Reviews for The Story of General Dann and Mara's Daughter, Griot and the Snow Dog

The average rating for The Story of General Dann and Mara's Daughter, Griot and the Snow Dog based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2007-10-01 00:00:00 Mike Mutisya I honestly picked this off of the library's "new" shelf because of its title. What the heck is a "snow dog"? Reading the descriptives in the book flap, I found it even more interesting, with promises of survival and new civilization rising from the ashes of our contemporary society, set far into the future. I'm a sucker for that kind of thing, and as it turns out, Doris Lessing writes about it (and just about anything else she tries her hand at) better than most. To my detriment, I hadn't read anything by Lessing until this book. She's a rare breed in today's literary world, an aged British woman with a fine grasp of the nuances of the English language, awash in a long, long list of quality novels, paperbacks, and other publications that she's released to quiet critical fervor. I'd heartily recommend this book (and it's prequel, 'Mara and Dann: An Adventure', to anyone who hasn't experienced Lessing's work before. She's a writer who captures both dark and light in ways that expose details I hadn't seen before, at turns haunting and beautiful and at others crushing and sad.

Review # 2 was written on 2007-12-09 00:00:00 Riccardo Patane This book takes place with Maura and Dann grown up. Maura dies (off camera) in the first 10 pages. Dann is General Dann and he lives in the Centre where many refugees come, fleeing wars and drought. Griot, his friend, manages everything while Dann wanders off on a journey. When he wanders back, Griot has a whole army ready for General Dann to command. Does Dann do that? No he mopes about. Do you ever read a book and it just goes on and on and you wait for the big thing to happen and you realize that there are only about 30 pages left and the big thing isn't in fact going to happen? This is one of those books. Sadly, it wasn't that great.