I recommend The Grass is Singing, of course. An amazing portrayal of depression; of racism, of modern homesteading, of domestic violence. What Duras is to India in the India Cycle, Lessing is to South Africa in this novel.
But that’s not all. Lessing was Oates before Oates. I love Oates, but Lessing’s The Summer Before the Dark changed my life. Actually, I read We Were the Mulvaneys and Blonde and a bunch of Woolf and Duras all at about the same time. Good stuff. I’m about to read Eat Pray Love which I suspect will be similar.
Jessica Smith
I keep forgetting that Oates has edited the collected Lovecraft and has done a comic with Lauren McCubbin (a former Kitchen Sink illustrator).
Oates is all over the place.
But Blonde is one of my faves.
I bought a bunch of Lessing at the used book store today, and made B&N order a bunch of her books too; there was hardly anything on the shelf.
Anna said, “I think Philip Roth should have won the Nobel Peace Prize instead of Doris Lessing.”