The grass is singing
Registered by motherof11 of Dalfsen, Overijssel Netherlands on 3/26/2011
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
13 journalers for this copy...
From the back cover:"After a while, even her restlessness passed. She would sit for hours at a time on the shabby old sofa with the faded chintz curtains flapping above her head, as if she were in a stupor. It seemed that something had finallly snapped inside of her, and she would gradually fade and sink into darkness."
This book goes to iiwi (wishlist).
Hope you enjoy it!
Hope you enjoy it!
What a neat suprise. I have this on my wishlist as I did an Africa-challenge two years ago, and still am interested in African literature.
This was a miraculously beautiful novel. I adored the first chapter, which drew in 20 pages the way people in Rhodesia coped with their land. It tells the way things are silenced, not said aloud, not even whispered, as not saying meant not being there, how people are drawn in to this strange culture of power and obedience and after time accept it as being the culture to live in.
The book combines favorite themes; the relationship between man and nature, alienation, losing the grip on your world and not fitting in society and culture. I wrote to a friend that if this was the last book I would ever read, I would be satisfied, and I truly would be.
The book combines favorite themes; the relationship between man and nature, alienation, losing the grip on your world and not fitting in society and culture. I wrote to a friend that if this was the last book I would ever read, I would be satisfied, and I truly would be.
This book will go to:
cat207
Icila
raluk68
Tubereader
pam99
cat207
Icila
raluk68
Tubereader
pam99
Collected from the post office this morning - I've been away for a few weeks. It promises to be a great read. Thank you for sharing iiwi.
A very grim read with no likeable characters.
Off to Icila in tomorrow's mail.
Off to Icila in tomorrow's mail.
Arrived this morning with sun from Queensland. Great !
I read some of Doris Lessing's books, fiction and non-fiction, I liked more or less all of them but this one, the first, is my favourite.
Thanks a lot for sharing, all of you.
Thanks a lot for sharing, all of you.
Journal Entry 10 by 
Icila
at La Chapelle-sur-Erdre, Pays de la Loire France on Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Icila at La Chapelle-sur-Erdre, Pays de la Loire France on Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Released 11 yrs ago (2/13/2013 UTC) at La Chapelle-sur-Erdre, Pays de la Loire France
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
On its way to raluk 68 in Romania.
Got it!
I read the first paragraph; sounds promising :)
Thanks for sharing!
I read the first paragraph; sounds promising :)
Thanks for sharing!
I am in the middle of this story right now. I like it! :)
She seems to be rather stupid at times; I know that she has a big social pressure on her... But, hmm I have to read further to see what happens.
Lessing has a pleasant tone of telling the story; I like that.
She seems to be rather stupid at times; I know that she has a big social pressure on her... But, hmm I have to read further to see what happens.
Lessing has a pleasant tone of telling the story; I like that.
Ok, she is getting crazy until the end!... :)
The story is a lot about slavery in Africa and white Afrikaners. I was amazed when I started to be aware of her nationality - her behavior was so colonial, I was under the impression she is British!
If you like Doris Lessing works, you will like this one too. Otherwise... I don't know. All characters are detestable!! :))
The story is a lot about slavery in Africa and white Afrikaners. I was amazed when I started to be aware of her nationality - her behavior was so colonial, I was under the impression she is British!
If you like Doris Lessing works, you will like this one too. Otherwise... I don't know. All characters are detestable!! :))
In the mail for the next one in the ring!
Enjoy it! :)
Enjoy it! :)
thanks - I've just moved house, and the first three items of post were all bookrings and rays!!! I've started the first one and will read this one next as the last one is a ray with me as the last reader.
I agree with previous comments - a beautiful writing style (not aware of having read any Doris Lessing before, so I'll look out for her in future) but most of the characters were unlikeable. A good read though!
Not sure if this is travelling on or back to iiwi, so I'll contact iiwi to find out.
Not sure if this is travelling on or back to iiwi, so I'll contact iiwi to find out.
iiwi has indicated that this is a ray and can travel on - I've got one further interested reader, and I'll offer it on the bookrings forum too.
OK, we now have a working ray and this is on its way to the Netherlands!
Ray order:
1. Violincellix - Netherlands, postage prefs EU, Netherlands if possible
2. Alexipapa - Greece, pref EU
3. Andrasthe - Austria, EU pref/international
4. sedna5213 - France, int'l
5. kiwiinengland - New Zealand, pref Aus/NZ
6. J4Shaw, Australia, ??
Ray order:
1. Violincellix - Netherlands, postage prefs EU, Netherlands if possible
2. Alexipapa - Greece, pref EU
3. Andrasthe - Austria, EU pref/international
4. sedna5213 - France, int'l
5. kiwiinengland - New Zealand, pref Aus/NZ
6. J4Shaw, Australia, ??
Nice to see that this Dutch version of 'The Grass is Singing' is traveling all over the world. Many thanks, pam99, for including me in the new ray! I plan to read this book as part of the 666 challenge, for Africa - Rhodesia.
Wow, it's absolutely terrific to see my book travelling all over the world! Thanks to all of you! And especially to iiwi and pam99!
Stunningly good first novel by Doris Lessing. I found it a very confrontational read: entering the minds of very racist people in Rhodesia in the early twentieth century, where he truth is silenced and newcomers are brought into the fold quickly and irrevocably.
A quote from Chapter 1:
When old settlers say, `One has to understand the country,' what they mean is, `You have to get used to our ideas about the native.' They are saying, in effect, 'Learn our ideas, or otherwise get out: we don't want you.' Most of these young men were brought up with vague ideas about equality. They were shocked, for the first week or so, by the way natives were treated. They were revolted a hundred times a day by the casual way they were spoken of, as if they were so many cattle; or by a blow, or a look. They had been prepared to treat them as human beings. But they could not stand out against the society they were joining. It did not take them long to change. It was hard, of course, becoming as bad oneself. But it was not very long that they thought of it as `bad'. And anyway, what had one's ideas amounted to? Abstract ideas about decency and goodwill, that was all: merely abstract ideas. When it came to the point, one never. had contact with natives, except in the master-servant relationship. One never knew them in their own lives, as human beings. A few months, and these sensitive, decent young men had coarsened to suit the hard, arid, sun-drenched country they had come to; they had grown a new manner to match their thickened sunburnt limbs and toughened bodies.
Even though it was hard to go on at times, I am very glad that I have read this book, set in the country that is now Zimbabwe.
A quote from Chapter 1:
When old settlers say, `One has to understand the country,' what they mean is, `You have to get used to our ideas about the native.' They are saying, in effect, 'Learn our ideas, or otherwise get out: we don't want you.' Most of these young men were brought up with vague ideas about equality. They were shocked, for the first week or so, by the way natives were treated. They were revolted a hundred times a day by the casual way they were spoken of, as if they were so many cattle; or by a blow, or a look. They had been prepared to treat them as human beings. But they could not stand out against the society they were joining. It did not take them long to change. It was hard, of course, becoming as bad oneself. But it was not very long that they thought of it as `bad'. And anyway, what had one's ideas amounted to? Abstract ideas about decency and goodwill, that was all: merely abstract ideas. When it came to the point, one never. had contact with natives, except in the master-servant relationship. One never knew them in their own lives, as human beings. A few months, and these sensitive, decent young men had coarsened to suit the hard, arid, sun-drenched country they had come to; they had grown a new manner to match their thickened sunburnt limbs and toughened bodies.
Even though it was hard to go on at times, I am very glad that I have read this book, set in the country that is now Zimbabwe.
Thanks for sending it! will read it as soon as possible!
The beginning didn't get my attention and it tired me a bit but as I was going through the plot I started liking it till the end. Different views and a book full of loneliness and fear as well as the results of having to fulfill the society's goals!
Sent to Andrasthe to keep the ring going! enjoy :)
Sent to Andrasthe to keep the ring going! enjoy :)
sry, I had some trouble and just returned. I will send the book along as fast as I can.
"Thou shalt not let your fellow whites sink lower than a certain point; because if you do, the n**** will see he is as good as you are"
A beautifully written book about society around and in form of the downward-spiraling protagonist, Mary. The detailed accounts of life as it may have been and life as Mary sees it, was interesting and drew me right into that little corner of their world. I enjoyed this book very much. Still, I wasn't sure at times - when the narration depicted Moses and when it switched to presenting him through Mary's distorted eyes. The first chapter, so different from the rest, enabled the reader to gain yet another view of Mary and Dick (and Moses). Very interesting indeed!
Thanks for including me :)
A beautifully written book about society around and in form of the downward-spiraling protagonist, Mary. The detailed accounts of life as it may have been and life as Mary sees it, was interesting and drew me right into that little corner of their world. I enjoyed this book very much. Still, I wasn't sure at times - when the narration depicted Moses and when it switched to presenting him through Mary's distorted eyes. The first chapter, so different from the rest, enabled the reader to gain yet another view of Mary and Dick (and Moses). Very interesting indeed!
Thanks for including me :)
and on it goes
The book arrived safely in Berlin. Will read it as soon as possible.
I really liked the first third, but found it rather tiring reading about Mary's path towards madness.
I really liked the first third, but found it rather tiring reading about Mary's path towards madness.
The book is on its long way to New Zealand.
Journal Entry 29 by kiwiinengland at Wellington City, Wellington Province New Zealand on Sunday, July 20, 2014
Looks like this book caught a speedy ship. Safely arrived on this cold and wintery day. Thanks for posting it over.
Journal Entry 30 by kiwiinengland at Wellington City, Wellington Province New Zealand on Thursday, August 14, 2014
I enjoyed the first 2/3rds of this book, as we learnt the background of the main white characters, and how they came to live on the farm as a married couple. But once the shop was opened I lost the plot a little (literally) and I also didn't really care what happened or why.
The writing was brilliantly executed. That you Ms Lessing.
The writing was brilliantly executed. That you Ms Lessing.
Journal Entry 31 by kiwiinengland at Wellington City, Wellington Province New Zealand on Monday, August 18, 2014
Released 9 yrs ago (8/18/2014 UTC) at Wellington City, Wellington Province New Zealand
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
Heading to J4shaw in Australia.
If you aren't familiar with Bookcrossing, take a few minutes to check out this very cool site. Bookcrossers LOVE books, and more than anything, they love to read books and then set them free for other people to find and enjoy. I would love it if you would leave a journal entry -- you can say where you found the book or how you liked it when you read it.
Arrived safe and sound with me in sunny warm Darwin.
Thanks to KiwiinEngland for mailing it across the Tasman Sea, thanks also to motherof11 for starting this book on its journey and to pam99 for continuing it on.
My partner left for NZ for a few days today, so I hauled him up with books for my NZ BC friends.
This one is off as a RABCK for a fellow 666er.
MY REVIEW
I really enjoyed this book.
Its a little book, that really packs a punch!
This story covers so many bases from apart hood (a system of racial segregation in South Africa enforced through legislation by the National Party (NP) from 1948 to 1994) though to a lonely woman's engulfment within mental illness. Overall it tells the story of Mary who is slowly losing her mind and her repulsion of the negro race which ironically she cannot do without be it them farming the land she lives on, to them making her tea.
At times, it is quite hard to read because of the blatant racism, and the book gives no black viewpoint, only white.
This book was totally engrossing.
Read for the 666 for 2016 - An Around the World Reading Challenge
This one is off as a RABCK for a fellow 666er.
MY REVIEW
I really enjoyed this book.
Its a little book, that really packs a punch!
This story covers so many bases from apart hood (a system of racial segregation in South Africa enforced through legislation by the National Party (NP) from 1948 to 1994) though to a lonely woman's engulfment within mental illness. Overall it tells the story of Mary who is slowly losing her mind and her repulsion of the negro race which ironically she cannot do without be it them farming the land she lives on, to them making her tea.
At times, it is quite hard to read because of the blatant racism, and the book gives no black viewpoint, only white.
This book was totally engrossing.
Read for the 666 for 2016 - An Around the World Reading Challenge
Journal Entry 34 by 
Edwardstreet
at Wellington City, Wellington Province New Zealand on Thursday, February 4, 2016
Edwardstreet at Wellington City, Wellington Province New Zealand on Thursday, February 4, 2016
Received as a RABCK - thank you.
I have heard of this author but do not recall reading her output, looking forward to trying her out,
I have heard of this author but do not recall reading her output, looking forward to trying her out,
Journal Entry 35 by Edwardstreet at Wellington City, Wellington Province New Zealand on Wednesday, March 8, 2017
Edwardstreet at Wellington City, Wellington Province New Zealand on Wednesday, March 8, 2017
Found on my bookshelf , ideal for the 666 challenge. I have a Zimbabwean colleague who had not heard of this book I look forward to sharing with her when I have finished. Her perspective as a black woman may be different?
Journal Entry 36 by Edwardstreet at —- by hand, post, or courier in Wellington City, Wellington Province New Zealand on Thursday, March 9, 2017
Edwardstreet at —- by hand, post, or courier in Wellington City, Wellington Province New Zealand on Thursday, March 9, 2017
Released 7 yrs ago (3/9/2017 UTC) at —- by hand, post, or courier in Wellington City, Wellington Province New Zealand
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
Giving to my Zimbabwean colleague to read, so looking forward to her take on this as a black woman. I loved it. Poor poor Moses, I think he saved her the only way he could.
