Earlier this week, British author Doris Lessing won the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature. Other than her best-known work, the 1962 novel “The Golden Notebook,” what other books might newcomers to Lessing’s work enjoy?
Here are five suggestions:
“To Room Nineteen: Collected Stories, Vol. 1” (1978)
The title story in this collection — also available in many anthologies of the century’s best short stories — is breathtaking, as it builds to an intensely dramatic crescendo. A woman yearns for something more creative than the domestic duties of wifehood and motherhood; her desperate search takes a tragic turn.
“Under My Skin” (1994)
The first volume of Lessing’s autobiography covers her life until 1949. It’s rich with self-analysis and vivid descriptions of her experiences in Africa and then Great Britain, scene of her intellectual and emotional awakening.
“The Good Terrorist” (1985)
Long before 9/11, Lessing plumbed the depths of the terrorist mind, creating a plausible portrait of a motley group that lurches into violent activity in this disturbing, prescient novel.
“African Laughter: Four Visits to Zimbabwe” (1992)
Returning to the land formerly known as Southern Rhodesia for the first time since her anti-apartheid views landed her in trouble with the white rulers, Lessing reflects on the past, present and future of a beautiful, troubled country in this non-fiction work.
“Children of Violence”
This five-volume chronicle, published between 1952 and 1969, includes two spectacular novels. The first installment, “Martha Quest,” introduces the compelling title character, a woman born in colonial Africa whose odyssey mirrors Lessing’s own life. The fifth volume, “The Four-Gated City,” is a grim, sweeping, visionary novel — reading much like science fiction — that takes Martha from the 1950s into World War III.
