Doris Lessing - The Sweetest Dream

[Hayley Zero]

Firstly, how come there isn't a Doris Lessing subforum? I can't believe this!

Well, I have just finished reading Lessing's The Sweetest Dream. A story about several generations of women and their family; Julia von Arne, Frances Lennox and Sylvia. It is about a Sixties household, their dreams and ideals and how they end up in Zimlia, a fictional African country.

I liked it very much, but also found it quite complex. I am hoping to find someone who has read it too and would like to discuss this book. And I still can't believe that there isn't a Doris Lessing subforum...

love,
H.

[Logos]

Please see this post for info :)
http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showpost.php?p=378962&postcount=2

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[Jozanny]

Copyright Hayley, copyright :). I am a huge Lessing fan, but huge on slim consumption. I know Memoirs intimately, and found even a lesser work like The Good Terrorist to have a profound impact, but I have not read The Golden Notebook, her science fiction, the novel about child as monster, which I'd probably buy next the next time I do buy her work, or much else except a short story or two.

My neglect may be intentional, as I find Lessing's voice, much like Toni Morrison's (when Morrison isn't pandering, at least) to be immensely moving and powerful.

[zbern]

The Sweetest Dream is one of my favorite books- in fact Doris Lessing is my favorite author.
Part of it is that much of what she writes reminds me of my youth- a house which always had various young "strays" living with us, a vast involvement of the parents in an idealistic dream that later was tarnished.
Part of it is her descriptions of relationships not only between children and parents but in the world of work.