3.5 stars because of its originality but this is really hard to read and understand. Even now having read the book, I am not sure if I grasped the book's meaning. ( )

Some people read and even enjoy reading more than one book at a time. Personally, I like to focus on one book at a time and my first beef with the Golden Notebook was that it felt like I was reading at least four different novels. The main novel centered around Anna and once I got used to the author's style, I realized that all the novels contained alter egos of Anna, and came to understand and respect the the courage it took Lessing to write a novel in this fashion. But my second beef with the novel had to do with Anna and her alter ego characters . From what I've read about award winning author Doris Lessing, this was in many ways a very auto biographical novel. And it's often considered one of the first and finest works of feminist literature and that really puzzled me. Because while the character of Anna did raise a child by herself, without the aid of a man, she was in no way a role model. She hopped in and out of bed with countless strangers, falling for and clinging to them, only to be hurt again and again. This vicious cycle got so bad it nearly led to a mental breakdown. So while this novel was interesting at times, I just don't understand how it can be considered a work of feminist literature ( )

Reason read: Nobel prize winning African authors. Reading 1001.
I enjoyed this book mostly. I liked the parts that were about communism and my least favorite parts were the love affairs. Major themes are; African history, leftist politics, psychoanalysis, war, male/female relations, madness. It really is about fragmentation and though not mentioned it is about the process of writing. the four notebooks symbolize the fragmentation but also the way the author tried to organize thoughts in order to write.

As I said my favorite parts were the analysis of communism 1930 to 1950 and not because it was compelling but all the reasons why communism is just not the answer and will never be any better than any other form of government. It was interesting to read both The First Circle and The Golden Notebook in the same month.

Quotes
pg 41, "...how many of the things we say are just echoes? That remark you've just made is an echo from the communist party criticism--"

pg 88,89. "Thomas Mann, the last of the writers in the old sensewho used the novel for philosophical statements about life. The point is that he function of the novel seems to be changing; it has become an oupost of journalism; we read novels for information about areas of life we don't know....."
"The novel has become a function of the fragmented society, the fragmented consciousness. Human beings are so divided, are becoming more and more divided."

pg 72 "..at Oxford these three had been homosexuals. ---"But at the word homosexual, written--well, I have to combat dislike and disquiet. Extraordinary, I qualify the word by saying that already, only eighteen months later, they were making jokes about "our homosexual phase" and jibing at themselves for doing something simply because it had been fashionable."

pg 428 ..."corrupted by years of work in the Stalinist atmosphere. You know they will do anything to maintain their position. Your know, because you have given a hundred examples of it here this evening, that they suppress resolutions, rig ballots, pack meetings, lie and twist. There is no way of getting them out of office by democratic means partly because they are unscrupulous, and partly because half of the Party members re too innocent to believe their leaders are capable of such trickery."

I was going to rate this 4.5 but there is so much that was also miserable to read that I think I will just keep it at 4. I am glad to have finally gotten this one read. It has been on the shelf since 2013 ( )

There are two things that struck me about this book: 1) how difficult it is to read despite fascinating topics written with a crisp and clear style; 2) how incredibly modern it is: it hasn't aged one bit.
Lessing is part intellectual, rational, logical and part raw emotion tapping into the depth of the soul. While it is not always evident, it comes in waves through different notebooks, the different perspectives weaving in and out of each other.
My favourite parts were definitely the nostalgic scenes of Mashopi which hold the foundation of the book: relationships between men and women, social inequality - notably racism and feminism - and capitalism, the very themes that we still struggle with today.
A tough read but a masterful novel. ( )

The experiences of two women provide the framework for this intense literary study of liberated womanhood