Book – The Grass is singing

Book – The Grass is singing

Author: Doris Lessing

Score: 6/10
Year:1950

Publisher: Flamingo modern classic

ISBN 978-0-586-08924-8

Pages 206 (starts at 9)

Language: English 

The Grass is singing isn't an easy read, and I have mixed feelings about content and structure, mitigating my overall score, as I'll explain.  

The novel starts with a newclipping about the murder of Mary Turner, a white woman, living in Southern Rhodesia, killed by a black servant. The first chapter revolves around this apparently expected murder, by the white commnity of farmers around the Turner's abode. It depicts the disinterested investigation by some of its members.


From the second to the last chapter, we read about Mary Turner's life leading to her death. She had given in to social pressures and accepted to mary Dick Turner, after only a very short courtship, moving away from her cosy and effervescent lifestyle in the city, to live with her new husband in a farm over a 100 miles away. This geographical distance between Mary and her previous life become the catalyst of the story, where we see that she is not only a racist but a white supremacist, who sees the black natives as inferior, animal-like, and naturally subordinate to white people. 

She is, by definition, an anti-heroine, because she is such a negative person, racist and cruel to her servants at home, often changing servants because she is displeased with their work, and also on the farm she has to manage for a time. 
In this way, Doris Lessing makes several comments against racism, white supremacy and the English colonialism of this region (the farm is in Southern Rhodesia, modern Zimbabwe) which lead men to enslave the locals for their own profit, whilst seing in the black natives lesser beings, made for hard word in pitiable and rudimentary conditions the white farmers avoid by coming up with plans to make money in attempts to make the maximum profit, but disregarding nature itself and those who serve them in cultivating and farming the lands. We see this in the various farming projects Dick Turner and his direct neighbour, Slatter, come up with. 

Between the lines, I read also that Doris makes statements to the nature VS nurture: Mary had friends when she lived in the city. She had a good job and was more idealistic, and despite a troublesome youth, she didn't exhibit the cruelty she did after her move to the farming district, where she became a recluse and after repeatedly refusing invitations, becomes a source for gossip. 

We see this also in the differences between Mary's management and treatment of the servants, she is cruel in ways her husband Dick never had been - though he is depicted as a lesser racist, he still has some tendencies for white supremacy ideaology of the period (1940's, part of the story is said to occur during WWII).

I also read in the subtext that Mary would have been a different person had she remained on her celibate and socialite lifestyle in the city, because part of her growing cruelty and bouts of depression in the years on the farm all pertain to her ill-chosen path of marriage, which is always cold, distant and maintains a very unhealthy relationship with her husband. 

The overall narrative style flows naturally ; some words and phrases are superbly written- especially about the racial issues. But, this content is also very difficult to read, because of this very topic. Others are personally difficult in view of meal or farming practices - as I hadn't guessed this content from the various critic lines on the book when I picked it up in the library, and there was no synopsis to draw upon.

The last chapter brings all the events of Mary's life and to her final moments. Here, Doris Lessing excels in using the counter-point to the chosen title : she was inspired by a line from T.S Eliot's The Waste Land. In this final chapter of the Grass is singing, Doris descripes Mary's own imagination of her coming doom and how she would be forgotten once nature all around would envelop and overrun the farm, the house and leave no substantial traces. Despite the strong imagery here, I am perplexed as to the choice of making Mary, very suddenly accutely aware of coming death in a prophetic fashion - especially that for months and years leading to this moment, she is often decpited depressed, on the verge of a complete nervous breakdown and blank, unaware even of daily tasks and oblivious to her surroundings. So, this choice troubles me, as it is so sudden and contrary to Mary's character. 

Additionally to themes of racism and white supremacy, the novel also explores, so lesser degrees, the themes of feminity, women's VS men's roles in work, and the expected marital and family lives. Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) is almost its own character, with its temperaments (weather) and appearance (landscapes). It serves a backbone to the whole story. 

I'd say the novel has to be read, and that Doris dared something, but in the same time, I don't plan to re-read it as it was quite unpleasant in many regards, in view of the overt language and also a couple allusions to Mary's youth with her parents were very difficult. 

Although the novel starts and ends in the same murder, it isn't a murder mystery. This murder serves mostly the moral of the story. 

Because the uncharacteristically prophetic last chapter and the fact it left a couple loose ends, the novel's overall score was reduced for my own needs and wishes, hence 6/10.