Doris Lessing wins Nobel literature prize

[brownie]

Good thing that Doris Lessing was honored today with the Nobel literature prize. She will be 88 next week.

Shame on the Nobel prize jury for not having honored another British writer Graham Greene while he was still alive!

[porcy62]

Good thing that Doris Lessing was honored today with the Nobel literature prize. She will be 88 next week.

Shame on the Nobel prize jury for not having honored another British writer Graham Greene while he was still alive!

Agree.

She deserves it.

[J.A.W.]

Good thing that Doris Lessing was honored today with the Nobel literature prize. She will be 88 next week.

Shame on the Nobel prize jury for not having honored another British writer Graham Greene while he was still alive!

I agree, they should have honoured Greene while still alive.

Haven't read that much Lessing, so I can't give an opinion on her work.

Edited October 11, 2007 by J.A.W.

[porcy62]

Haven't read that much Lessing, so I can't give an opinion on her work.

You should, she never wrote a dull book. The Fifth Child is one of my fave.

Edited October 11, 2007 by porcy62

[J.A.W.]

Haven't read that much Lessing, so I can't give an opinion on her work.

You should

I don't think so.

Edited October 11, 2007 by J.A.W.

[J.A.W.]

Haven't read that much Lessing, so I can't give an opinion on her work.

You should

I don't think so.

Besides, I read some of her work years ago and didn't like it (that's not really an opinion, it's just how I felt about it). My former girlfriend had quite a few of her books - I don't remember any titles, though.

Edited October 11, 2007 by J.A.W.

[porcy62]

Haven't read that much Lessing, so I can't give an opinion on her work.

You should

I don't think so.

Besides, I read some of her work years ago and didn't like it (that's not really an opinion, it's just how I felt about it). My former girlfriend had quite a few of her books - I don't remember any titles, though.

Well, I liked them. I don't want to force you with a gun at your head.

Edited October 11, 2007 by porcy62

[Teasing the Korean]

Years ago I tried to read "The Summer Before the Dark." I kept waiting for the book to start but it never did. Thinking I was missing something, I forced myself on and on. I must have read at least 150 or 175 pages of a 225-250 page book. Eventually I just gave up.

The only time I ever invested that much time in a book and threw it down without finishing it.

[porcy62]

Years ago I tried to read "The Summer Before the Dark." I kept waiting for the book to start but it never did. Thinking I was missing something, I forced myself on and on. I must have read at least 150 or 175 pages of a 225-250 page book. Eventually I just gave up.

The only time I ever invested that much time in a book and threw it down without finishing it.

No shame, I gave up all Thomas Mann's books, Buddenbrok, Dr. Faustus, ecc., after 2 or 3 hundred pages...but I get through Moby Dick, the book I mean, not the movie

[ejp626]

I think she has written novels of widely varying quality. I personally don't think her SF novels are any good (unfortunately this is the work she is proudest of). I loathed The Good Terrorist. I can't recall if I read or just read about The Fifth Son, but I wasn't terribly impressed. On the other hand, I think The Golden Notebook is a very solid and important novel, and the Children of Violence series is also good.

I guess for me, I haven't really liked much that she's written past the mid 1970s. Well, maybe the Jane Somers novels (Diary of a Good Neighbour and If the Old Could). There is some vaguely interesting backstory about this -- how she submitted these to her publishers under a pseudonym but couldn't get published:Jane Somers

[brownie]

I like this shot of Doris Lessing getting the news she was awarded the Nobel prize from journalists waiting outside her home today. She carries groceries while returning from a shopping spree at the local supermarket

http://news.yahoo.com/photo/071011/481/916...421ad7bec63d19b

[jlhoots]

Reasonable choice I guess.

I'm not a big "fan".

They should get to Roth before he shuffles off this mortal coil.

[porcy62]

I like this shot of Doris Lessing getting the news she was awarded the Nobel prize from journalists waiting outside her home today. She carries groceries while returning from a shopping spree at the local supermarket

http://news.yahoo.com/photo/071011/481/916...421ad7bec63d19b

Exactly the kind of shot you'd find of other Nobel Prize Winners, can you imagine Kissinger carrying grocery?

[mikeweil]

She's lucky to be honored as long as she is still alive - congrats! So many died who would have deserved it.

The prize committee seems to alternate between politically motivated choices and a long list of old grand masters.

An old friend gave me one of her books as a birthday gift many years ago, with a note it was her favorite - time to get it out and finally read it!

Edited October 11, 2007 by mikeweil

[BruceH]

It's about time.