Doris Lessing’s formidable debut novel – published in 1950 – had me completely engrossed from its first troubled pages until the bitter end.

The book opens with the murder of Mary Turner and the arrest of the black man responsible for the deed.

Lessing draws one into the arid blazing heat of the African landscape in Southern Rhodesia in the 50s. The story is about Mary and Dick Turner, who met, got married and went to live in a little ramshackle home on a farm. They don't really like one another; in fact, sometimes each one is totally revolted by the other. But as neither wants to hurt the other's feelings, they live together, mostly in silence. Inside, they are filled with resentment and a build-up of debilitating negative energy.

Mary hates the searing heat, only marginally more than she loathes the black workers on the farm. There is no limit to her contempt for the natives, whom she deems savages. While Mary is at odds with nature, Dick is at peace with it.

In this novel, Lessing boldly thrashes out the theme of racism (as well as human isolation and alienation). While she explores racism in this society broadly, she also zones in particularly on the relationship between one white woman and her black male servant.

Though Mary and Dick Turner may well be the most unlikable characters I’ve come across, Lessing’s storytelling is superb. You may want to give up on the wretched Mary and Dick, but you cannot discard this book – not until you know exactly what has happened! Highly recommended. ( )

Lessing's first novel, the story opens with the murder of a white woman, Mary Turner, in a remote farm somewhere in Rhodesia. In the next pages, we learn of her life and of the events that led to her tragic fate.

She leads a relatively happy, carefree life in town but decides to move away to marry a Dick Turner, a farmer. Her situation changes dramatically and she fails to adapt to her new life on the farm. She shrinks from her world around. She realizes that Dick is not only poor, but is an incompetent farmer. Though both of them are committed to the marriage, it is a loveless arrangement, and neither see the other as a partner, on the farm or at home. The marriage disintegrates and Mary's state of mind descends, painfully mirrored in the further deterioration of their already squalid living conditions.

Mary takes out her feelings of isolation and frustration on the black servants and workers. One day, Moses, an enigmatic, virile farm hand, comes to work in the house. This was the beginning of the erosion of the master-servant relationship that Mary took elaborate pains in the past to enforce.

I didn't know whether to feel sorry for Mary or to feel that she had it coming. I kept wondering whether women at that time, and in that context, were really that helpless over their situation as Mary was portrayed? Somehow I felt more pity for Dick, who loved her despite not knowing how to show it.

A powerful, psychological portrait, it is a chilling read about the bleakness of existence as opposed to living, tension (master vs. slave, white vs. black, female vs. male, that alternately repulsed and attracted), isolation, disillusionment, fear, prejudice, and madness. This is a book that will stay with me. ( )

Comfortably one of the most depresssing books I've ever read. Absence of joy, humour, warmth etc. The realisation of the cnetral doomed female character that she must marry and will never find love is pretty heartbreaking. Then it gets event worse. Great writer though. ( )

Mary Turner is forced, by social convention, to marry. She makes a poor choice in choosing Dick Turner, an unsuccessful farmer. Transported from her life in the city, Mary finds herself isolated and unable to cope with life on the farm.

This novel is Mary's story as we watch her fall into an increasingly severe depression. It is the story of the powerlessness of women in a society that perscribes certain roles for them, and that (more so in the 1940s) places the real power of decision making with the husband.

But this novel is more than that because it is set in Africa when whites had the power and control over the black population. As Mary's depression grows, her relationship with her black servant, Moses, becomes more complex and less appropriate. Neither Mary nor Moses are able to fully come to terms with the violations of white, patriarchial norms.

This is a beautifully written book, largely focused on Mary's character rather than on a plot or narrative. I found it rich and deeply compelling in both its description and the message it conveyed through the fate of the characters. ( )

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http://no.librarything.com/work/detai... ( )