The Grass is Singing

The Grass Is Singing took me by surprise.  Again, I think it’s a case of judging it by the blurb and setting my expectations towards something that wasn’t going to be there. Given that this is book 400 of The List, you’d have hoped I’d have learnt by now.  But no- I’m still making the same old mistakes.  At least I didn't expect it to be anything like Doris Lessing's sci-fi novel Shikasta, so that's something.

This is Lessing's first novel and it has a lot of tropes of a first novel.  It is short and to the point, you can see Lessing's style developing.

The book tells the story of Mary and Dick Turner.  It kicks off with Mary's death (spoiler) a the hands of their servant, Moses, but most of the book follows Mary's life and her shambolic excuse for a marriage.  They are one of those couples who should clearly have never married- even in the start Mary's just up for it because she’s getting on a bit and people make her thing that she probably should.  So, Mary leaves that city to live with Dick on his farm in the middle of nowhere.   She hates it, she hates him, but most of all she hates the black farm workers.

I had so many problems with Mary because og her racism.  Lessing goes out of her way to make you like Mary in the early chapters- she overcomes adversity and in an independent woman in a man's world, she has so much potential as a feminist icon- and she's a horrible human.  The book is better for the fact that you don't want to dislike Mary, Lessing and Dick chalk so much up to her ignorance but it builds to an undeniable crescendo

The misleading blurb was also guilty when it came to the characterisation of Mary.  It talks of a kindness and understanding between her and Moses and I was expecting romance in the face of a negligent husband.  Even as the book continued, I expected a redemption storyline that just didn't emerge.  There's not let up or relief in The Grass is Singing.  It is not a happy enough book to allow that, like any newly arrived white colonials, the reader learns to expect the racism.  This isn't England, we are reminded, this is Rhodesia and things are different here. 

I'm still not sure is I like or enjoyed this book.  I have found that before with Lessing.  I can see why she won a Nobel Prize- she is brilliantly challenging.  And yet, I don't know if I ever look forward to reading her books; they are not page turners or what you want at the end of a long day of work.  But they are something.

Next time it's book 401 and the celebration of hitting 40% of The List being completed: The Names by Don DeLillo.