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This largely autobiographical work comprises Anna's four notebooks: "a black notebook which is to do with Anna Wulf the writer; a red notebook concerned with politics; a yellow notebook, in which I make stories out of my experience; and a blue notebook which tries to be a diary." In a brilliant act of verisimilitude, Lessing alternates between these notebooks instead of presenting each one whole, also weaving in a novel called Free Women, which views Anna's life from the omniscient narrator's point of view. As the novel draws to a close, Anna, in the midst of a breakdown, abandons her dependence on compartmentalization and writes the single golden notebook of the title.
In tracking Anna's psychological movements--her recollections of her years in Africa, her relationship with her best friend, Molly, her travails with men, her disillusionment with the Party, the tidal pull of motherhood--Lessing pinpoints the pulse of a generation of women who were waiting to see what their postwar hopes would bring them. What arrived was unprecedented freedom, but with that freedom came unprecedented confusion. Lessing herself said in a 1994 interview: "I say fiction is better than telling the truth. Because the point about life is that it's a mess, isn't it? It hasn't got any shape except for you're born and you die."
The Golden Notebook suffers from certain weaknesses, among them giving rather simplistic, overblown illustrations to the phrase "a good man is hard to find" in the form of an endless parade of weak, selfish men. But it still has the capacity to fill emotional voids with the great rushes of feeling it details. Perhaps this is because it embodies one of Anna's own revelations: "I've been forced to acknowledge that the flashes of genuine art are all out of deep, suddenly stark, undisguiseable private emotion. Even in translation there is no mistaking these lightning flashes of genuine personal feeling." It seems that Lessing, like Anna when she decides to abandon her notebooks for the single, golden one, attempted to put all of herself in one book. --Melanie Rehak
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Book Description Mass Market Paperback. Condition: Fair. No Jacket. Readable copy. Pages may have considerable notes/highlighting. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 0.75. Seller Inventory # G0553208500I5N00
Book Description Mass Market Paperback. Condition: Fair. No Jacket. Readable copy. Pages may have considerable notes/highlighting. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 0.75. Seller Inventory # G0553208500I5N00
Book Description Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and may have some shelf wear or limited writing. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!. Seller Inventory # S_389506767
Book Description Condition: Good. Former library book; may include library markings. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages. Seller Inventory # 46631151-6
Book Description Condition: Good. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages. Seller Inventory # 38993815-6
Book Description Mass-market paperback. 13th printing. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. 666p. Profile cover drawing. Audience: General/trade. Fiction first published in 1962: A woman comes to understand herself after talking and writing explosive fragments of themselves. A complex work, considered the Africa-born British author's finest among her early novels, is described as 'an artistic vision of the struggles and joys that mark every free woman, ' back cover notes. Doris Lessing was later awarded a Nobel Prize for Literature in the 21st century. Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Prior bookstore ink stamp, first end paper. Single minor spine crease w/ concaveness. 1 0.0. Seller Inventory # Alibris.61400001993
Book Description Condition: Good. SHIPS FROM USA. Used books have different signs of use and do not include supplemental materials such as CDs, Dvds, Access Codes, charts or any other extra material. All used books might have various degrees of writing, highliting and wear and tear and possibly be an ex-library with the usual stickers and stamps. Dust Jackets are not guaranteed and when still present, they will have various degrees of tear and damage. All images are Stock Photos, not of the actual item. book. Seller Inventory # 4-0553208500-G
Book Description Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. First Edition, 10th Printing. Text/BRAND NEW. Softcover/VG; sound w/edge rubs & faint creasing to spine. 1962 novel from Persian-born, British writer, drammatist, novelist, poet, social activist, and Nobel Prixe recipient (2007), Doris Lessing (1919 -). The novel is in 5 sections, separated by stage of four Notebooks, and kept by protagnist Anna Wulf. Anna keeps four separate journals to separate things off from eachother --- once finished, all four "fragmented" records make possible the new and final chronicle, The Golden Notebook. A record of how women speak to one another, what they do, and ultimately, come to peace within themselves. The novel is also carries anti-war and anti-Stalinist issues of concern in England from the 1930s to the 1950s. Seller Inventory # 013466
Book Description Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Prompt shipment, with tracking. we ship in CLEAN SECURE BOXES NEW BOXES Very good. Some creasing. *. Seller Inventory # graypb34kr1379
Book Description Condition: Good. Item in good condition and has highlighting/writing on text. Used texts may not contain supplemental items such as CDs, info-trac etc. Seller Inventory # 00068861155