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Review
'Original and astonishing … Brilliant persuasive and circumstantial in its imagination, so that each step towards barbarism seems completely necessary.' New Statesman
'For some years and books now [we] have been reading Doris Lessing to find out what's going on - what is happening to our society's nervous system and how it affects the way we live with each other … She is one of those acute emotional intelligences whose stories provide keys to our personal dilemmas.’ Guardian
‘An extraordinary and compelling meditation about the enduring need for loyalty, love and responsibility in an unprecedented time.’ Time
Review
'Original and astonishing ! Brilliant persuasive and circumstantial in its imagination, so that each step towards barbarism seems completely necessary.' New Statesman 'For some years and books now [we] have been reading Doris Lessing to find out what's going on - what is happening to our society's nervous system and how it affects the way we live with each other ! She is one of those acute emotional intelligences whose stories provide keys to our personal dilemmas.' Guardian 'An extraordinary and compelling meditation about the enduring need for loyalty, love and responsibility in an unprecedented time.' Time
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This novel works on many levels, and has a strong story line which is addictive. The world is falling apart, urban life as we know it is disintegrating and new ways of living are emerging. In this way the novel is a piece of sparse future-realism, but it is also much more than that. The old woman, the 'survivor', is observing all these changes, but she is also reliving her past and experiencing mystical realms, when she walks through the living room wall to other rooms, which reflect and illustrate, illuminate her life. This part of the novel seems just as real. There is also a girl who is left with the old woman, and again there is uncertainty as there is no explanation for this strange girl, and, as the old woman watches her grow up, she relives some of her past. Perhaps both old woman and girl are facets of the same person? Underlying the dreams and the histories are elements of fable and analogical teaching story, giving the novel dimensions which unfurl and mirror both ourselves and our society. All together, a fantastic novel and also a gripping read!
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
this is a vital book for our times: prescient, as is so much of Doris Lessing's writing, beautifully written, and a story which unfolds from our own age. the contrast between the raiding groups of youth who come into the town in search of food, and the inhabitants of that town - afraid to move out of their homes for fear of the raiding gangs - throws an echo of our own times: when [we are told] many people are afraid to leave the safety of their homes for fear of the violence which young gangs of disenchanted youths will inflict. Perhaps the fear is mother to the fact: perhaps there is indeed a culture of violence which is unmoved by compassion, or a sense of community with any people other than their own kind... Doris Lessing saw into the future in many of her books, and we are alerted, and given the signposts we need. Can we take the necessary steps to avoid these happenings, or are we indifferent until it is too late? One way or the other, read this book and reflect.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Doris Lessing's sombre dystopian fantasy is less of a visionary fable and more an expression of one of society's perennial fears: children out of control. Latchkey kids, shopping mall kids, kids in the care of transient guardians or the local authorities, victims of aimless, loveless lives, children killing children; the nightmare is alive today in twenty first century Britain and elsewhere. This is a grim novel which expresses similar concerns to those found in A Clockwork Orange (and to a lesser extent Lord of the Flies), yet it is a strangely austere and dispassionate work which offers only a vague hope that a new civilisation can rise from the ashes.
The narrator watches society disintegrate from the windows of her block of flats, a slow fragmentation into tribes and clans, loose alliances without loyalty or trust, formed just as a means of survival and forever on the move, as the city empties and an urban hell looms, similar to South Bronx during the 1970s/1980s. A little girl with a bleak past, Emily, is deposited in her flat without explanation together with her pet, the creepy dog-cat chimera, Hugo, and she is obliged to raise a stranger, and hope that she has enough influence on Emily as she grows and matures to prevent her from leaving the flat and melting into the marauding gangs of children that terrorise the population; a seemingly insurmountable task.
Not all of Doris Lessing's fans were happy when she passed into her science fiction phase (following the political and psychological phases) and not all of her science fiction novels have been literary triumphs though this is very good. However, I constantly had the feeling that I was reading something significant but didn't know why.
The narrator watches society disintegrate from the windows of her block of flats, a slow fragmentation into tribes and clans, loose alliances without loyalty or trust, formed just as a means of survival and forever on the move, as the city empties and an urban hell looms, similar to South Bronx during the 1970s/1980s. A little girl with a bleak past, Emily, is deposited in her flat without explanation together with her pet, the creepy dog-cat chimera, Hugo, and she is obliged to raise a stranger, and hope that she has enough influence on Emily as she grows and matures to prevent her from leaving the flat and melting into the marauding gangs of children that terrorise the population; a seemingly insurmountable task.
Not all of Doris Lessing's fans were happy when she passed into her science fiction phase (following the political and psychological phases) and not all of her science fiction novels have been literary triumphs though this is very good. However, I constantly had the feeling that I was reading something significant but didn't know why.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Weird
Reading this at the moment and skipping lots of pages. Very weird - not what I thought it would be.
Published 11 months ago by S. Sanders
Surreal
Do not really know what to say about this book and how to review it. The style is quite interesting but I couldn't really understand the story. Read more
Published on 25 Jan 2009 by Acquafortis
couldn't finish it
Initially compelling and intriguing, Memoirs of a Survivor ultimately bored me. The idea is an interesting one but once halfway through picking it up became a chore. Read more
Published on 5 Jan 2008 by Karen Loasby
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