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Reserved for historical fiction bookbox.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

traveling in my historical fiction bookbox

Hi! Rec'd this in Ladybug74's Historical Fiction Book Box today. It will be going back in the box to continue its journey!

Sent via media mail to "Squelati" in GA today. Delivery Confirmation # 0309 0330 0000 5407 8273 (Link to check Delivery Information: Click Here!)

Happy Traveling, Book Box! Happy Reading, "Squelati!"

I'm taking this from the Historical Fiction Book Box. Looking forward to reading this. Thanks for starting this ladybug74!

From the back:

"That war, the Great War, the war that would end all war, squatted over my childhood. The trenches ere as present to me as anything I actually saw around me. And here I still am, trying to get our from under the monstrous legacy, trying to get free.

"If I could meet Alfred Tayler and Emily McVeagh now, as I have written them, as they might have been had the Great War not happened, I hope they would approve the lives I have given them. -- Doris Lessing from Alfred and Emily

This was a very strange book. Lessing did seem to be trying to exorcise the demons of her childhood. The first half of the book is an alternate reality in which Lessing's parents live the lives they were supposed to--without war and without marrying each other! Alfred marries a pretty plump woman, has children and works on an English farm. Emily becomes a nurse, marries a rich surgeon, and uses his fortune to found schools for the poor when he dies suddenly. All this takes place in an England that never went to war (either WWI or WWII.) Because a fairy tale life is boring, Lessing sprinkles in some conflicts with parents, an alcoholic friend, disappointments, etc., but basically they live long and mostly fulfilled lives.

In the second half we get all the tragedy of their real lives, the psychological trauma of loss (Alfred's leg in the war, Emily's great love); the family's trials on an unproductive farm in Rhodesia; Alfred's slow decline and death due to diabetes; Emily's grasping need to live through her children (in the fictional version, Emily has no children!) If anyone wants insight into Lessing's writing, this is a good place to start. She says herself that she spent most of her writing life, working out her problems with her mother. But don't mistake this for historical fiction - it's mostly memoir.

2010 THE ULTIMATE CHALLENGE - read
and
2010 REDUCE MT TBR CHALLENGE

This book is going into my "Something for Everyone MTB Book Box"
for someone else to enjoy.

2010 THE ULTIMATE CHALLENGE - RELEASE