About this title: As the world falls apart outside, the narrator watches over Emily, a young child brought into her care by a stranger. Emily is also guarded by Hugo, half cat and half dog, the bizarre and lovable beast whose presence dominates the tale.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Picador
Date Published: 1981
ISBN-13:9780330246231ISBN:0330246232
Description: Very Good. Very good. Near fine. Very slight cover wear with small cut first page and x. Straight. Tight, clean, otherwise unmarked. 189 p.; 20 cm. Originally published: London: Octagon, 1974. read more
Description: Very Good. 0553024949 1st Bantam mass-market paperback edition, 1976. Clean, tight, no spine crease, looks unread. Lite shelfwear and rubbing to cover. Free delivery confirmation. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bantam Books
Date Published: 1976
ISBN-13:9780553024944ISBN:0553024949
Description: Very Good. The bizarre journal of a woman living in a society of the future-a nightmare of fouled-up telephones and broken-down buses, of scarce water, polluted air and adolescent gangs scavenging in deserted streets. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 1988
ISBN-13:9780394757599ISBN:0394757599
Description: Good. Ex-Library with usual stamps, stickers & markings. Sides of book and first couple of pages have age spotting. Otherwise, pages are clean and unmarked. read more
Edition: 1981 reprint.
Binding: paperback
Publisher: New York: Bantam
ISBN-13:9780553228175ISBN:055322817X
Description: 217pp. paperback: near Very Good [ink name; text is lightly age browned; else nrVG] The British writer Doris Lessing (b. 1919) won the 2007 Nobel Prize for Literature. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 1988
ISBN-13:9780394757599ISBN:0394757599
Description: Good. A copy that has been read, but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact (including dustcover, if applicable). The spine may show signs of wear. Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "from the library of" labels. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bantam Books
Date Published: 1976
ISBN-13:9780553024944ISBN:0553024949
Description: Acceptable. Cover has light soiling and very small portion of lower back corner is missing. Binding is tight, pages are crisp and clean. - read more
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
Description: Acceptable. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
"i did not bother finishing this as it just wasn't going anywhere. at least i couldn't see where it was going. and i didn't want to hear any more about the imaginary room that may or may not have been imaginary. bah."
"In a post-apocalyptic world, a grown-woman, a girl and the girl's lover learn how to survive by escaping to an "inner" world in which they can explain themselves and the dreadful situation around them; however, in order to achieve that they have to learn to accept and love one another first."
"When I tell others that I am reading Doris Lessing, most people give me a blank stare. Either they have never heard of her, or they have. But, never anything more. I only know one other person who has read Lessing, and that is my my professor of Practical Criticism. And, she is the one that recommended her to me. I was studying post-apocalyptic fiction at the time, and my professor, during one of our conferences about my essay, said that I should try Lessing's work in that sub-genre. So, I gave her a try. It was slow-going at first. Actually, it was slow-going the entire time. That's the thing about Lessing. She has a way of saying exactly what she means in exactly the way that you can understand it. But, the only problem is that she has a lot to say. Most of it is conflicting or hard to swallow. So, you often have to sit back and really think about it. I have not read any of her other titles, but I can tell from this one that she has a lot of talent. Talent that is not wasted, for Lessing uses her uncanny skills to preserve her thoughts in a way that is incorruptible. But, I'm getting carried away. The book in question (Memoirs of a Survivor) is actually quite short, but it took me a semester to finish (which, considering who's reading it, isn't all that surprising, but that's beside the point). It is the story of a young girl, growing up from child to adolescent> The interesting thing is that this coming-of age story is told by an unnamed narrator that is both very distant and very intimate. She (I am assuming that the narrator is a she, but the gender is never confirmed) is an upper-middle-class single Brit who lives in an apartment in a part of the city that is in flux. Large gangs of children and vagrants are slowly beginning to take shape. Efforts to restore the dying government, economy, and social structure transfer from the hands of the wealthy and powerful to the hands of the displaced. Exactly what the disaster is that left the world in such disarray is never revealed, but Lessing spends a good chunk of paper describing "It" in terms that are both vague and disturbingly familiar. Lessing is also very smart about her choice of title, because this piece really does feel (for the most part) like a memoir. it is told from the point of view of someone looking back, as if looking over their shoulder, wondering what effect their actions will have on their own future. On the futures of others. Although this is a strange allusion, it reminds me of Max Brooks's World War Z, which was inspired by The Good War by Studds Terkel. Similarly, Lessing has taken the style and form of metaphor, replicated it exactly, and then given it a fantastical twist to make it her own. The girl, Emily, is a one of the most complex, fascinating characters that i have ever encountered in a novel. Perhaps all children are this incredibly muddled, and I simply have not taken the time to look. But, the way in which Lessing fleshes out Emily's personality is a novelty that I have never seen before. She has her narrator entering walls in the house, entering walls and stepping into a living, breathing metaphor, another house entirely that is both connected to the real world of the book and completely alien to it. It is constructed of symbols so blatantly representative of Emily's childhood that Lessing's audacity is uncanny. Rather than hide her literary devices under a fresh pile of autumn leaves or lock them up in attic drawers, she has given them a safe place to be discussed openly, a genius concept that any aspiring writer would be foolish to dismiss outright. In sum, this is one of the best recommendations that anyone has ever given me. I was surprised how much the book affected me and my writing. I would suggest not only borrowing this book from your lending library, but purchasing it as well. Lessing has proven herself to me as a master of the craft, and I look forward to experiencing more of her literature in the future."
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