Reviews for Walking in the Shade: My Autobiography, 1949-1962, Vol. 2

The average rating for Walking in the Shade: My Autobiography, 1949-1962, Vol. 2 based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-12-27 00:00:00 Joseph Polansky Rating: 3.5 Compared to the first volume of her autobiography, this second one, which concerns Lessing's first 13 years in London (after leaving Southern Rhodesia), is rambling and long-winded. The book's main focus is the writer's time in the Communist Party. She describes her activities, acquaintances, delusions, rationalization, and eventual "awakening" as to what was actually going on in the Soviet Union. In a nutshell: Hitler had nothing on Stalin. Lessing's experiences as a communist left her wary of any political or religious mass movement. As a reader in 2019, I found many of her remarks about the United States' its tendency to extremes, for example'to be particularly astute and even prescient, given what we see unfolding in that country these days. Lessing also very briefly discusses her writing routine, which apparently involved a good deal of wool-gathering and late-night walks through the city (which struck me as incredibly foolish and dangerous). Her son, Peter'the product of her second "political" marriage'was frequently sent off to the English countryside to stay with acquaintances who had a large family. This was so that Lessing could write. An aside: I recall reading a piece (in the London Review of Books) in which Jenny Diski (who, as a teenager, lived with Lessing) intimated that Peter was the unluckiest of Lessing's three children. The two from the first marriage had more or less been abandoned, but that may have been a good thing for them. Peter, the one she (sort of) raised, did not fare well. Lessing does go on and on about her many famous acquaintances, many of them writers who fled Hollywood during the McCarthy era or playwrights and theatre people. I found reading about them quite tiresome after a while. Lessing's great love, a married (expat) Czechoslovakian Jewish psychiatrist traumatized by World War II, figures prominently in the autobiography. "Jack" (a pseudonym) was a womanizer unwilling to commit to her. Their affair lasted several years, and they frequently travelled abroad together. Peter, of course, was being cared for by the country acquaintances. At times, Lessing's novelistic talents take centre stage. There are some wonderful vignettes in the book about people she bumped into along the way. One, a fellow hospital patient, the too-lavishly-loved British wife of an affluent Greek businessman, regaled Lessing with details of her amorous husband's attentions. Another, an elderly neighbour, could've walked straight out of a Dickens novel. Walking in the Shade was interesting enough for me to want to complete it, but I think the book could have (easily and beneficially) been trimmed by a good 100 pages or so. In the end, it lacks the intensity and emotional power of the first volume.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-10-31 00:00:00 Joe Clem What a wonderful sharp mind Doring Lessing had!