Set in South Africa under white rule, Doris Lessing’s first novel is both a riveting chronicle of human disintegration and a beautifully understated social critique. 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 work their slow poison, and Mary’s despair … progresses until the fateful arrival of an enigmatic and virile black servant, Moses. Locked in anguish, Mary and Moses — master and slave — are trapped in a web of mounting attraction and repulsion. Their psychic tension explodes in an electrifying scene that ends this disturbing tale of racial strife in colonial South Africa.
The Grass Is Singing blends Lessing’s imaginative vision with her own vividly remembered early childhood to recreate the quiet horror of a woman’s struggle against a ruthless fate.
more
The Grass Is Singing is the 1st novel of the author and was first published in 1950. She was an author of great repute and she went on to win the Nobel Prize For Literature in 2007. This is amongst one of her best works to date. The Grass Is Singing is an exposition of her deep understanding of the social mores of the land.
It is a critique of …
Quite a depiction of the miseries of South Africa when the British came.
A beautiful read!
A beautifully written classic. I would put it in the category with Steinback’s “Grapes of Wrath”…. and it’s just as cheerful.
Excellently written book about a woman living in South Africa during the 1940’s. The story deals with the racial strife between blacks and whites. The book begins with a murder and is then a flashback to everything that led to that murder.
Disappointed in the way the book ended. At one point I wasn’t sure why I kept reading it. A good word-smith but the book was depressing.
Shocking look into the deteriorating mind of the poor white farmers wife in Africa.
I didn’t realize that this book was written many years ago and hopefully a lot has changed regarding the prejudice in Africa. The book was a bit slow, but I enjoyed learning about Africa and the ex-pats who live there, and how they created such a segregated society of their own making.
Could not get into this book.
Just a pleasure to read. Her plots always knock me out. This one dark and sad.
This is Doris Lessing’s first book, a darkly realistic vision of life in South Africa in the early 20th Century.
enjoyed reading about a world and society long gone
Boring