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28 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Horrifically good, 15 Aug 2004
This is not only a very modern horror story. It is so horrific because it is utterly believable and the plot could happen to anyone. I really could not put it down, I was so moved by the reactions of the main character, Harriet, to her frightening new son, the large, violent Ben. I thought the balance in Harriet between horror, confusion and reluctant love for her son was extremely touching and complex. As a result, I, as the reader, felt this mixture of reactions, too, one minute totally repulsed and frightened by Ben, the next moved and very sorry for him. One never understands, as Harriet never does, what goes on in Ben's mind. He remains a mystery to everyone within and without the novel. But Harriet's tough fight for any morsel of understanding is really powerful to read, right to the end, as she observes her son living an entirely separate life. It is a tragedy as well as a horror, which makes it all the more absorbing - the family gradually diminishes as a result of Ben's dominant presence in the big, once laugter-filled house. There is also the sense that Lessing comments more generally on society. The novel is not only a domestic drama. Set in the 1960s initially, Lessing offers the characters Harriet and David, who fight determinedly against the 'sex and drugs' spirit of the era. They have ideals of simple, enriching family happiness, a big, lovely house with loads of children, and they seem to battle to gain their dream which seems too conventional for the age. The book progresses through to the 1980s, and Lessing comments on the growing crime and aggression which characterised the 80's, a violent backdrop for violent Ben who seems so comfortable in it. Lessing shows Harriet becoming more and more lost, isolated from the real, circulating world, first through the desire for a family, then seeing her son disappearing into a society so remote from her ideals. I strongly recommend this to anyone, but not children - it is harrowing at times, and extremely graphic. One wonders exactly what this child Ben is and where he came from - I found that extremely traumatic so I can't imagine a child trying to understand. Perhaps the other readers who should avoid this are mothers-to-be. The description of the pregnancy is very disturbing indeed. Far from simply being a horror story, I think it is a extremely engaging investigation of the disparity between honest dreams and the harshness of reality. There is such a lot contained in this novel.
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by Doris May Lessing
by David Graddol
