The Summer Before the Dark

As I post this review, I have read three of Lessing's novels from three different time periods in her career. This is one of her later works and it contains the strong feminine perspectives, dialogues, analysis, and commentary that is associated with Lessing. One could say that these are the trademark writing styles of Lessing. It is an interesting novel about a married woman who is having a mid-life crisis. 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. Having read The Grass is Singing (1950), her very first novel, I found that the present novel is far more complex, but not as complex as The Golden Notebook. The Golden Notebook is a story within a story and it is 600 pages long. The present novel is more conventional and shorter, just 240 pages. Also, the Golden Notebook has a score of characters while the present book has one strong protagonist. Without giving away the plot, Lessing describes the personality of the female protagonist - a middle aged married woman - who is living in Britain and is still relatively young at 45 but has found herself left with an inattentive husband and grown up children. How does she deal with that situation and what is the outcome? That is what the novel is about. The "Dark" in Summer Before the Dark, refers to the period of turmoil (physical and mental) that she undergoes. It is about her new career and her new friends, both male and female. Lessing gives mostly female dialogue and perspectives. In fact, the female characters are far more interesting than the males. In short, it is a book of self discovery of a middle aged woman, and her coming to terms with her life. This is not a conventional novel. Lessing uses various literary techniques including writing from the perspective of the woman having an illness. This makes the book more powerful and engaging. Gertrude Stein used repetition to create a mood of chaos. Here the technique has the same effect - but not exactly similar. Lessing brings us into the world of the woman's slightly delusional state. We see the world through the eyes of the sick woman. Some readers might find that confusing, but others will see it as a powerful literary technique. I liked the book and would recommend it. It is a short quick read that takes an evening to read. It contains most of 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.

Now that Lessing has been awarded the Nobel Prize, some readers unfamiliar with her work may wonder what to read. This novel is a very good place to start. In fact, contrary to some of the other reviewers, I think The Grass Is Singing: A Novel (Perennial Classics) is easily one of her best books. It's also probably one of her most bleak. The Fifth Child as well as The Good Terrorist are also very good.

Kate, a middleclass London housewife on the cusp of midlife, becomes ungrounded and goes in search of her life's purpose. The strange things she encounters while traveling through Europe -- a bizzare tryst with a much younger man, an impoverished villa in nowhere Spain -- an then back again to London suck you with such subtleness, you won't know you've been charmed. Lessing expertly threads Kate's journey with a recurring dream and gives the characters that aid Kate's discovery a surreal edge that's surprisingly convincing. You won't stop reading, and what this book says about the point of a woman's life will blow you away.

I was going to attempt "The Golden Notebook" as an introduction to Doris Lessing but lost my nerve when I saw how voluminous it was. The Contemporary Reading List recommended "The Summer Before The Dark" as an alternative and I wasn't disappointed. The novel starts off promisingly with a vividly drawn portrait of a 45 year-old middle class Englishwoman (Kate Brown) at the crossroads of her life. Realising that she has devoted most of her adult life to her husband (Michael) and children without a thought for herself, she sets out tentatively on a journey of self discovery when decides she doesn't like whom she sees in the mirror. She throws herself into a temporary job translating for a global food conference, which leads to an affair with a younger man (Jeffery) and culminates in a startling confrontation with herself when she gets to know a young girl (Maureen) whom she shares temporary accomodation with while her family is away. Maureen may not know what she wants to be (she has proposals from suitors of all persuasion) but what she does know is that she doesn't want to end up like Kate and her own mother. While her good friend, the selfish and amoral Mary, isn't a role model, she has always retained that sense of self that has gone missing from Kate's life. A large part of Lessing's prose consists of internal monologue, words and responses from Kate's mind and soul, all tremulously spoken. The recurring dream sequence with the "seal" is deeply poignant and symbolic of Kate's search for her own identity. The novel is a wonderful example of feminist literature exploring issues that will have eternal relevance for women all over the world. Lessing's beautifully written prose often leaves me breathless. Read it !

"You are young, and then you are middle-aged, but it is hard to tell the moment of passage from one state to the next. Then you are old, but you hardly know when it happened." Thus Lessing opens her novel, announcing that her character, Kate Brown will be the exception. Lessing has created a character who bridges the midlife transition in a single summer, from typical upper-middle-class British housewifery to corporate executive to older-woman-younger-man romance to denouncing the hair color that masks her age. By the end of Kate's summer, she is not entirely certain who she is, but quite clear who she is not. Lessing is recognized as one of the important writers in the English language, and the body of literature on midlife women is enriched by her genius and wisdom.