The Grass Is Singing : A Novel (Perennial Classics)

Rating:
Summary: Dullness taints this work of art
Review: "The Grass is Singing" is at once a simple story and a complex psychological and social analysis. It is a commentary on race relations in imperial Rhodesia, and an exploration of the timeless dichotomy of culture and nature.

The book is perhaps most interesting when the author describes the ideology of white colonists in Africa. In particular, the idea that extreme racism develops out of a need to justify economic exploitation is poignantly posed. It is not that whites oppress blacks because they hate them, rather they hate them because they have to oppress them and deny their human worth to maintain their standard of living. Thus, newcomers from Britain must be taught how to deal with and feel about the natives, and poor whites are despised because they seem to blur the color lines.

The main characters of this book are the Turners, Dick and Mary. Dick is an unsuccessful farmer, who lacks the mindset and risk-taking behavior of a commercial farmer-entrepreneur. Always in debt, always facing bad harvests, he still manages to live on because he finds fulfillment in his work and feels attached to the farm. Mary, on the other hand, is fundamentally unhappy with life. She was used to life in the city, working as a secretary, visiting clubs and movie theaters. She marries Dick simply because she realizes her friends think she should marry, and her meeting with the harsh realities of the countryside devastate her. Mary hates the sun, the natives, the bush; in short, everything associated with nature as opposed to culture. In the end, her unhappiness overcomes her to the point of full-fledged psychosis.

This book contains many insights, and Lessing describes the natural and social settings very vividly. Her detached exposition of the values of white farmers is very effectful (in this respect, I was reminded of Turgenev's quiet depiction of the misery of the Russian peasantry as a 'sideshow' in his stories). On the whole, however, I would have to say that the book failed to live up to my expectations, which had been raised by the captivating first chapter. We dwell inside Mary Turner's head for 200 pages, and unfortunately she is a spoiled and rather boring woman who fails to engender much sympathy.

Rating:
Summary: Dullness taints this work of art
Review: "The Grass is Singing" is at once a simple story and a complex psychological and social analysis. It is a commentary on race relations in imperial Rhodesia, and an exploration of the timeless dichotomy of culture and nature.

The book is perhaps most interesting when the author describes the ideology of white colonists in Africa. In particular, the idea that extreme racism develops out of a need to justify economic exploitation is poignantly posed. It is not that whites oppress blacks because they hate them, rather they hate them because they have to oppress them and deny their human worth to maintain their standard of living. Thus, newcomers from Britain must be taught how to deal with and feel about the natives, and poor whites are despised because they seem to blur the color lines.

The main characters of this book are the Turners, Dick and Mary. Dick is an unsuccessful farmer, who lacks the mindset and risk-taking behavior of a commercial farmer-entrepreneur. Always in debt, always facing bad harvests, he still manages to live on because he finds fulfillment in his work and feels attached to the farm. Mary, on the other hand, is fundamentally unhappy with life. She was used to life in the city, working as a secretary, visiting clubs and movie theaters. She marries Dick simply because she realizes her friends think she should marry, and her meeting with the harsh realities of the countryside devastate her. Mary hates the sun, the natives, the bush; in short, everything associated with nature as opposed to culture. In the end, her unhappiness overcomes her to the point of full-fledged psychosis.

This book contains many insights, and Lessing describes the natural and social settings very vividly. Her detached exposition of the values of white farmers is very effectful (in this respect, I was reminded of Turgenev's quiet depiction of the misery of the Russian peasantry as a 'sideshow' in his stories). On the whole, however, I would have to say that the book failed to live up to my expectations, which had been raised by the captivating first chapter. We dwell inside Mary Turner's head for 200 pages, and unfortunately she is a spoiled and rather boring woman who fails to engender much sympathy.

Rating:
Summary: White rulers in Africa. Tragic Marriage. Sickening&memorable
Review: Doris Lessing herself grew up White in Southern Africa. "The Grass is Singing" is set among the Whites of English descent of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), and follows the life of Mary Turner. We follow an almost-normal Mary move to a farm after marriage, slowly grow deranged as she suffers her husband's stupidity and poverty, and finally her murder by a native African servant.

The setting, and the descriptions of racial relations and Mary's madness, make this quite a unique novel. Parts of it, however, are dreary and drawn-out. Living with Mary's thoughts can be quite unpleasant and exhausting! And so 1 star off the rating, for not being the easiest book to read.

Presumably, most of the story takes place during the early/mid twentieth century. Europeans, mostly of English descent, hold practically all of the farming land in Zimbabwe (as they continued to do until a couple of years ago). They use natives as servants and farm workers, and extract the utmost work out of them.

The opening chapter is striking. There is a murder, we learn, and a neighboring farmer, the resourceful Charlie, deals with it. Although Ms Lessing does not express moral judgement, we get in the first chapter a taste of the psychosis and deep injustice underlying the White farmers' ruling of the African land.

In the rest of the book we go back and start from Mary's childhood, her carefree mid-life at the city, through her distressing years at the farm after marriage. As life treats her harshly, she grows progressively more unreasonable and unbalanced herself. She whips a farmworker, getting pleasure out of her power. Later, when the same African is employed as houseboy, she is alternately terrified and fascinated by the alien male. Eventually, the native man stabs her to death, for reasons not quite clear.

The story is written entirely from a White standpoint. One might complain that we get to know little about the native man, nothing of his motives or thoughts. But this makes perfect sense --- Doris Lessing, growing up White in early apartheid, could not be expected to recognize the humanity of natives, or to actually speculate about their thoughts or motives.

The novel, written before 1950, has become particularly relevant again today, as Zimbabwe's current president (Mugabe) finally, forcibly, ended the White monopoly over farmland. The reaction from the West was massive, with the Western press embarking on a massive propaganda campaign to smear and isolate Mugabe.

A fresh reading of "Grass is Singing" explains much. If your parents and grandparents were, like Mugabe's, whipped and murdered on their own land by the Mary's & Charlie's from Europe, you would really like to take back your land. The reaction from the White world (West) is also understandable. These are the Charlie's and Mary's of today, the people who have never apologized, never paid, for their crimes and exploitations. Instead, they rule and exploit by indirect means now, and get angry when darkies stand up. The Western worldview remains essentially racial.

The novel seems to be describing a spectacularly bad marriage. Mary and Dick Turner are absolutely unable to hear each other, each inflexible in his/her own way. Also tragic is the description of how Mary seemed to be pushed into a sudden marriage simply by the weight of peer opinions.

We learn of the dehumanizing effect of the unjust, exploitative system, on the psyche of the rulers themselves. Incoming white people have to be indoctrinated, to be taught the taboo on humane interaction with natives, and to forget ideas of equality. And most importantly, we learn of the cracks in this arrangement, and see through Mary the tragic results of falling through such a crack and having an improper relationship.

All in all, an emotionally exhausting, haunting and unusual story, set in a unique social setting. In places, it gets dull and depressing, but the total effect is worthwhile.

Rating:
Summary: White rulers in Africa. Tragic Marriage. Sickening&memorable
Review: Doris Lessing herself grew up White in Southern Africa. "The Grass is Singing" is set among the Whites of English descent of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), and follows the life of Mary Turner. We follow an almost-normal Mary move to a farm after marriage, slowly grow deranged as she suffers her husband's stupidity and poverty, and finally her murder by a native African servant.

The setting, and the descriptions of racial relations and Mary's madness, make this quite a unique novel. Parts of it, however, are dreary and drawn-out. Living with Mary's thoughts can be quite unpleasant and exhausting! And so 1 star off the rating, for not being the easiest book to read.

Presumably, most of the story takes place during the early/mid twentieth century. Europeans, mostly of English descent, hold practically all of the farming land in Zimbabwe (as they continued to do until a couple of years ago). They use natives as servants and farm workers, and extract the utmost work out of them.

The opening chapter is striking. There is a murder, we learn, and a neighboring farmer, the resourceful Charlie, deals with it. Although Ms Lessing does not express moral judgement, we get in the first chapter a taste of the psychosis and deep injustice underlying the White farmers' ruling of the African land.

In the rest of the book we go back and start from Mary's childhood, her carefree mid-life at the city, through her distressing years at the farm after marriage. As life treats her harshly, she grows progressively more unreasonable and unbalanced herself. She whips a farmworker, getting pleasure out of her power. Later, when the same African is employed as houseboy, she is alternately terrified and fascinated by the alien male. Eventually, the native man stabs her to death, for reasons not quite clear.

The story is written entirely from a White standpoint. One might complain that we get to know little about the native man, nothing of his motives or thoughts. But this makes perfect sense --- Doris Lessing, growing up White in early apartheid, could not be expected to recognize the humanity of natives, or to actually speculate about their thoughts or motives.

The novel, written before 1950, has become particularly relevant again today, as Zimbabwe's current president (Mugabe) finally, forcibly, ended the White monopoly over farmland. The reaction from the West was massive, with the Western press embarking on a massive propaganda campaign to smear and isolate Mugabe.

A fresh reading of "Grass is Singing" explains much. If your parents and grandparents were, like Mugabe's, whipped and murdered on their own land by the Mary's & Charlie's from Europe, you would really like to take back your land. The reaction from the White world (West) is also understandable. These are the Charlie's and Mary's of today, the people who have never apologized, never paid, for their crimes and exploitations. Instead, they rule and exploit by indirect means now, and get angry when darkies stand up. The Western worldview remains essentially racial.

The novel seems to be describing a spectacularly bad marriage. Mary and Dick Turner are absolutely unable to hear each other, each inflexible in his/her own way. Also tragic is the description of how Mary seemed to be pushed into a sudden marriage simply by the weight of peer opinions.

We learn of the dehumanizing effect of the unjust, exploitative system, on the psyche of the rulers themselves. Incoming white people have to be indoctrinated, to be taught the taboo on humane interaction with natives, and to forget ideas of equality. And most importantly, we learn of the cracks in this arrangement, and see through Mary the tragic results of falling through such a crack and having an improper relationship.

All in all, an emotionally exhausting, haunting and unusual story, set in a unique social setting. In places, it gets dull and depressing, but the total effect is worthwhile.

Rating:
Summary: Original and striking
Review: Doris Lessing's "The Grass is Singing" opens with the death of Mary Turner. How could Mary's life have ended with such a tragic fate? As the reader progresses through the novel, he discovers Mary's insufferable existence, her life destroyed by a disastrous marriage to a farmer, Dick Turner. Mary is forced to live in a rural environment in South Africa for which she is ill-suited. Furthermore, Mary's relationship with her husband rapidly deteriorates as she realises that Dick is unable to manage the farm successfully and they are constantly on the verge of bankruptcy. A truly superb novel, tragic and moving to the very last line. Mrs Lessing's wonderfully captures Africa's majestic beauty, the difficult relationship between the whites and the Natives. The psychological portrait of her heroine is exceptionally intense.

Rating:
Summary: The Grass Keeps On Singing While She Cries!
Review: The Grass is Singing is a book that I had never heard about before my English teacher presented it to the class for reading.I heard from people that I knew that it is a good book.So that was my first encouragement to read.Who wants to miss a good book? I think that the book was very interesting but the title seems to be dull and the first chapter was quite confusing.I had to read as fast as possible to know what actually happened.It gets more and more interesting as you continue flipping the pages.Especially when Moses comes into Mary's life as a house boy.Mary's death was very tragic especially when there was a hope that she could be able to see some better days after her husband has sold the land and was ready to go for a vacation. Love and hatred can really make people do anything.Maybe it was the fear of losing her that Moses killed Mary as she was now leaving him and going away and won't need him anymore. All in all the book is readable and if you manage to pass through the first chapter it is unputdownable.

Rating:
Summary: Less neurotic than The Golden Notebook!
Review: Though she is a renowned author, Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook, generally thought to be her best work, I found garbled and depressing.

'The Grass is Singing' was written when she was much younger and more stable, but it is still depressing, dealing as it does with the appalling treatment of the blacks by the whites in Africa. The prejudice and cruelty Lessing evokes ring true,as does the characterization of Mary. Personally, I found it impossible to empathise or even sympathise with her, and wasn't exactly upset at her fate. It is Moses one feels sorry for.

Lessing is able to be at once detached and involved in the lives of her protaganists and is only judgemental by implication. The collapse of Dick and Mary's relationship is well delineated and inexorable. Her descriptive powers are impressive - Africa comes through very strongly and one can almost smell the dust and the rain and the blossom. A good read.

Rating:
Summary: The Grass Is Singing
Review: When a colonial woman with a not unconventional upbringing who is not the luckiest person, decides to go for broke and marries as she is getting on, what could happen?

The anatomy of the master servant bond is one of the main themes of this book. Before welfare systems, all cultures had master servant relationships as the rich employed servants. The master servant relationship was stark in colonial Africa. The masters had to know the natives so that they could get work out of them and a certain amount of loyalty but the masters in Africa also had to keep the natives down, almost like animals, so that they could remain the masters and the servants could remain servants.

The natives of course as servants, could also benefit as underdogs as all servants do, being loyal, friendly and pleasing but not above their masters. Mary in the book, starts with preconceptions about her relationship to the Africans, and as things get from bad to worse, she if faced with a mistress servant relationship going horribly wrong.

Her husband is a fool, tied to the land and unable to organise his ambitions or get anything out of his farm. She knows better, but luck is never on their side. One actually has a respect for Mary and her penetrative intelligence, but the book describes how this very human intelligence with its stiff attitudes (she marries when she understands people are sniggering about her behind her back, in any case, women at the time did not have much choice in this), breaks down, collapses utterly.

Harrowing, hot hot weather with the dry beauty of Africa described by a veteran. This is a book that unravels in your hand and is a literary masterpiece for a first novel.

Lessing describes herself as a colonist and is known to be unconventional and vaguely feminist. She displays a keen erudition of the issues, language and sights of her once native Africa - and brings it home.