The Good Terrorist

Alice and her boyfriend Jasper join a squat of left wing activists intent on overthrowing the establishment and forging links with the IRA and Soviet communists. This is a wonderfully observed and paced novel. Alice is the 36 year old daughter of a well to do middle class family who has never held a job and is constantly seething about the wrongs of society. She constantly deludes herself-Jasper is homosexual but she sticks with him despite his obvious dislike and dependancy on her; she works to create a home with human comforts in the squat,she uses her parents for money;her and her fellow revolutionaries (all middle class) just aereate absract ideologies ,too self righteous and angry with their own lives to think out any consequences of what they do or stand for. Lessing observes group dynamics perfectly. Some of the squat do all the work,others laze about, others dominate with their views-a society like any other no matter what the hot air rhetoric is! This book perhaps has more meaning now than when it was written (1985) as communism has since collapsed and today only the seriously deluded attach much credability to Marxism. Perhaps the 'islamic' extremism is todays outlet for the left rather than Marx-in the UK its painful to see some left wingers supporting extreme right wing racists on the islamic platform for God alone knows what reasons (Lessing would enjoy the contradictions/hypocricy of these new age 'revolutionaries' no doubt!)There's always got to be some cause to enable what Roth called 'the perpetual protest'! A great book which I thorughly enjoyed.

As I post this review, I have read six of Lessing's novels from different time periods in her career. This is one of her later works and it contains only some of the feminine perspectives, dialogues, analysis, and commentary that is associated with Lessing - but not all and toned down drastically from other novels. It is an interesting novel about a 35 year old woman who is a terrorist and a home-maker of sorts. Because of this home-maker twist, she is called "the good terrorist." But, she is a terrorist. Doris Lessing (1919 - ) is the 2007 Nobel Prize winner in literature. She has a score of novels and many other works. Her complex novel The Golden Notebook (1957), her first novel The Grass is Singing (1950), and The Summer Before The Dark (1973) are considered to be her representative works. I read those three. The present novel is good. It is not complicated in the fashion of The Golden Notebook. It is closer to being a conventional novel. It has a good set of characters and an interesting plot. Without giving away the plot, Lessing describes the personality of the female protagonist living in Britain who is university educated, but has never worked. She has an uncaring boyfriend. They are squatters taking over abandoned houses. In many ways this is a parody of serious terrorists; but, the book is not all humor. I liked the book and would recommend it. It is a short quick read that takes two evenings to read. It does not contain the feminine arguments found in some of her longer works, but the present work is far easier read than The Golden Notebok (far, far easier) and it is a well written novel. If I had to pick one book that is easy to read and contains her arguments, this is not a bad choice, but The Grass is Singing is a more innovative work and also easy to read.

We'd do well to read, or re-read, this literary masterpiece by Doris Lessing which dissects for us the common-place, undramatic way in which many people in our Western society can get involved with terrorism. At the same time, the novel is a criticsm, full of irony and subtlety, of the hypocrisy and lack of values of western middle classes . In my opinion, this novel is far more scary than reading a black and white view of society, something Doris Lessing certainly never does here, since it is the blurry quality of grey what makes us confused when we have to judge. Alice Mellings, the main charater of this novel, has all the qualifications for being the perfect middle-class home-maker: she cleans, decorates, cooks, and in general takes care of housekeeping and looks after her people. In the first of the great ironies of the book, though, Alice is not a middle-class housewife, but someone who "rebelled" against her middle class family in her youth by becoming a squatter, and is still trying to determine just the exact meaning of that. The people Alice looks after in such a motherly way are a group of squatters, mainly people who have abhorred their middle-class roots and have failed to find their place in the London society of the day. The house Alice tries to make into a nice, cozy home for all of them is an old, abandoned house where they are illegally living. From the point of view of the protagonist, Alice, we follow the dozens of small problems and mishaps she has to overcome in order to reach her goal of creating a comfortable home for "her people". We follow her when she goes to her despised middle-class mother's house and steals money (an important source of income) or she speaks with the city council authorities to have electricity or water at home. We see these home-making activities are all-important in her aimless life, while she pays little attention to politics as they are discussed by the people who live with her. These people vow to make revolution against capitalism (most of them, but especially the most rabid of these characters -I won't say more or it would be a spoiler- come from well-off families) and eventually begin to talk of aiding the IRA in their terrorist actions in London (the novel was written in the eighties...). Again, ironically, we know nothing of Alice's political opininos. In fact, she doesn't seem to be interested in politics at all. She is just "Anti-system", without knowing very well what it means, but, anyhow, her comrades seem to be very sure about it so she goes along with them....And thus, though passively, Alice is finally involved in the terror these people create in London. What is masterly in this novel is the concept that terrorism, although obviously a political weapon, must rely in the actions of persons. That these persons, involved in terrorist actions, are certainly not good citizens or exemplary members of society, but usually psychollogical misfits who, once having found the explanation

I read the book; I have not heard the audio version so cannot comment on it.The book was amazing. A chilling study of group dynamics and human motivation.Highly recommended.I in fact just completed the book a few minutes ago. I am still shaken. The book moves ploddingly, inexorably along -- there are no chapters -- building up to a terrifying climax. Terrifying because you finally see the characters for what they are -- I don't mean about the terrorist act they commit, it says right on the back cover that this is going to happen -- but for the horrible delusions they are living under. In particular, the main character, Alice Mellings. If Doris Lessing intended to jar the reader awake, to make him question his own assumptions about himself, then she has succeeded.

I enjoy the writing style of Doris Lessing. I love the constrasting characters that help create a very absorbing story. The main character is Alice who carries a cast of misguided terrorist. Lessing is a wonderful writer in the way she does not need to wrap the story up in a nice package. I believe after reading one of her books you will be hooked like I am.