Noble prizes in literature to my mind seem like the book Oscars and Oscar winning films are rarely enjoyable. The same in my experience applies to Noble prize books. Occasionally however there are exceptions in both cases and this is one of them.
Some gods travel to earth to warn of an impending disaster but to exist in our reality they have to play by our rules and effectively be human. Its a bit like '12 Monkeys' were the protagonist is often unsure whether they have really been sent on a mission or whether they're simply insane.
Nothing i can say can properly describe this book. All i can say is, that its got good descriptive writing perhaps a little too descriptive for some but i thought it was good and i plan on reading it again sometime. ( )

An exploration of "inner space," Briefing for a Descent into Hell has some really nice moments. The novel centers on the recovery of a professor who has had a break from reality and remembers nothing of his previous life. His visions of shipwrecks, alien abductions, strange rituals, and celestial meetings of mythic gods hint at some Gnostic revelation that never fully arrives. In the meantime, doctors debate whether to give him shock therapy, dope him up, or kick him out of the hospital. Eventually, we find out more about the poor professor, but honestly I missed the fever dreams once they were replaced with the patchwork of his real life. The promise of the first half of the novel was never really fulfilled, and I was left feeling a little underwhelmed. It was refreshing to read Lessing's prose, which was of a quality rarely found in a science fiction novel. I especially enjoyed her use of doctors' notes, correspondence, and interior monologue to deliver the story piecemeal, but her narrative lacked something that I love about a lot of sci-fi: a thought provoking concept or theme that is clearly articulated and (often amateurishly) driven home. Briefing made me miss the propulsive plots and straightforward delivery of [author:Philip K. Dick|4764]'s [book:Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said|22584] and [book:Ubik|22590], contemporary novels that explored similar themes. While Lessing's prose is more consistently satisfying, PKD's stories were simply more interesting and immediate. Still, I'd recommend Briefing for anyone looking to read something atypical in the sci-fi genre. ( )

I'm one of the ones who found this laborious. The first third of the book, especially, felt like a slog--a pointless slog, with no promise of anything not quite sloggy to come.

There is a hint of an interesting idea in the late-middle section that didn't end up as developed as I had anticipated, but regardless the hint and the interest were not enough to compensate for the truly laborious opening sequences.

I've tried to read Lessing before (notably The Golden Notebook) and will have to conclude that her style is just not something I appreciate. In the abstract they all sound fascinating, but when I make the effort they just don't appeal. (And they aren't too hard, so to speak--I read Georges Perec, for God's sake--they just don't go anywhere). ( )

The briefing for a descent into hell is given at a conference chaired by Minna Erve, who represents the celestial Gods who have frequently in their history sent messengers down to earth to try and get humanity back on track. They are in despair at the continual backsliding into war, famine and other disasters that human kind inflict upon themselves and are bracing themselves for another attempt to sort things out. This is what a patient admitted at the Central Intake Hospital in London may believe. When he arrived he was confused, rambling, but amenable. He appeared to have been robbed because there was nothing on him to give any clue too his identity and he appeared to be suffering from acute amnesia. He rambled on about being on a voyage where all his shipmates had been lost and his boat was at the mercy of the currents.

This is Lessing’s eighth novel and her first that does not rely on autobiographical material. It was published in 1971 two years after she had completed her mammoth children of violence series which ended with [the Four gated City]. She had delved deep into her own life story for this undertaking, but with Briefing for a Descent into Hell she has cast herself free and is reliant on her imagination. Mental illness and its affects on people living with the condition was one of the themes of The Four Gated city and in this novel it takes centre stage. The patient at the Central Intake Hospital is a puzzle to his two doctors, one of whom (Doctor X) is reliant on drugs and shock treatment as methods of treatment. Doctor Y is more concerned in trying to understand the patient and encourages him to ramble on and then write down what is going on in his head. The first third of the book is mainly in the mind of the patient who may believe he is a messenger from one of the celestial gods. He certainly talks about alien abduction and describes vividly his dreams and fantasies. This makes the first part of the book feel like a science fiction novel, and similar in vein to Olaf Stapledon’s work in [Starmaker]. The patients stories gather in intensity and coherence as he describes a ruined stone city in the jungle inhabited by rat-dog people who battle with a tribe of monkeys while the patient attempts to keep a landing space for a crystal spaceship free from detritus. He finally succeeds in being taken off the earth and can look down at the mess that is humanity below. Is he one of the messengers of the Gods? His coherent story sounds convincing and this is Lessing’s point. Understanding and then interpreting the place where the mentally ill patient has got himself, is the surest way of treating the illness.

Lessing knew and was influenced by the theories of R D Laing, who was a practising psychiatrist and wrote extensively about mental health. (She even took LSD under his supervision and some of the patients stories feel like an LSD induced hallucinations.) R D Laing was revolutionary in valuing the content of psychotic behaviour and speech as a valid expression of distress. He believed that if you could interpret the symbolism then you might understand the cause and the treatment would be guided by what was discovered. Lessing takes R D Laings ideas further by hinting that the patients so-called psychotic ramblings may have some value not only for himself but for others: perhaps as a saviour for the human race.

The discovery by the hospital that the patient is Charles Watkins a professor who lectures on classics represents a change in emphasis in the novel. We come down to earth almost with a bump as the hospital staff communicate by letter and phone with his wife, family and colleagues. The novel becomes epistolary in form as various people write in with stories about Professor Watkins, who appears to have psychopathic tendencies. The Professer himself hallucinates, tells stories about his war experiences as he fights to regain a sense of who he is. His stay in hospital is prolonged with Doctor X putting pressure on him to undergo shock treatment. Lessing made me feel that the professor may be happier being mentally ill, which is quite some achievement.

This is not a science fiction novel, Lessing was still a little way from launching herself totally in that genre, but for the first part of this novel you could be forgiven for thinking you were reading one. The substantial passages that tell the stories inside the head of the patient/Charles Watkins feel out of kilter with the mystery of discovering who he is and whether he is going to get well, but this is probably Lessings technique in trying to portray mental illness and it works to some extent. She has a feel for describing fantasies of other worlds, whether they be utopias or dystopias and I missed some of this imaginative writing in the second half of the novel. An enjoyable novel that has nowhere near the scope of the excellent Four Gated City, but one which homes in on its themes and contains some of her most imaginative writing todate. A four star read. ( )

Reminds me so much of Carlos Castaneda in some parts. Unfortunately, I don't dig him much. Apparent stream of consciousness writing doesn't do much for me, in a similar way that many of Dream Theater's lyrics come across more like inside jokes rather than recognizable patterns of a larger scheme.

I couldn't finish it. ( )