About this title: Doris Lessing, one of England's finest living novelists, invites us to imagine a mythical society free from sexual intrigue, free from jealousy, free from petty rivalries: a society free from men. An old Roman senator, contemplative at his late stage of life, embarks on what will likely be his last endeavour: the retelling of the story of human creation. He recounts the history of the Clefts, an ancient community of women living in an Edenic, coastal wilderness, confined within the valley of an overshadowing mountain. The Clefts have no need nor knowledge of men -- childbirth is controlled, ...
read more
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Date published: 08/2007
ISBN-13:9780060834869ISBN:0060834862
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 260 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Date published: 08/2007
ISBN-13:9780060834869ISBN:0060834862
Description: Good in good dust jacket. Good, In good dust jacket. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 260 p. Ex-Library expected imperfections. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Date published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780060834876ISBN:0060834870
Description: Fine. May have remainder mark on edge Clean book with no writing, underlining or highlighting inside. Promptly shipped with delivery confirmation. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Date published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780060834869ISBN:0060834862
Description: Good in good dust jacket. A moderate amount of wear on Cover and interior pages. (W2) Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 260 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Date published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780060834869ISBN:0060834862
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Date published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780060834869ISBN:0060834862
Description: Very Good. Former Library book. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: HarperCollins
Date published: 2007-08-01
ISBN-13:9780060834869ISBN:0060834862
Description: Like New. May be shiny, in some instances dust jackets are not included, no missing pages, no damage to binding, may have a remainder mark. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Date published: 2008-02-01
ISBN-13:9780060834876ISBN:0060834870
Description: Like New. May be shiny, in some instances dust jackets are not included, no missing pages, no damage to binding, may have a remainder mark. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: HarperCollins
Date published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780060834869ISBN:0060834862
Description: Good. 0060834862 Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: HarperCollins
Date published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780060834869ISBN:0060834862
Description: Good. 0060834862 Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: HarperCollins
Date published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780060834869ISBN:0060834862
Description: Good. Book shows minor use. Cover and Binding have minimal wear and the pages have only minimal creases. A tradition of southern quality and service. All books guaranteed at the Atlanta Book Company. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Date published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780060834876ISBN:0060834870
Description: Good. Book shows minor use. Cover and Binding have minimal wear and the pages have only minimal creases. A tradition of southern quality and service. All books guaranteed at the Atlanta Book Company. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Date published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780060834876ISBN:0060834870
Description: Good. Book shows minor use. Cover and Binding have minimal wear and the pages have only minimal creases. A tradition of southern quality and service. All books guaranteed at the Atlanta Book Company. read more
Description: Good. Only lightly used. Book has minimal wear to cover and binding. A few pages may have small creases and minimal underlining. Book selection as BIG as Texas. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Date published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780060834876ISBN:0060834870
Description: Acceptable. 2008-Paperback----Used-Acceptable-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
"This may be a book better served upon a second reading, or perhaps assigned in a class to really pour over it? Or maybe not? Seems to me a bit overly ambitious in retrospect. Perhaps the author's drive here is to connect the fount of history and myth, and show how blurred both can be? According to a fellow book club member, Lessing has stated that her next book will be her last. So maybe Lessing is looking out over the chasm of time more than most of us, and closer to the edge of it.
One's last book has got to be a pretty tough concept as an individual to wrap one's head around. Few of us get to the first one. Another tough idea to wrap one's head around is where men and women came from, this book offers the idea of these lazy, mermaid, wo-manatee types (the Clefts) juxtaposed to the males that come about by accident and are called Monsters. This is her genesis, her creation myth. The women almost seeming like large amoebic beings, cleaving themselves perhaps?
The boys pushing, driving out, the old women happy to laze about in the sun on the rocks...um, well stereotypes are unfair, but this is not always so far off the mark. The men afraid to admit mistakes, getting lost on a trip, and not exactly the best of care-takers. I like how Lessing alludes to the source of war being neglected children forming tribes against their absent fathers.
This is only my second book of Lessing's I have completed, the other...the "Fifth Child" also features a sort of harsh relationship between mother and son. Read into it what you will, all relationships are battles of will, she did have one son as a single mother in London, having given up her two toddlers to their father upon splitting up. I suspect her story is a complicated and difficult one, apparently we'll have to wait for Michael Holroyd to decode it all.
Anyways, inserting the Roman narrative, with the crucial role of the Eagles in the pre-history Cleft/Monster and other overarching notions (Roman gods and goddesses erupting form the altering creation myth). The focus seemed to be sharply on the Cleft/Monsters, but the book does start with our Roman historian. And some of the tales from Roman times (the first wife trying to prevent the narrator for being too ostentatious such that Nero would claim his spoils) were intriguing, but again mostly minor it seems.
Ultimately I just don't think this book hold together, but I intend to read some more of her work (I have read a little of Ben, the "sequel" to the Fifth Child). I'm a closet fan of curmudgeons, and the "Cleft" curmudgeons are most rare...I suspect Lessing is one!"
"While it's an interesting idea for a book, the writing gets pretty sloppy at times, to the point where if the book was another 50 or 60 pages, I probably would have put it down. Additionally, the book really doesn't add anything to the dialogue about the difference between genders (or is that "sexes"). Instead, it reinforces the basic stereotypes that women are nurturing creatures and men are action-oriented. Gee, Doris, thanks for the info."
"I really want to like Doris Lessing. A long time ago, I read the myth of The Cleft in the New Age bookstore where I worked in beautiful downtown Pasadena, so I was very interested to read her take on it. This book is written in two voices....the voice of a Roman historian, and one or more Cleft people from the distant past. It doesn't fit together as one book, and it is very distracting to read it written this way. Like, what does the life of the Roman's young wife and her brushing off her son have to do with the Cleft? It does not relate. The Cleft, who were all female, occasionally started having males, and didn't know what to do with them; but what I liked was that she called them Squirts. I didn't even finish the book, and that is rare for me, because the writing was so bad (disconnected)."
"This is my first Lessing novel. It is an historical construction, similar to Deepak Chopra's recent "Jesus," where the author takes some historical and scientific facts and builds around them a new historical narrative. Narratives that are not necessarily, perhaps rarely, contradictry to our current understanding of our past and evolution. Regrettably, I found both Lessing's Cleft and Chopra's Jesus too simplistic. While character development of the respective protagonists is healthy and respectable, the context in which they are set, too often falls flat as a uni-dimensional world - one without nuances of feeling, morals, etc. I don't think it unfair to desribe it as an weak Lord of the Flies."
We guarantee every item's condition, as described on Alibris. If you are not satisfied that an item is as described, return your purchase for a refund.
rating
