Black people have never been part of Mary's world, and she treats them with frigid contempt. The natives, whom Dick employs on the farm, are a further source of tension. The Turners' barren existence is contrasted with the fierce beauty of the land, to which they are oblivious. Their white neighbors make overtures of friendship, but, out of shame at her poverty, Mary rejects them. When Mary becomes involved in the running of the farm, she realizes that its failure is not down to bad luck, as Dick keeps telling her, but his incompetence. From the beginning, they are distant and cold, but, except when Mary briefly runs away, fear of loneliness and lack of money keep them together. Dick is also in a hurry to wed, because he is very lonely and unhappy clawing a bare living from a subsistence farm and living in a bare, ugly little house.
But, after overhearing her friends laugh at her as sexless and immature, she resolves to marry, and when Dick Turner asks her she consents, though she has met him only twice. The bulk of the novel is the story of Mary's life.Īfter a loveless, wretched childhood, Mary is contented with her life as an office worker in a city in Rhodesia. The novel begins with a newspaper clipping about the death of Mary Turner, a white woman, killed by her black servant, Moses. The novel created a sensation when it was first published and became an instant success in Europe and the United States.
It takes place in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), in southern Africa, during the 1940s and deals with the racial politics between whites and blacks in that country (which was then a British Colony). These include an impressive array of novels, short stories, poetry, drama, non-fiction, autobiography and operas.The Grass Is Singing is the first novel, published in 1950, by the British author Doris Lessing.
My copy of the book contains a list of Lessing’s works. The complacency and cruelty of white colonial society are laid bare, as issues of racism, injustice and sexuality are explored with insight and sensitivity. She produces penetrating portraits of the central characters, enabling us to comprehend the reasons underlying their behaviour. Her writing conveys the harsh landscape and the oppressive climate. Much of her aggression is taken out on a succession of black servants, who find it impossible to satisfy her demands.Įventually she develops an obsession with a houseboy called Moses, and the reader witnesses a tragedy unfolding. Mary becomes increasingly discontented, particularly when she realizes that Dick is, fundamentally, incompetent. Her thoughts often drift to her previous existence in town, where she enjoyed a career and an active social life.Įlke Wetzig under CC-BY-SA licence under Creative-Commons licenseĭoris Lessing This title is from What the Thunder Said in The Waste Land by TS Eliot.Ī white farmer, Dick Turner, is passionate about his land however, his wife Mary is utterly fatigued and frustrated by the relentless heat and grinding poverty. The evocative setting was to inspire her first novel, 1950's The Grass is Singing. Lessing was raised on her father’s farm in Southern Rhodesia. Doris Lessing was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007, and this month on the forum we are celebrating her achievements.
0 kommentar(er)
