Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing book from acclaimed author, 13 Jan 2008
This was the first book I've read from the author. It was a bad choice. The idea of the book was really promising, an ancient community where only women exist and the effects of male children being born. Although there were some interesting insight of male and female differences, the story was boring, unoriginal, depressing. The narrative story which was going on in between was completely unnecessary.
Doris Lessing was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature 2007 and came across as a very interesting person in the interview, which was shown after the award winner was announced. I'm hoping to read some of her other books, which are highly acclaimed, but this was a very unfortunate introduction to her work.
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21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing book from acclaimed author , 13 Jan 2008
This was the first book I've read from the author. It was a bad choice. The idea of the book was really promising, an ancient community where only women exist and the effects of male children being born. Although there were some interesting insight of male and female differences, the story was boring, unoriginal, depressing. The narrative story which was going on in between was completely unnecessary.
Doris Lessing was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature 2007 and came across as a very interesting person in the interview, which was shown after the award winner was announced. I'm hoping to read some of her other books, which are highly acclaimed, but this was a very unfortunate introduction to her work.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic book!, 28 Feb 2009
The women (the clefts), living in their timeless coastal community, were getting along happily without men. They were able to breed without men and gave birth only to women until, one day, a baby was born with a squirt... then another... then another.
But, as these were the first mutants (baby boys) these women had produced, maternal instincts had not evolved; to say the least.
What happens to these boys, how the women deal with these newcomers, how some of the new boys grow into men and ultimately develop relationships with the women is fascinating.
Opening with a line from Robert Graves (Man does, woman is), the story of the Clefts and their home (The Cleft) is retold by a Roman Senator; a benevolent and convincing narrator.
There is a distinct atmosphere; stark, primal, foreboding. It's a time of change.
It's a great mythic story.
It's interesting to see how the women's attitude towards themselves and towards the men changes throughout the book. Before the appearance of the squirts, the women are self-sufficient but, when the first group of men has grown to manhood, the women are angry when ignored by the male group and their emotional setting shifts to: `What about us?'. The Clefts (women) shift from self sufficiency to `What about us?'.
Perhaps, after a few painfully abortive experiments in male childcare, some of the men genuinely owe their upbringing to the women and the women have a right to their `What about us?'... but the women's self reliance and confidence has been diminished and they have been stretched by having to share their lives with the new sex.
The behavior of the new men seems strange, selfish, primitive and often irresponsible (not much has changed there then...), although, the men are quite selflessly, yet pointlessly, brave and adventurous.
Yet, women remain the superior and more sensible sex. And, Doris Lessing begins the book with some interesting observations about women and even though I'm a squirt, I can't refute them.
She writes that men `lack the solidity of women, who seem to have been endowed with a natural harmony with the ways of the world'.
Although male, I can only agree with her. The prophet Mohammed said that `Women are the twin halves of men'. Perhaps, as one twin often lacks the qualities of the other, the sexes each have their own qualities which will either compliment or hinder each other. As Robert Graves wrote: `Man does, Woman is' (two separate qualities, doing and being).
And when the qualities clash each sex as Robert Graves wrote: `cuts across the other's bows, shame and fury to arouse.'
But if there is an older, more rounded, balanced sex, few would disagree with Doris Lessing's observations and The Cleft amplifies them.
I liked the mythical interplay and sensitivity of the animal kingdom and nature; the eagles that rescue the first baby boys, the power of the moon, the sanctity of the Cleft. It reminds me of the loss our culture has suffered through its almost deliberate lack of respect for stories and myths. And not just the loss of myths and stories, but the loss of the ability and willingness to begin to understand them. Karen Armstrong has written bravely about this loss in the last part of her excellent book `A Short History of Myth'.
The Cleft is a great book, I'm looking forward to reading it again and I would recommend it to anyone who loves good stories and good storytelling.
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