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Walking in the Shade: Volume Two of My Autobiography--1949-1962

by Doris Lessing

4.04 of 5 stars 4.04 · rating details · 212 ratings · 16 reviews

The second volume of Doris Lessing's extraordinary autobiography covers the years 1949-62, from her arrival in war-weary London with her son, Peter, and the manuscript for her first novel, The Grass is Singing, under her arm to the publication of her most famous work of fiction, The Golden Notebook. She describes how communism dominated the intellectual life of the 1950s a ...more

Paperback , 432 pages

Published September 23rd 1998 by Harper Perennial (first published January 1st 1997)

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Feb 12, 2013 umberto rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: memoir

Reading this second volume assuredly requires your stamina, familiarity and sense of humor since its scope/plot is a bit different from its predecessor in which it's divided into normal numerical chapters while this one divided into four main road/street themes, each with its seemingly never-ending length of narrations, dialogs, episodes, etc. it's a pity there's no contents section in this book so the following tentative contents may help you see what I mean:

Denbigh Road W11 (pp. 1-16)
Church St Reading this second volume assuredly requires your stamina, familiarity and sense of humor since its scope/plot is a bit different from its predecessor in which it's divided into normal numerical chapters while this one divided into four main road/street themes, each with its seemingly never-ending length of narrations, dialogs, episodes, etc. it's a pity there's no contents section in this book so the following tentative contents may help you see what I mean:

Denbigh Road W11 (pp. 1-16)
Church Street, Kensington W8 (pp. 17-134)
Warwick Road SW5 (pp. 135-251)
Langham Street W1 (pp. 253-369)

I would like to say something from my notes on reading this sequel from page 160 onwards because I finished reading its first portion some years ago and my reflection was fragmentary, it's impossible for me to recall some key points worth mentioning and sharing with my Goodreads friends. I'm sure those Doris Lessing scholars teaching or doing research in the universities worldwide would have something literarily professional to say more than this review.

First, I think we should achieve our appropriate reading stamina after finishing reading Volume One, thus we have no choice but keep going with this Volume Two. Basically, nearly all episodes were on how she became acquainted with innumerable celebrities such as Bertrand Russell (p. 265 if you're curious how he greeted her; she had never met him before), Henry Kissinger, Joshua Nkomo, etc. and involved as a communist members but she announced, “By 1954 I was no longer a Communist, …” (Volume One, p. 397) I found reading the first three-fourths of this book quite tedious because it’s like a labyrinthine journey. However, from around page 290, it’s more readable and related to her works, for example, how she got feedback on her “The Golden Notebook”.

Second, when we are familiar with her narrations, her readers would definitely found reading her words or sentences touching, I don't mean everywhere, rather I mean when we read carefully, for instance, I noticed her use of 'likeable' interesting such as " ... He was a very large, likeable man, ..." (p. 283) vs. the opposite, "That incident of the unlikeable young women presaged more than I could know. ..." (p. 365) Then, we would run into some rare good words like: ‘companionableness’ (p. 348), ‘gentrification’ (p. 359), ‘housemother’ (p. 368), etc. Eventually, we couldn’t help heaving a sigh and asking ourselves why we simply couldn’t have written such a fantastic sentence like this before, “… I felt permanently guilty because I didn’t do this: …” (p. 365) Once in a while, we can observe and cherish how she’s written masterly with unique grammar, for example, “Her thighs were black and blue because her veins bruised easy.” (p. 362) and I think this is a kind of parallelism application. One of the reasons is that, of course, she is one of the awe-inspiring world-class writers in the 20th century.

Third, I liked her sense of humor as written in this excerpt:

… Apart from a couple of sketches written for the New Yorker, I had not written for money . . . No, the truth compels me to state: twice an impecunious friend and I had attempted frankly commercial film scripts, but you cannot write successfully for money with your tongue in your cheek, and these dishonest ventures had come to nothing. Serves me right, I had thought. Now I was secretly seeing myself as a fallen soul, yet there was nothing wrong with what I wrote for television. … (p. 356)

Before this, I admired her brave declaration I had never read or heard before, that is, “My job in this world is to write, …” (p. 285) Some unique and good points like these, I think, would be something wonderfully interesting, worth reading after we had found reading this volume quite tedious, or nearly all for some readers. However, from page 297 on, we would enjoy reading her narrations on how she worked, wrote, lived in an apartment; her mention on Buddhism and Hinduism (p. 320) is also interesting.

In sum, this Volume Two is supplementary to Volume One, therefore, we should read it to learn how she has thought, worked and written till she was/is awarded nearly all literary prizes in Europe and possibly in the world.

...more

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Jan 17, 2015 Sera rated it 3 of 5 stars

I was expecting more details of her writing process than her political memoirs. It is good to see the political background and social atmosphere of those years and Lessing has a great eye to depict them; however, this second volume lacks of an emotional integrity. Instead, we see too much details of her political life and never-ending series of people involved in her life than herself as an author.

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Feb 04, 2015 James F rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: literature , english , 20th , century , nobel , prize , winner , autobiography

The second volume of her autobiography, from her move to London in 1949 to 1962. Definitely very interesting, if you can ignore the rhetorical passages. While from the first volume, I learned that the first four volumes of the Children of Violence were fairly autobiographical, here I learned (as I partly suspected, since the one thing I know about Lessing is that she is an author, and Martha isn't) that the last volume is much less so -- in fact, I wasn't prepared for how totally non-autobiograp The second volume of her autobiography, from her move to London in 1949 to 1962. Definitely very interesting, if you can ignore the rhetorical passages. While from the first volume, I learned that the first four volumes of the Children of Violence were fairly autobiographical, here I learned (as I partly suspected, since the one thing I know about Lessing is that she is an author, and Martha isn't) that the last volume is much less so -- in fact, I wasn't prepared for how totally non-autobiographical, and even totally contrasted it was to her real life. And it is really a pity, because her real life was much more interesting than the novel.

In the novel, she lives in one house for almost the entire time in London, in a situation with a mentally ill woman; they are allies against the stupidity of the psychiatrists and the mental hospital, and Martha has a bad experience with a totally useless psychiatrist. In real life, she lived for four years with a psychiatrist from a mental hospital, and credits her analyst with saving her sanity. She moves from flat to flat, none of which resembles the House from the novel. Her experiences as a single mother before it was common would have made a great novel as well.

Her second lover was an American Trotskyist -- I would love to have read her take on that, before she decided that all left-wing politics from the French Revolution on was one big mistake (but what she says about Trotsky shows she is still viewing things through a Stalinist lens). Even in this book, though, there are passages which undercut her thesis, and show that she doesn't entirely believe what she is saying. One of the things I like about her fiction is the way she seems to be looking over her shoulder, with an ironical detachment from what she is writing, as if there is an unsaid, "Yes, this is true, but. . ." These passages are far less common in the autobiography. Instead, contradictory passages just stand next to each other, or a chapter apart, and never meet. She marvels that people accept government outrages, that they don't think, don't protest -- and then asserts that anyone who protests anything is naive, is egocentric, is romantic, in thinking that what they say, think, or do is of any importance . . . what are their credentials to change the world? All "heirs of Lenin", potential dictators. . .

I think the basic problem is that for all her anti-communism, she (like so many people who were in the Stalinist camp) never really broke from the central dogma: that Stalin was the legitimate heir of Marx and Lenin, that Marxism -- and all revolutionary ideas -- are identical with Stalinism, and Stalinism is identical with Marxism and revolution, that all the ideas and words misused by the Stalinists really mean what they meant to the Stalinists, whoever uses them, etc.

All this is not to deny that the book is very interesting, both about Lessing and about her times, the people she met, was friends or enemies with, not only in politics but in the publishing and theater world. She knew what was happening behind the scenes and describes it very well; only the value judgments are sometimes outrageous (and at other times seem very sane, when not about "the Left"). It is not a book I would recommend generally, but it will be fascinating to those who have thought about some of these issues. ...more

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Feb 16, 2014 Cynthia Davidson rated it 4 of 5 stars

'Nothing is easier than malice,' Doris Lessing writes. 'Once, to be malicious was considered a fault; now it's applauded... dishing the dirt says more about us than we ought to like: it is diagnostic of our nasty time .'
Fending off the malice of her biographers, you could say, Lessing wrote her autobiography because she understood so well how the tendency towards malice would distort her life & work, if she didn't explain it herself.

I thoroughly enjoyed this second volume of her autobiograp 'Nothing is easier than malice,' Doris Lessing writes. 'Once, to be malicious was considered a fault; now it's applauded... dishing the dirt says more about us than we ought to like: it is diagnostic of our nasty time .'
Fending off the malice of her biographers, you could say, Lessing wrote her autobiography because she understood so well how the tendency towards malice would distort her life & work, if she didn't explain it herself.

I thoroughly enjoyed this second volume of her autobiography. It is very different from the first, which took place largely in Africa, while England is the setting here, where she must also struggle with 'outsider' colonial status in class conscious England, where she did not grow up. Expatriates of all kinds will resonate with much of her experience.

Autobiographies differ from memoirs, which are currently so popular & Lessing was a product of her times, not ours, so she discusses her era in her way.

That said, it is imperative that writers this important, who've earned the Nobel Literature prize, give an accounting of their thought processes, so readers present & future, can truly appreciate where & how 'thinking' & behavior emerges from.

Her frank assessment of Communism, & her & her peers attraction to it alone, is worth the price of the book. Very few authors have the stomach for going back over their mistakes with such equanimity! She made me feel the heartbreak of betrayal, for millions, & warns us all about enthrallment to 'isms' of all stripes.

'Evidently it was a variety of mass lunacy, mass psychosis,' she writes. (pg 262).
And with our irresponsible leaders & mass media, mass lunacy is an ever present problem today too.

'...bitter disillusionment & loss of respect for ones own government (post WW1 & WW2)' she writes, were prime contributors to the mindset which encouraged young people to put their faith elsewhere...in Communism & USSR which came to such tragic results.

These conditions are upon us again, & young people have no trust in the Establishment, which leaves them ripe for exploitation by yet another 'ism.' If you care about how intelligent people reason things out, & can still be wrong & yet see the light eventually, you should read this book.

...more

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Dec 31, 2007 Judy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Fascinating background to 'The Golden Notebook', as it covers the same period. If anything, I probably preferred the autobiography to the novel.

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Sep 21, 2015 Sel Tuncer rated it 5 of 5 stars

Bir kitabı ya da daha da özelleştirecek olursak bir oto/biyografiyi bu kadar iyi, bu kadar okunası yapan şey nedir? Biyografiyi yarın karanlıkta düz ve çoğu zaman yorucu bir yolda yürümeye benzeten Lessing, gerçekten güzel yazılmış bir biyografiden daha iyi ne olabilir ki diye sorar kitabın başlarında. Açıkçası ben otobiyografisini okurken bu sorunun hakkını fazlasıyla verdiğini düşündüm. Kitapta beni etkileyen, yazarın olağanüstü derecede sıra dışı bir hayat hikayesi olmasının yanında bunu güçl ...more

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May 15, 2010 Steffi rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Man merkt dem zweiten Teil von Lessings Autobiografie leider an, dass hier in einem ebenso dicken Band wie dem ersten statt 30 nur 13 Jahre beschrieben werde. Die politischen Zwistigkeiten unter den Kommunisten, ihre eigene Unentschlossenheit in Bezug darauf werden extrem breitgewalzt. Auch ihre Gedanken zu Frauen und Feminismus sind oft etwas platt, scheinbar nur auf der Tatsache beruhend, dass sie nie Angst hatte Opfer von Vergewaltigung zu werden oder sie sich nie sexuell bedroht fühlte.
Das I ...more

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Dec 29, 2013 Lindsey rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography-memoir

So good. Wittier than Volume One, and my only criticism is it's a bit bogged down with characters and encounters. Some favorite moments: The first time she meets Betrand Russell, he says for absolutely no reason, "Now I hope you are going home and to bed with your lover." On people trying to canonize her: "I myself have had to fight off attempts to turn me into a wise old woman." Is that we she became such a curmudgeon? Speaking of women being cruel to men on a political basis: "Could we have fo ...more

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Jan 22, 2014 Jeffrey rated it 4 of 5 stars

A fantastic concluding volume to DL's autobiography. Sadly, the last pages on Idries Shah and sex seem hurried, but the wonderful passages on her response to the responses to "The Golden Notebook" are a consolation. I envy her.

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Oct 05, 2009 Pete rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography

Very interesting for its own sake, and also as something to read after having read Golden Notebook (especially if you want to understand what she meant by naming in that book). Really enjoyed her strictures about publishers, book signing, camden council etc., the accounts of discussions with africans in exile such as Joshua Nkomo, and her reflections on writing, and how her opinions about various pieces of hers and others have changed over the decades.

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Mar 03, 2013 Dayla rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography-or-autobriography

Great reading about a woman who was an active member of the Communist party. This is a very exciting read.

I remember Jane Addams visiting communist Russian, and Tolstoy saying that two shelters could be made for people in Russian from the material used for Jane Addams' dress. Ouch! No such slouch represented here in Lessing's communist street cred.

Do not read this book if you feel that you don't need to be inspired by other women.

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Oct 05, 2013 Andrea rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: africa , 20th-century-british , memoir

This is the second volume of Lessing's autobiography, covering 1949 to 1962' during the time Lessing moved to London, became heavily involved in the communist cause and then, shocked and disillusioned by the revelations of Stalin's atrocities, moved on. This was also the period during which she wrote The Golden Notebook. Lessing is candid, witty and intriguing.

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Mar 30, 2015 Nancy rated it 4 of 5 stars

not a quick read, an interesting book, and definitely a different perspective on life, government, morals..., than I usually see, but an eye opener just the same.

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Jun 22, 2012 Susan is currently reading it

I only read a bit at a time but it's very interesting. Brings back a lot of my memories of my younger self even though I don't have a lot in common with Lessing.

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Feb 03, 2009 Kathryn rated it 3 of 5 stars

Not worth it! Unless you have an intense interest in Doris Lessing as a person. Ai caramba. Far too much dithering!

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About Doris Lessing

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 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 Olive Schreiner and Nadine Gordimer ), Lessing made herself into a self-educated intellectual.

In 1937 she moved to Salisbury, where she worked as a telephone operator for a year. At nineteen, she married Frank Wisdom, and had two children. A few years later, feeling trapped in a persona that she feared would destroy her, she left her family, remaining in Salisbury. Soon she was drawn to the like-minded members of the Left Book Club, a group of Communists "who read everything, and who did not think it remarkable to read." Gottfried Lessing was a central member of the group; shortly after she joined, they married and had a son.

During the postwar years, Lessing became increasingly disillusioned with the Communist movement, which she left altogether in 1954. By 1949, Lessing had moved to London with her young son. That year, she also published her first novel, The Grass Is Singing, and began her career as a professional writer.

In June 1995 she received an Honorary Degree from Harvard University. Also in 1995, she visited South Africa to see her daughter and grandchildren, and to promote her autobiography. It was her first visit since being forcibly removed in 1956 for her political views. Ironically, she is welcomed now as a writer acclaimed for the very topics for which she was banished 40 years ago.

In 2001 she was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize in Literature, one of Spain's most important distinctions, for her brilliant literary works in defense of freedom and Third World causes. She also received the David Cohen British Literature Prize.

She was on the shortlist for the first Man Booker International Prize in 2005. In 2007 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

(Extracted from the pamphlet: A Reader's Guide to The Golden Notebook & Under My Skin, HarperPerennial, 1995. Full text available on www.dorislessing.org ). ...more

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“The media are the equivalent of yesterday's scientists, for today's scientists have seen that when they conduct an experiment they are part of it and influence results by their very being; the media can create a story, a scandal, an event, but behave as if they have nothing to do with it, as if the event or the reputation were a spontaneous happening and they haven't influenced the result, or invented it all in the first place. 'The general interest in ... continues and is growing.' Of course it is, since the journalists are fanning the flames, permitting themselves fits of moral indignation, excitement, concern. Meanwhile the public marvel at them.” — 1 likes

“The thought [behind the Golden Notebook] was that to divide off and compartmentalize living was dangerous and led to nothing but trouble. Old, young, black, white, men, women, capitalism, socialism: these great dichotomies undo us, force us into unreal categorization, make us look for what separates us rather than what we have in common.” — 1 likes

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