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Under My Skin: Volume One of My Autobiography, to 1949
"I was born with skins too few. Or they were scrubbed off me by...robust and efficient hands."
The experiences absorbed through these "skins too few" are evoked in this memoir of Doris Lessing's childhood and youth as the daughter of a British colonial family in Persia and Southern Rhodesia Honestly and with overwhelming immediacy, Lessing maps the growth of her consciousne ...more
The experiences absorbed through these "skins too few" are evoked in this memoir of Doris Lessing's childhood and youth as the daughter of a British colonial family in Persia and Southern Rhodesia Honestly and with overwhelming immediacy, Lessing maps the growth of her consciousne ...more
Paperback
,
448 pages
Published
September 1st 1995
by Harper Perennial
(first published 1994)
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Reading this 21-chapter autobiography, “Under My Skin,” by Doris Lessing was inspiringly and interestingly enjoyable to me. One of the reasons is that she’s been destined to be a literary titan since around 64-65 years ago when she arrived in London with “the typescript of her first novel, The Grass is Singing, in her suitcase” (back cover); moreover, she won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007. Therefore, I found it formidable to write on her memoir since I’ve been one of her readers living
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She sees herself and others so clearly and is so honest about herself, that it is hard to see much point in someone writing her biography. Early in the book she discusses the problems of telling the truth about other people in her life:
"I have known not a few of the famous, and even one or two of the great, but I do not believe it is the duty of friends, lovers, comrades, to tell all. The older I get the more secrets I have, never to be revealed and this, I know, is a common condition of people ...more
"I have known not a few of the famous, and even one or two of the great, but I do not believe it is the duty of friends, lovers, comrades, to tell all. The older I get the more secrets I have, never to be revealed and this, I know, is a common condition of people ...more
After Lessing won her Nobel, I began reading her work, as well as whatever interviews and videos were available. I loved the straightforward way she told her stories, I liked the intelligence she put into them, and I appreciated the scope and breadth of her oeuvre. When I learned that she had a two-volume autobiography published I pick it up immediately. It is as frank and enjoyable as you would ever hope it to be. It was fascinating for me to read the story of a proper young girl who would late
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It was a happy chance that this came into my hands, [thanks again to the splendid municipal libraries of Turin, Italy], for I am rarely tempted by autobiographies (or biographies). Usually, the single subject gets boring. Lessing is different: there is not a dull moment in this book. She breathes life not only into her former self/selves but into everyone and every place she encountered. For anybody who has lived in post-colonial Africa, her portrayal of colonial Africa is a revelation: an evoca
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This autobiography feels very honest by the Nobel Laureate author, Doris Lessing. I have only read one book by Lessing before - the Golden Notebook - which I absolutely loved. And I remember as I read that, I thought, I bet this woman has had a life that is really interesting. It seems my prediction was right.
I am amazed how often I read something that made me think - that's just how I felt as a child, as a teenager and as a young adult. While my life is in no way especially similar to Lessing's ...more
I am amazed how often I read something that made me think - that's just how I felt as a child, as a teenager and as a young adult. While my life is in no way especially similar to Lessing's ...more
Sometimes I have to read everything by a writer--everything--before I can be satisfied (Laura Ingalls Wilder, L.M. Montgomery, Louisa May Alcott, Alice Munro). I've been in a Doris Lessing state of mind since fall 2007, and thankfully I have plenty of work still ahead of me. Now that I no longer have my law school mentor to guide & inspire me on a daily basis, I find myself increasingly dependent on Doris Lessing's wisdom, anger and common sense. I read her out loud to Andy. And I wrestle wi
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La parte de la infancia es interesante por las cuestiones geográficas.
Pero mejor es cuando se va de su casa y se hace comunista, se casa, y tiene hijos mientras termina la guerra y empieza la posguerra.
Cuenta y trata de entender las razones y sinrazones, las suyas y las de los demás.
Pero mejor es cuando se va de su casa y se hace comunista, se casa, y tiene hijos mientras termina la guerra y empieza la posguerra.
Cuenta y trata de entender las razones y sinrazones, las suyas y las de los demás.
The first volume of Lessing's autobiography. The early childhood portions are interesting enough, but the most interesting thing to me was matching her real life after about sixteen with the
Children of Violence
series, which has always been one of my favorites. The outlines are the same, although she modifies somewhat to make the novels more generally applicable, and combines figures, etc. It seems that the closest to her actual life is the third volume,
A Ripple From the Storm
, at least in ter
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Doris Lessing is brutally honest and tells her story with anger, pride, and great wit. I have loved her writtings for so long and was taken aback at the decisions she has made in her life. I was almost disappointed in her but years after reading the book can look back and think wow what a couragous woman for telling her tale.
I wish I were more familiar with Lessing's many other works. She won the Nobel Prize in 2007. It would be useful to see how the raw material of one's life is crafted into art. In this autobiography, she frequently notes which stories or novels are based on certain episodes or people she knew growing up in Rhodesia. She is writing this as an older woman, so either she kept a good journal of her early years as a writer, Communist, mother, and free thinker, part of a white minority in the country t
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One of the best biographies I've ever read. Lessing is not only one of the great writers in English of the 20th century, she is certainly also one of the most vivid. Highly recommended, and especially if you don't usually read autobiographies.
a very long book, but knowing nothing of colonial southern Africa, i found it pretty interesting. also, the portrait of a woman who so easily shrugged off her own children was a little odd. but if men can do it, why not women.
I appreciated Lessings' searing honesty in this accounting of her life from birth to 1949, when she left Africa for England at age 30; after two marriages & giving birth to three children. Ahead of her time is an understatement, in terms of the choices she made & why she made them. Others may quibble with her independence of mind but at least she is able to articulate her reasons, rather than blindly following the society of lemmings which took her father over the cliff in WWI, & the
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I recommend any woman should read this. It's amazing how Doris Lessing steps into the mind and motivations of her younger self at any stage of her life.
I like Doris Lessing's novels but this memoir was disappointing.
Although I felt the narrative of this autobiography was a little dry (thus the 4 stars rather an 5), it is an engrossing history a life spent in Southern Rhodesia. Lessing had the awareness many of us (certainly me)lack of the many contradictions of British white life in black Africa. At an early age, she understood the wrongness of the white occupation, the injustice of the treatment of the native Africans, the blind prejudice of her society and family. I think many of us, in our early years an
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Doris Lessing erscheint als selbstbewusste (und sich ihrer Reize stets bewusste), kluge, selbstständige Frau, die aber auch ein unglaubliches Bedürfnis nach Babys hat – was mancher modernen Frau als Widerspruch erscheinen mag, aber auch Konstellationen in den Romanen, die ich gelesen habe (Das Fünfte Kind, Und wieder die Liebe) erklärt. Manchmal hat es mich verärgert, dass sie auf ihre frühen Romane verweist, wenn man Näheres über eine bestimmte Lebensphase erfahren will. Hatte dann immer das Ge
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Brilliant, as to be expected from such a writer. I was enthralled by her childhood, her battles with her mother, her tragic memories of her father and WWI, her general statements on life et al. Like others who have commented here, I found the least interesting part to be her political activities with the Communist Party in south Africa. What a basically useless group of intellectuals, doing so little to protest apartheid itself and thinking they were of importance! And no mention of black radica
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This is a fabulous biography. I notice all my reviews are rated five stars. Thing is; put down books I don't think much of... Self aware: full of immeasurable perception; tells you how the twentieth century panned out.
Only about twenty pages from the end did I get to almost like this author as a person. All through the book I felt I should, but could not. One has to admire a mind on such a quest throughout life and from such an early age; but this author is gripped in constraining influences: her miserable relationship with her deluded insensitive mother, and frustration with her father's inability to see a world beyond the influence of WW1 trenches. There's a pattern here, and perhaps my judgement is harsh.
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Brilliant. This first volume of Lessing's autobiography takes on the big questions... like TIME:
"...I was holding my breath with concentration. It never ends, never...my brain seemed to rock, my head was full of slowed time, time that has no end. For seconds, for a flash, I seemed to reach it - yes, that's it, I got it then...I was suddenly exhausted. Surely it must be time to get up? The watch said only ten minutes had gone past. Without meaning to, I let out a great yell of outrage, then slapp ...more
"...I was holding my breath with concentration. It never ends, never...my brain seemed to rock, my head was full of slowed time, time that has no end. For seconds, for a flash, I seemed to reach it - yes, that's it, I got it then...I was suddenly exhausted. Surely it must be time to get up? The watch said only ten minutes had gone past. Without meaning to, I let out a great yell of outrage, then slapp ...more
I liked the early part describing her growing up in Rhodesia but got rather fed up with her communism and later years.
Dense and compelling. Lessing's no-nonsense style tells a story of great complexity exploring the personal and historical with honesty, detail and insight.
I liked the early part of her growing up in Rhodesia but had a bit too much of her by the end of the book. However I feel she is a good writer and I will read more in the future.
I don't agree with Lessing about everything, nor do I like everything she has written. With that disclaimer, I feel free to say that this is a great memoir. From her early life as a child of white immigrants to "Northern Rhodesia" to her life in South Africa first as a fairly conventional wife and mother and later as a divorced, remarried communist activist, Lessing is honest, witty and thoughtful. Interesting insights into the time period and also into the life of an extraordinary woman.
An amazing memoir that chronicles Lessing's childhood in Southern Rhodesia, two failed marriages and three pregnancies. Overall, it demonstrates how she refused to be trapped by circumstances; you get a glimpse of where the themes from her novels come from, like the political disillusionment and embracing of insanity. It feels very honest and reflective. It's the same period of her life covered in the first three books of The Children of Violence series, and this is just as good.
This was more like 4.5 stars, but ultimately, I really did love this book. It's the type of book you want to revisit every few years, finding new wisdom every time.
Lessing has lived a fascinating life and is an incredible writer. Lessing is incredibly shrewd, and while her wry tone can occasionally shift into arrogance and disdain, especially when critiquing other, it did not really keep me from enjoying the book.
Lessing has lived a fascinating life and is an incredible writer. Lessing is incredibly shrewd, and while her wry tone can occasionally shift into arrogance and disdain, especially when critiquing other, it did not really keep me from enjoying the book.
Jan 16, 2010
Emma
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
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The great strength of the first volume of Lessing's autobiography is that she's reflecting from 60 years on, and brings substantial perspective to the historical currents she lived through in mid-20th-century Africa (Rhodesia). She's uber-dark, and very critical. Really interesting person. It bogs down a bit in the second half ...
Not, unsurprisingly, dissimilar to the first three "Children of Violence" novels. Some gorgeous writing; some limp writing. Some great meditations on the limits of memory and the limits of memoir. I am in awe of the life she lived and her refusal to be self-satisfied.
An angry, hateful, arrogant and abrasive autobiography.
NOTHING SPECIAL ABOUT THE WRITING.
NOTHING SPECIAL ABOUT THE WRITING.
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Both of her parents were British: her father, who had been crippled in World War I, was a clerk in the Imperial Bank of Persia; her mother had been a nurse. In 1925, lured by the promise of getting rich through maize farming, the family moved to the British colony in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Like other women writers from southern African who did not graduate from high school (such as
Oliv
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