March 11-17, 2004
artpicks
Doris Lessing reads
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books
Doris Lessing admits that she's compulsively literary: Since leaving school at age 14, she has written more than 50 novels or collections of short stories -- among them The Golden Notebook, widely considered a groundbreaking masterpiece of modern literature. But unlike so many authors with similar afflictions, Lessing continually finds something new and important to say, adhering to the notion that a novelist should have a moral vision for the world in an era when most novelists are content to tinker with point of view. Throughout her career, Lessing's political convictions have inspired her to break the rules early and often. She joined and left the Communist Party, decried the racism of colonial and postcolonial Africa and challenged the stifling sexual norms of the mid-20th century. Now 84, Lessing might easily retire and live off her achievements, but she shows no signs of stopping. She appears in Philadelphia this week to promote the American release of her latest book, a collection of four novellas titled The Grandmothers (HarperCollins). The book explores several different themes, and we can expect Lessing to shed new light on all of them.
Doris Lessing reads Wed., March 17, 8 p.m., $6 (simulcast only), Free Library-Central Branch, 1901 Vine St., 215-569-9700.
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