in what was Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) around World War II. We're told the ending from the first sentence: Mary Turner, wife of Richard Turner, a farmer at Ngesi, was found murdered on the front verandah of their homestead yesterday morning. A sentence that would head many a whodunnit. Except we're told paragraphs in their houseboy Moses seemingly did it, and this isn't a mystery novel really. I don't know I'd even call it a whydonnit--since that also is telegraphed early on. It's more about how did we get here. It's like those ancient Greek tragedies where we all know where things are headed with all the morbid fascination of a train wreck. I couldn't take my eyes off it. And it's an ugly scene. Especially in that first chapter the word "nigger" rains down on us. Both Mary and Dick Turner use the word unsparingly--as well as using "boy" even for elderly black Africans.
Yet somehow there's nothing routine about this treatment of racism. Too many stories of racism fall between two stools. Even when written by whites, white racist characters are often dehumanized so the reader can comfortably think, well, that's not me. Or else the racism is there simply to set off the heroic Noble White Liberal (tm). Lessing doesn't take those easy ways out. Lessing grew up in Southern Rhodesia from the time she was five years old until thirty when she headed to England in 1949 with the manuscript of The Grass is Singing: her first novel. You just know she's known people like the Turners. She takes advantage of her omniscient perch to be scathing and acerbic about white colonial attitudes--and yet...
Well, Lessing's pitiless in her depiction of Mary, but she makes you crawl inside of her skin. I can't say I ever liked Mary, and I'm not sure empathy is quite how I'd describe what I felt for her; even aside from her racism she's a chilly, neurotic character. Yet at times I did feel an identification with her, especially early on, and Lessing was masterful in showing her deterioration--and how it was fed by her attitudes towards the "natives." Dick has a decency despite his racism but is frustrating in his fecklessness. Moses is more a cipher. He only gets a point of view toward the very end, and is far less knowable, though never pitiable the way the Turners are--he's not a simple victim, a noble martyr--and I think the opacity of his character is deliberate.
Besides the characterizations, I was also hit by the luminosity of Lessing's prose. She certainly conjures up the African landscape and climate, the isolation of the farm and its shabbiness and exudes an atmosphere that was suffocating and oppressive. Even that interiority of the narrative contributed to that, I think. I would definitely seek out Lessing again.
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LibraryThing member charbutton
My heart sank when The Grass is Singing was chosen for my next book group meeting. I've read two Lessings and have really struggled to find anything I like about her writing. But who am I to argue with the Nobel Prize Committee? I guess her writing just goes over my head. Anyway, I tried to
The story focuses on Mary, a South African townie who marries Dick, a Rhodesian farmer. Mary has gone through her childhood and twenties doing all the things that were expected - she does her work competently, she socialises - but at a kind of distance. No one ever touched her heart. One day she overhears people talking about her and pitying her; her life changes, her emotional balance is shattered. When Dick comes along she agrees to marry him, I think because she doesn't know what else to do with herself.
It's not a wise decision. Dick is a failed farmer, prone to jump from one grand scheme to another, always in debt and living in little more than an isolated shack. Mary has a shock when she understands what she has let herself in for; she wasn't made to be a farmer's wife. She slides into a deep depression which causes and is exacerbated by her fraught relationships with the 'natives' that work the farm. She despises them but also fears them deeply. Mary's marriage and sanity disintegrate over the years as the poverty, heat, fear and hatred become inescapable. She becomes entangled in a bizarre relationship with Moses, the black cook, in which the usual power structures are confused and corrupted. It doesn't end it well.
Dick and Mary are presented as universal figures (perhaps that's why they have common, plain names); they are products of the white community of Lessing's Rhodesian childhood. The black characters are sketchy, reflecting the fact that white people knew little of the lives of their servants and had no interest in wanting to know about them. The book was published in 1950 and I can imagine that such a stark exposure of the psychology of white power and the fragility of that power must have provoked comment. I certainly found it thought-provoking and am very glad I read it.
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approach this book with an open mind.The story focuses on Mary, a South African townie who marries Dick, a Rhodesian farmer. Mary has gone through her childhood and twenties doing all the things that were expected - she does her work competently, she socialises - but at a kind of distance. No one ever touched her heart. One day she overhears people talking about her and pitying her; her life changes, her emotional balance is shattered. When Dick comes along she agrees to marry him, I think because she doesn't know what else to do with herself.
It's not a wise decision. Dick is a failed farmer, prone to jump from one grand scheme to another, always in debt and living in little more than an isolated shack. Mary has a shock when she understands what she has let herself in for; she wasn't made to be a farmer's wife. She slides into a deep depression which causes and is exacerbated by her fraught relationships with the 'natives' that work the farm. She despises them but also fears them deeply. Mary's marriage and sanity disintegrate over the years as the poverty, heat, fear and hatred become inescapable. She becomes entangled in a bizarre relationship with Moses, the black cook, in which the usual power structures are confused and corrupted. It doesn't end it well.
Dick and Mary are presented as universal figures (perhaps that's why they have common, plain names); they are products of the white community of Lessing's Rhodesian childhood. The black characters are sketchy, reflecting the fact that white people knew little of the lives of their servants and had no interest in wanting to know about them. The book was published in 1950 and I can imagine that such a stark exposure of the psychology of white power and the fragility of that power must have provoked comment. I certainly found it thought-provoking and am very glad I read it.
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LibraryThing member DeltaQueen50
This short, intense and, I suspect, highly memorable book by Doris Lessing is a psychological portrait of a woman whose spirit is destroyed by her disastrous marriage and by her living conditions. It is also an exploration of exactly how white supremacy and colonialism in Africa was unjust,
I found this story to be original and thought provoking. The characters were sharply drawn, and, although there wasn’t one that I felt much sympathy for, their actions and attitudes painted a very clear picture of white African society. Barely a step away from whip toting slave owners, they felt full justification in their control over the black population. The story was also a vivid portrait of how powerless women were in this environment as well. Having no escape, nothing to plan or work toward, her dreams unfulfilled, the woman in this story goes slowly insane.
With this simple story, Doris Lessing exposes both the racial and gender inequality that British Colonialism supported and encouraged. The Grass is Singing is a disturbing story of doomed lives crumbling away under the hot African sun and is told with exceptional clarity and power.
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prejudicial and exploitative. These 200 pages pack a powerful punch and I can certainly understand how The Grass Is Singing earned it’s stature among twentieth-century literature. I found this story to be original and thought provoking. The characters were sharply drawn, and, although there wasn’t one that I felt much sympathy for, their actions and attitudes painted a very clear picture of white African society. Barely a step away from whip toting slave owners, they felt full justification in their control over the black population. The story was also a vivid portrait of how powerless women were in this environment as well. Having no escape, nothing to plan or work toward, her dreams unfulfilled, the woman in this story goes slowly insane.
With this simple story, Doris Lessing exposes both the racial and gender inequality that British Colonialism supported and encouraged. The Grass is Singing is a disturbing story of doomed lives crumbling away under the hot African sun and is told with exceptional clarity and power.
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LibraryThing member bas615
A brilliant book. Technically it is close to perfect. But the depth of feeling is what makes it so powerful. It was a very simple story. Yet, as the characters drift towards the inevitable finale that is revealed to begin the story, it is difficult not feel the pain of the lead characters. The
The sadness of the tale is made even more important by the fact that the conclusion is made inevitable because of the societal pressures that each character faces. Mary faces pressure from her familial past, her husband, her friends and everyone else she meets. Her disintegration had a devastating effect on me because it felt so believable. This is not to say she is a likable character. Rather, she is so compelling because she is so real.
The depiction of the dual subjugation of both women and blacks in Southern Africa during the mid-20th century is wrenching. I would like to think we have changed greatly since this time. However, I don't think I really believe it. One of the greatest strengths of this book was expressing the way that racism exists in the minds of whites. This perspective allows us to better understand how even though the institutional situation may have changed, this dangerous and damaging mindset can still be present. It can grow and fester in any situation.
The number of big subjects tackled in such a small is quite amazing. It touches on the role of women in society, marriage, racism, classism, colonialism, mental illness and more. I think this book is essential reading for almost everyone. It is not at all an easy read. There is no lightness to make the emotional blows more tolerable. But I have a certain appreciation for authors who can write without sugar coating the situation. So READ THIS BOOK, but do so without expecting much reprieve.
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utter loneliness they experience is palpable. The representation of repressed feelings is utterly compelling. As is the destruction that such a situation leads to.The sadness of the tale is made even more important by the fact that the conclusion is made inevitable because of the societal pressures that each character faces. Mary faces pressure from her familial past, her husband, her friends and everyone else she meets. Her disintegration had a devastating effect on me because it felt so believable. This is not to say she is a likable character. Rather, she is so compelling because she is so real.
The depiction of the dual subjugation of both women and blacks in Southern Africa during the mid-20th century is wrenching. I would like to think we have changed greatly since this time. However, I don't think I really believe it. One of the greatest strengths of this book was expressing the way that racism exists in the minds of whites. This perspective allows us to better understand how even though the institutional situation may have changed, this dangerous and damaging mindset can still be present. It can grow and fester in any situation.
The number of big subjects tackled in such a small is quite amazing. It touches on the role of women in society, marriage, racism, classism, colonialism, mental illness and more. I think this book is essential reading for almost everyone. It is not at all an easy read. There is no lightness to make the emotional blows more tolerable. But I have a certain appreciation for authors who can write without sugar coating the situation. So READ THIS BOOK, but do so without expecting much reprieve.
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LibraryThing member chrissie3
This book grows on you. While I was reading it, it disturbed me. It has a strong emotional impact. What disturbed me was that the story is told. There is an omniscient narrator who explains everything, what happens and why each character makes the choices they make. We are told how they feel and
The book is about life on the veld in what is today Zimbabwe. It is about a couple, farmers, white colonials, without children, owners of a very small poorly run farm. The husband cannot seem to make a go of it and tries one fanciful idea after another, all to fail. The wife, she is a special case too. She carries lots of baggage on her back. Experiences of her own childhood weigh her down and she only marries at thirtyish because she reasons she simply has to. She didn’t want to, she had to……she was getting too old and realized all were whispering about her. She isn’t comfortable with men, not only is she instable, but she could be classified as being mentally ill. She cannot deal with sexual attraction; it throws her completely off kilter!
This book is about how white colonials look at native Africans. At least that is what we are told. There is a murder. We are told at the start that the wife is killed by the native house slave. The question is why, how did this come about. This is the central theme.
How well does this couple represent colonial whites in Africa? That is what concerned me! I never felt that this was an issue solely of utter disdain and hatred for the natives, but rather a couple that was emotionally unbalanced. How can these two be used as a mirror of how colonials viewed the African natives?!
What I cannot deny is that I felt and breathed the atmosphere of the veld. The environment, the weather, the shabbiness, the heat, the storms weigh on you as you read this book and impose a sense of doom and hopelessness. This sense of the environment is impressive. I recognized it from other books I have read about Zimbabwe - Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight and Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller. I kept thinking I have been in places like this, albeit only in books. I definitely prefer the writing of Alexandra Fuller though. I would recommend that if you are interested in the southern African milieu to start with “Dogs” instead. There is humor in that. It is more rounded, and it offers a more realistic and balanced view of colonials; they cannot, should not, all be depicted as Doris Lessing does. The Grass is Singing is a novel, while the other two mentioned are autobiographical. I personally think Doris Lessing’s book concerns more the thoughts of a woman with emotional problems, but the atmosphere of the time and place is impressive.
Completed May 23, 2013
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why they do particular things. How as a reader do you react if you think other reasons could be the cause of a particular choice? I wasn’t quite sure if I believed what I was being told, so rather than accepting the givens, I questioned everything, and ultimately I became annoyed.The book is about life on the veld in what is today Zimbabwe. It is about a couple, farmers, white colonials, without children, owners of a very small poorly run farm. The husband cannot seem to make a go of it and tries one fanciful idea after another, all to fail. The wife, she is a special case too. She carries lots of baggage on her back. Experiences of her own childhood weigh her down and she only marries at thirtyish because she reasons she simply has to. She didn’t want to, she had to……she was getting too old and realized all were whispering about her. She isn’t comfortable with men, not only is she instable, but she could be classified as being mentally ill. She cannot deal with sexual attraction; it throws her completely off kilter!
This book is about how white colonials look at native Africans. At least that is what we are told. There is a murder. We are told at the start that the wife is killed by the native house slave. The question is why, how did this come about. This is the central theme.
How well does this couple represent colonial whites in Africa? That is what concerned me! I never felt that this was an issue solely of utter disdain and hatred for the natives, but rather a couple that was emotionally unbalanced. How can these two be used as a mirror of how colonials viewed the African natives?!
What I cannot deny is that I felt and breathed the atmosphere of the veld. The environment, the weather, the shabbiness, the heat, the storms weigh on you as you read this book and impose a sense of doom and hopelessness. This sense of the environment is impressive. I recognized it from other books I have read about Zimbabwe - Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight and Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller. I kept thinking I have been in places like this, albeit only in books. I definitely prefer the writing of Alexandra Fuller though. I would recommend that if you are interested in the southern African milieu to start with “Dogs” instead. There is humor in that. It is more rounded, and it offers a more realistic and balanced view of colonials; they cannot, should not, all be depicted as Doris Lessing does. The Grass is Singing is a novel, while the other two mentioned are autobiographical. I personally think Doris Lessing’s book concerns more the thoughts of a woman with emotional problems, but the atmosphere of the time and place is impressive.
Completed May 23, 2013
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LibraryThing member branful
Like a great master looking back on his/her young folly. I feel a master's touch here. Hard to believe it was written by an author around 30 years of age.
LibraryThing member hampusforev
Very powerful. I really disliked Mary at first, but she grows on you with some sort of weird compassion. She is quite the bitch, sure, but you don't want her to end quite like she did.
LibraryThing member otterley
It is hard to accept that this is a first novel - there's nothing immature, or needing development here. Rather Lessing's unique voice springs from the pages with all its characteristic qualities. Descriptively she paints an evocative picture of Africa, without sentimentality in her descriptions of
As a white African, and a woman, Lessing's work is often seen through the prism of sex and race, and through Mary in particular Lessing examines the terror of the 'other' , power relations through the sjambok and through psychological, unspoken warfare; and the narrowness of the choices available to a single woman in a small country where everyone knows everyone. Social class and commerce also play a key part in the novel; Mary and Dick play the game particularly badly, negotiating their poor hand into disaster, paying the price for no particular sin in poverty, madness and death.
A disturbing, but energising read.
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how the land is despoiled by its white farmers, worked by its black labourers, and precariously tenanted by humanity (as Mary imagines the insects and the sun and the earth inexorably swallowing up her and Dick's poor farm house). The sun beats down and the rains come or pass over; the crops grow or fail, and humans thrive, fail and go mad living their little lives under the huge sky, both beautiful and terrifying. As a white African, and a woman, Lessing's work is often seen through the prism of sex and race, and through Mary in particular Lessing examines the terror of the 'other' , power relations through the sjambok and through psychological, unspoken warfare; and the narrowness of the choices available to a single woman in a small country where everyone knows everyone. Social class and commerce also play a key part in the novel; Mary and Dick play the game particularly badly, negotiating their poor hand into disaster, paying the price for no particular sin in poverty, madness and death.
A disturbing, but energising read.
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LibraryThing member AlisonY
The Grass is Singing opens with the murder of Mary Turner, a white Southern Rhodesian's farmer's wife, by one of the farm's black workers. Whilst to the local police this is an open and shut case of simple "native" brutality, as we walk back through the years in Mary's life we discover that a long
I found this incredibly layered novel to be profoundly psychoanalytical and disturbing. In 200 short pages Lessing manages to convey the utter horror of a black/white segregated 1940s Southern Africa in a way that affected me much more than other books I've read with this setting. Mary's loathing of "the natives" runs much deeper than her husband's, manifesting itself in untempered disdain and a complete inability to consider the black workers on any human level. Her husband Dick tries to operate his farm workforce with a level of fairness, yet one doesn't have to peel back the layers of the onion too far to see that this "fairness" is based on the doctrine of keeping the coloured man down in his place under the total control of the the white man.
He was obeying the dictate of the first law of white South Africa, that is "Thou shalt not let your fellow whites sink lower than a certain point; because if you do, the nigger will see that he is as good as you are".
This is not only a novel about racial hatred, however. The Grass is Singing is an acutely observant look at the human psyche, of how life's twists and turns slowly but surely sour and disappoint a once vibrant and popular woman until she loses herself completely into that which she had always so defiantly tried to avoid becoming.
I've found this a very difficult book to review as there are so many facets to it, but what I think stands out most is it's starkly honest portrayal of how the white southern Africans consider their fellow black men to be entirely sub-human and requiring management in the same way as the beasts of the land.
4.5 stars - a darkly disturbing read in many ways, but a profound and important one that will leave me thinking about it for some time.
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and complex road of disappointment and racial prejudice has ultimately laid the path to her murder.I found this incredibly layered novel to be profoundly psychoanalytical and disturbing. In 200 short pages Lessing manages to convey the utter horror of a black/white segregated 1940s Southern Africa in a way that affected me much more than other books I've read with this setting. Mary's loathing of "the natives" runs much deeper than her husband's, manifesting itself in untempered disdain and a complete inability to consider the black workers on any human level. Her husband Dick tries to operate his farm workforce with a level of fairness, yet one doesn't have to peel back the layers of the onion too far to see that this "fairness" is based on the doctrine of keeping the coloured man down in his place under the total control of the the white man.
He was obeying the dictate of the first law of white South Africa, that is "Thou shalt not let your fellow whites sink lower than a certain point; because if you do, the nigger will see that he is as good as you are".
This is not only a novel about racial hatred, however. The Grass is Singing is an acutely observant look at the human psyche, of how life's twists and turns slowly but surely sour and disappoint a once vibrant and popular woman until she loses herself completely into that which she had always so defiantly tried to avoid becoming.
I've found this a very difficult book to review as there are so many facets to it, but what I think stands out most is it's starkly honest portrayal of how the white southern Africans consider their fellow black men to be entirely sub-human and requiring management in the same way as the beasts of the land.
4.5 stars - a darkly disturbing read in many ways, but a profound and important one that will leave me thinking about it for some time.
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LibraryThing member japaul22
An exciting and interesting plot, vividly described setting, and a depth of understanding about severe culture clash without a hint of know-it-all attitude - what more could I want?
I loved this book. Lessing has written a novel that reads like a page turner but has the depth of a slow, studied
This book manages to be a look at marriage, a look at a white woman's available paths in Rhodesia, and a study of the interactions of the various races and socio-economic levels in Rhodesia all at the same time. And it remains readable and memorable while doing it.
I particularly loved that Lessing doesn't pretend to know more about the native Africans in her book than she actually does. Their emotions and lives are not at all described from their own point of view, only through the lens of the white people around them and a bit through their actions. I appreciated that she didn't try to enlighten those reading her book on "what Africans are like" - something that drove me crazy and seemed so demeaning to African culture in a book I read recently, [Out of Africa].
I highly recommend this.
I loved this book. Lessing has written a novel that reads like a page turner but has the depth of a slow, studied
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book. The story of Mary Turner is revealed after we read of her murder on the first page of the book. Her childhood, her marriage, her experience of isolated farm life, and her complete ignorance of the native people of Southern Rhodesia, all combine to lead to her death in a complex and compelling way. This book manages to be a look at marriage, a look at a white woman's available paths in Rhodesia, and a study of the interactions of the various races and socio-economic levels in Rhodesia all at the same time. And it remains readable and memorable while doing it.
I particularly loved that Lessing doesn't pretend to know more about the native Africans in her book than she actually does. Their emotions and lives are not at all described from their own point of view, only through the lens of the white people around them and a bit through their actions. I appreciated that she didn't try to enlighten those reading her book on "what Africans are like" - something that drove me crazy and seemed so demeaning to African culture in a book I read recently, [Out of Africa].
I highly recommend this.
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LibraryThing member Crazymamie
I had not read Lessing before, and I was hesitant because I have seen mixed reviews for a lot of her stuff, but this novel is lovely. It pulls you in right from the start and will not let go of you. Set in colonial Africa in Rhodesia (what today would be referred to as Zimbabwe), it's the story of
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how small moments of what seems like clarity can be deceptive and in fact, lead to our demise. Mary Turner makes a lot of mistakes, and she will end up dead. Murdered. We know this from the very beginning of the book. But how did she get there? Her first mistake was in marrying Richard Turner, thinking that she needed to settle down just because that's what others around her valued. She gives up her independence and her financial certainty when she marries Richard and goes to live with him on his farm, which has only the most basic of amenities. Still, they could make it work if only Richard could stop investing in pipe dreams. If only Mary weren't carrying so much baggage from her youth that Richard knows nothing about. If only either one of them understood the other. And add to that the brutality of colonial Africa where Mary is surrounded by people that she thinks are beneath her. As she struggles with depression, she sinks into ugly and unforgivable behavior. This book is about racism. About how hatred eclipses our humanity. Lessing does a beautiful job of letting the tension slowly unfold, drawing us in so that even when we know what is going to happen, what surely must happen, we cannot look away. Very highly recommended. Show Less
LibraryThing member amerynth
I found it impossible to put Doris Lessing's "The Grass is Singing" down. Her incredible writing instantly transported me to the farms of Africa where the heat is oppressive and the cicadas sing in the trees. Unfortunately, is colonial Africa, where the white men reign over black men, alternately
The novel is about the disintegrating marriage of Mary and Dick Turner, who are ill-suited for each other and married for all the wrong reasons. Just as the jungle inevitably consumes the house, small pockets of discontent begin to crack apart the marriage.
The book opens with its ending -- Mary Turner has been murdered by her kitchen cook for reasons that nobody in "the community" really cares to explain. Going back through Mary's life, Lessing masterfully delves into her heroine's psyche and the reasons for her ugly treatment of the natives living around her.
I really tore through this book-- it was fascinating and thought-provoking, painting the horrors of colonialism without feeling terribly preachy.
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treating them like servants, children or criminals.The novel is about the disintegrating marriage of Mary and Dick Turner, who are ill-suited for each other and married for all the wrong reasons. Just as the jungle inevitably consumes the house, small pockets of discontent begin to crack apart the marriage.
The book opens with its ending -- Mary Turner has been murdered by her kitchen cook for reasons that nobody in "the community" really cares to explain. Going back through Mary's life, Lessing masterfully delves into her heroine's psyche and the reasons for her ugly treatment of the natives living around her.
I really tore through this book-- it was fascinating and thought-provoking, painting the horrors of colonialism without feeling terribly preachy.
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LibraryThing member jbealy
I have great respect for Doris Lessing. She writes beautifully and truthfully and really doesn't give a damn what anyone else thinks. This book does not disappoint and in some ways it is hard to believe that a) it is her first novel and b) it was published in 1950. She takes on racist colonialist
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Africa straight on, no holds barred with her depiction of the relationship between blacks and whites, particularly focussing in on one white woman and her black male servant. But Lessing never lectures. It is her story telling that takes center stage, with her characters and all their warts and beauty. Show Less
LibraryThing member deebee1
Lessing's first novel, the story opens with the murder of a white woman, Mary Turner, in a remote farm somewhere in Rhodesia. In the next pages, we learn of her life and of the events that led to her tragic fate.
She leads a relatively happy, carefree life in town but decides to move away to marry
Mary takes out her feelings of isolation and frustration on the black servants and workers. One day, Moses, an enigmatic, virile farm hand, comes to work in the house. This was the beginning of the erosion of the master-servant relationship that Mary took elaborate pains in the past to enforce.
I didn't know whether to feel sorry for Mary or to feel that she had it coming. I kept wondering whether women at that time, and in that context, were really that helpless over their situation as Mary was portrayed? Somehow I felt more pity for Dick, who loved her despite not knowing how to show it.
A powerful, psychological portrait, it is a chilling read about the bleakness of existence as opposed to living, tension (master vs. slave, white vs. black, female vs. male, that alternately repulsed and attracted), isolation, disillusionment, fear, prejudice, and madness. This is a book that will stay with me.
She leads a relatively happy, carefree life in town but decides to move away to marry
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a Dick Turner, a farmer. Her situation changes dramatically and she fails to adapt to her new life on the farm. She shrinks from her world around. She realizes that Dick is not only poor, but is an incompetent farmer. Though both of them are committed to the marriage, it is a loveless arrangement, and neither see the other as a partner, on the farm or at home. The marriage disintegrates and Mary's state of mind descends, painfully mirrored in the further deterioration of their already squalid living conditions. Mary takes out her feelings of isolation and frustration on the black servants and workers. One day, Moses, an enigmatic, virile farm hand, comes to work in the house. This was the beginning of the erosion of the master-servant relationship that Mary took elaborate pains in the past to enforce.
I didn't know whether to feel sorry for Mary or to feel that she had it coming. I kept wondering whether women at that time, and in that context, were really that helpless over their situation as Mary was portrayed? Somehow I felt more pity for Dick, who loved her despite not knowing how to show it.
A powerful, psychological portrait, it is a chilling read about the bleakness of existence as opposed to living, tension (master vs. slave, white vs. black, female vs. male, that alternately repulsed and attracted), isolation, disillusionment, fear, prejudice, and madness. This is a book that will stay with me.
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LibraryThing member LynnB
Mary Turner is forced, by social convention, to marry. She makes a poor choice in choosing Dick Turner, an unsuccessful farmer. Transported from her life in the city, Mary finds herself isolated and unable to cope with life on the farm.
This novel is Mary's story as we watch her fall into an
But this novel is more than that because it is set in Africa when whites had the power and control over the black population. As Mary's depression grows, her relationship with her black servant, Moses, becomes more complex and less appropriate. Neither Mary nor Moses are able to fully come to terms with the violations of white, patriarchial norms.
This is a beautifully written book, largely focused on Mary's character rather than on a plot or narrative. I found it rich and deeply compelling in both its description and the message it conveyed through the fate of the characters.
This novel is Mary's story as we watch her fall into an
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increasingly severe depression. It is the story of the powerlessness of women in a society that perscribes certain roles for them, and that (more so in the 1940s) places the real power of decision making with the husband.But this novel is more than that because it is set in Africa when whites had the power and control over the black population. As Mary's depression grows, her relationship with her black servant, Moses, becomes more complex and less appropriate. Neither Mary nor Moses are able to fully come to terms with the violations of white, patriarchial norms.
This is a beautifully written book, largely focused on Mary's character rather than on a plot or narrative. I found it rich and deeply compelling in both its description and the message it conveyed through the fate of the characters.
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LibraryThing member diane_dunning
Set in apartheid Africa in the 1950s, this story is a study of desperation and deterioration. When the story opens, the main character, a young white woman, lives in a self-made world where she is contentedly self-sufficient but has no romantic inclinations. When she overhears a comment between two
Written before the sexual revolution and civil rights movement, this story is a portrayal of the trappings of a rigid social structure and the penalties for those who don't fit in.
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friends that implies she is a sexual oddity, she is shocked and embarrassed. She directs her efforts to finding a mate, which she discovers in a lonely farmer who lives well outside of town. Once married, her life descends into emotional desolation and depression until a young man, a native from the local village, is hired as her house servant. Like a spark to a powder keg, all the misery building within her erupts into desperate acts for love and connection.Written before the sexual revolution and civil rights movement, this story is a portrayal of the trappings of a rigid social structure and the penalties for those who don't fit in.
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LibraryThing member jwhenderson
While the title sounds rather lyrical the story is anything but that. This is the story of Mary and Richard Turner, who farm the land in South Africa in the forties when apartheid is the rule. Mary is an intelligent woman who makes a a fateful choice in Richard for her husband. Living with Richard,
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who is ineffectual and unsuited to the life of farming, soon leads Mary to depression. She grows progressively bitter and takes her frustration out on the black servants that help run the farm. In spite of the darkness of the story, a tragedy that verges close to melodrama, the writing of the author in her first novel is lucid and imaginative. Lessing plumbs the psychology of Mary's depression and her marriage with Richard effectively, building suspense all the while even though the reader knows the outcome from the first page. It is the prose of Doris Lessing and the clarity of the structure of her novel that makes this one of the best first novels that I have ever read. Show Less
LibraryThing member akeela
Doris Lessing’s formidable debut novel – published in 1950 – had me completely engrossed from its first troubled pages until the bitter end.
The book opens with the murder of Mary Turner and the arrest of the black man responsible for the deed.
Lessing draws one into the arid blazing heat of
Mary hates the searing heat, only marginally more than she loathes the black workers on the farm. There is no limit to her contempt for the natives, whom she deems savages. While Mary is at odds with nature, Dick is at peace with it.
In this novel, Lessing boldly thrashes out the theme of racism (as well as human isolation and alienation). While she explores racism in this society broadly, she also zones in particularly on the relationship between one white woman and her black male servant.
Though Mary and Dick Turner may well be the most unlikable characters I’ve come across, Lessing’s storytelling is superb. You may want to give up on the wretched Mary and Dick, but you cannot discard this book – not until you know exactly what has happened! Highly recommended.
The book opens with the murder of Mary Turner and the arrest of the black man responsible for the deed.
Lessing draws one into the arid blazing heat of
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the African landscape in Southern Rhodesia in the 50s. The story is about Mary and Dick Turner, who met, got married and went to live in a little ramshackle home on a farm. They don't really like one another; in fact, sometimes each one is totally revolted by the other. But as neither wants to hurt the other's feelings, they live together, mostly in silence. Inside, they are filled with resentment and a build-up of debilitating negative energy.Mary hates the searing heat, only marginally more than she loathes the black workers on the farm. There is no limit to her contempt for the natives, whom she deems savages. While Mary is at odds with nature, Dick is at peace with it.
In this novel, Lessing boldly thrashes out the theme of racism (as well as human isolation and alienation). While she explores racism in this society broadly, she also zones in particularly on the relationship between one white woman and her black male servant.
Though Mary and Dick Turner may well be the most unlikable characters I’ve come across, Lessing’s storytelling is superb. You may want to give up on the wretched Mary and Dick, but you cannot discard this book – not until you know exactly what has happened! Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member ocgreg34
Coming from a decent family in Southern Rhodesia, Mary prides herself on her ability to balance a full time office job and many friends with her sense of independence. She isn't tied down to anyone except for herself, and for that she is respected. At least, she thinks so until she overhears a
Unprepared for what little the farm offered, she tries at first to make the best of it. Making her own dresses from scraps of fabric, whitewashing the walls, taking over the management of the house. But the oppressive heat, the unproductive farm, the seclusion from their neighbors, and her contempt of the native servant who she feels enjoys too much freedom in the house, wears her down. Her constant firing of servants raises a few eyebrows with the locals, making it difficult for Richard to find someone willing to work. Unable to understand her gruffness, he chooses instead to ignore it by spending his time down at the fields, working on some new scheme in a sad attempt to create a profitable farm.
Left on her own, her dislike of the natives comes to a head when she spots one of the farm workers -- Moses -- slacking off. She confronts him, and he tells that he wanted some water. Angry at his disobedience, she strikes him. To her surprise, Moses appears unscathed by her actions, and she stalks away. Weeks later, Richard is forced to hire Moses as the house servant when no one else will take the job because of Mary's reputation. Once Mary realizes who this new servant is, a battle of wills begins between the two.
"The Grass Is Signing" focuses on the racial tensions between Mary, a white South African, and the native Moses. Mary believes that she is better than the natives who work on their farm, though she is considered white trash by local standards. She demands respect from the natives, and when one stands up to her, her supposed strength is revealed to be cowardice and paranoia. She's a remarkable character because not once did I like her. She's a terrible person, but that's one of the draws of the novel, watching how wretched she is and how that serves as her own version of Hell when Moses comes to work in the house, in her constant presence. A remarkable novel and definitely worth a read.
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conversation between two of her "friends" making dubious remarks about her age and being a spinster. While her anger at the comments slowly boiled, she resolved to marry. Her choice of husbands is a poor white farmer named Richard Turner. They first meet at the movies, and after a very brief courtship, she agrees to marry him and move to his small farm in Ngesi.Unprepared for what little the farm offered, she tries at first to make the best of it. Making her own dresses from scraps of fabric, whitewashing the walls, taking over the management of the house. But the oppressive heat, the unproductive farm, the seclusion from their neighbors, and her contempt of the native servant who she feels enjoys too much freedom in the house, wears her down. Her constant firing of servants raises a few eyebrows with the locals, making it difficult for Richard to find someone willing to work. Unable to understand her gruffness, he chooses instead to ignore it by spending his time down at the fields, working on some new scheme in a sad attempt to create a profitable farm.
Left on her own, her dislike of the natives comes to a head when she spots one of the farm workers -- Moses -- slacking off. She confronts him, and he tells that he wanted some water. Angry at his disobedience, she strikes him. To her surprise, Moses appears unscathed by her actions, and she stalks away. Weeks later, Richard is forced to hire Moses as the house servant when no one else will take the job because of Mary's reputation. Once Mary realizes who this new servant is, a battle of wills begins between the two.
"The Grass Is Signing" focuses on the racial tensions between Mary, a white South African, and the native Moses. Mary believes that she is better than the natives who work on their farm, though she is considered white trash by local standards. She demands respect from the natives, and when one stands up to her, her supposed strength is revealed to be cowardice and paranoia. She's a remarkable character because not once did I like her. She's a terrible person, but that's one of the draws of the novel, watching how wretched she is and how that serves as her own version of Hell when Moses comes to work in the house, in her constant presence. A remarkable novel and definitely worth a read.
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LibraryThing member alanteder
Doris Lessing's first novel from 1950 is her imagined background to a newspaper clipping about the murder of a white farm wife by her black house servant in Southern Rhodesia which is reproduced at the beginning of the book. Lessing has said (listen to her appearance on the 2003 BBC World Book Club
A few points off for the typos in this Perennial Modern Classics edition that I read, which were surprising to see in a much reprinted early work by a Nobel Prize winner. These started as early as pg. 2 "families " and pg. 9 "premptorily" & "Charlies" for example, but were more sparse later on.
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podcast on iTunes for example) that there was an actual news story of this nature that she remembered from her time growing up in Southern Rhodesia and that what interested her was all the unspoken and hidden background to the surface life of white-rule in that country. These were things such as the upper class whites ensuring that the poorer whites did not "let the side down", that masters and servants could co-exist as long as they did not view each other as human beings etc. Her original manuscript was apparently 3 times as long and had actually centred on the character of the English farm manager Tony Marston which the neighbouring rich farmer Slatter hires to try to save the farm of Dick and Mary Turner who have let it run down. Lessing ended up cutting 2/3rds of the book and having it instead centre on the dissolution of the Turner farm and the mental deterioration of both Mary and Dick Turner and the gradual ascendance of the servant Moses whose role in holding up the household reaches a point where it alarms both Slatter and Marston. The novel has lost none of its power and although its ending is known from the beginning it still holds you with a compelling attraction as you watch the death dance unfold.A few points off for the typos in this Perennial Modern Classics edition that I read, which were surprising to see in a much reprinted early work by a Nobel Prize winner. These started as early as pg. 2 "families " and pg. 9 "premptorily" & "Charlies" for example, but were more sparse later on.
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LibraryThing member MeditationesMartini
This is the story of a young white woman in postwar Rhodesia who grows up kind of always-already dispirited by her parents' broken marriage, finds a niche for herself and then loses it through a compulsion to repeat her trauma, marries a good but feckless farmer with an expansive but soft and
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easily wounded soul, and finds herself isolated and floundering as she tries to deal with their African labourers--very quickly, one labourer in particular, who's just trying (I think--if this book has a flaw it's that Moses remains a cipher till the very end, though I can't see that much good would have come of it if the white Rhodesian Lessing had tried to get inside his head really) to be a man and bear up under impossible circumstances. It's a story of inverted intersectionality, of what happens when someone oppressed for her gender is bound to someone oppressed for his poverty and then bound by him further to someone oppressed for his race (lest their be any doubt, by far the most acute form of oppression in their particular context) given the opportunity to depend on and resent and oppress one another--and the way it achieves the resonance of tragedy is that for each of them, oppression of one another is the irreducible byproduct of trying to follow their own entirely innocent hearts' joys and/or protect their tender spots. It's great historical forces coming to a head under a hot tin roof in a backwater settlement in a doomed colony, and it's absolutely riveting and powerful and true. Show Less
LibraryThing member boktravaren
One of her best!
LibraryThing member msjoanna
This was a powerful book, but perhaps not a fair representation of the author's talents. Or, to put it more bluntly, the book was a powerful commentary on colonialism, but not the sort of book that I would have expected to be written by a Nobel Prize winner. I enjoyed the book and found it
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compelling, but it didn't blow me away with either the writing style or the insights into the characters. I'll look for later works by Lessing to give the author a fair shake. Show Less
LibraryThing member silva_44
This book far surpassed my expectations. I read one of Lessing's books in college, and found it almost impossible to navigate. This book, her first novel, perfectly captured the psychology of despair. The ending was not exactly what I had expected, but it made perfect sense. Overall, this is a
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great read if you are interested in colonialism, race relations, or psychological issues. Show Less
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1950
Physical description
272 p.; 8 inches
ISBN
0061673749 / 9780061673740