The Golden Notebook

Op zich is de structuur van dit boek: een doorlopend verhaal, doorsneden door fragmenten van de 4 notitieboekjes die de hoofdpersoon bijhoudt, best een leuke vondst. De afwisseling van dialogen, introspectie en externe beschrijving maken het geheel redelijk goed volgbaar. En de thema's: de door Lessing zelf zo vermaledijde "sex war", het ambigue engagement binnen de Communistische Partij, en de moeilijke strijd van het hoofdpersonage voor haar mentale gezondheid, zijn zeker de moeite. Maar toch: het geheel overtuigt me niet en af en toe zat ik te denken: wat langdradig. Lessing weet alleszins de moeilijke verhouding tussen mannen en vrouwen en de problematische omgang van individuen met de werkelijkheid goed in de verf te zetten, maar ze doet dat op een te gekunstelde, te geconstrueerde manier.

Anna the novelist writes in four notebooks, one of which (yellow) is a novel about a novelist, Ella.I think many people find this book self-absorbed or over-analytical. That seems to me the story that is being told: a woman who has essentially divorced herself from her own creativity cannot stop sifting through her life for meaning. Each notebook looks futilely for a different kind of meaning.I like the black notebook best, which I doubt is uncommon. It's ostensibly about money and the profession of writing, although everyone ends up associating it with Africa, the setting of Anna's first novel. There's interesting stuff going on in the black notebook — the stories about Zimbabwe are very compelling, and yet Anna dislikes them intensely because of the nostalgic feeling. It's sort of like reading Conrad with a postscript at the end letting you know that he's well aware of all that "dark continent" cultural undertone he's tapping into and he finds it sickening. And then there's Anna's attitude about the publishing business, here shifted onto the TV/movie adaptation business. Again, it's compelling — the hostility is bare in an almost-awkward way.If The Golden Notebook were being written today, I'd expect the blue notebook to come in 140-character installments. Obsessive diary-writing is one cultural phenomenon that we have definitely not left in the 20th century :)

It's difficult to capture the complexity of a 568-page elaborately structured novel in a few paragraphs. Nobel Prize-winning Doris Lessing's fifth novel was a departure from the realism common in 1962 when it was published. Anna and Molly were best friends sharing the common bonds of divorce and single parenthood. Both flirted with Communism and became disillusioned. The core of the book, "Free Women," is presented in five segments interspersed with lengthy entries from Anna's four journals. The 'free' in the title is ironic because the women are failed feminists who are still controlled by the need of men in their lives. Free women are not so free after all!This is a soul-searching book. Anna is obsessed with self-analysis in order to create calm out of the chaos of her life. She spends much time undergoing psychoanalysis by the perceptive "Dr. Sugar" who tries to make sense of the dreams that are replacing the words that have begun to fail her. Bad news for an author, even one with writer's block. It seems that compartmentalizing her life experiences in separate notebooks is part of the problem, not the solution.The four notebooks of different colors represent the disintegration leading Anna towards the mental breakdown that just might give her "a new kind of strength". One of the strengths of the book is the sense of hope lurking in the background of darkness and depression, although the reader has to dig deeply to find it.The Golden Notebook is not an easy book to read because of its fragmented style. The fragmentation of narrative reflected both the crises in Anna's life and the changes in society during the mid-1950s. There is much to ponder in this book for the careful reader who wants to learn more about the effects of communism in England and the awakening of women's struggles to be equal with men. Anna may be complex but she's not unique. She is an intelligent, creative person with self-destructive tendencies, which might describe many of us. Whether or not you relate to Anna, you will find that Lessing has created a deep and memorable character to represent the postwar upheaval that led up to the craziness of the 1960s.

There is an old exchange about the young man who asks the old man to explain women to him, and the old man says let him know when he figures it out. This novel feels to me like the answer the young man is seeking. I've certainly read female character interiority many, many times before but never so clearly stated as this. In life I might have asked Anna what she was thinking and she would dodge the question. In this narrative she answers in full, and that answer is as illuminating as it is satisfying in scene after scene. The downside was the mounting frustration I had with her poor choice in men, like a male friend watching his close female friend make all the wrong moves. Why must they all be married??

I was half in love with Anna myself, and also a sympathizer with her predicament. Writing 'seriously' or feeling the need to do so, inhibits simply writing for market. To pour yourself, a part of your soul, onto the page requires feeling a passion for the subject and often going against the grain of what society wants or expects to read. There's little welcome for that sort of thing in today's market, and only a modicum of appreciation. The only salve is to observe what lasts and what falls away, for those lucky writers who get into print at all.

But Anna has a deeper problem. She doesn't like the emotions she thrives on in order to produce her writing. Having experienced the process once when writing her first novel, she is loathe to confront her own hypocricies and contradictions. To keep herself writing, she produces four diaries: four, in order to sufficiently separate the selves that are in conflict and contradicting one another. She writes about herself as a writer, about her politics, about stories created from her experience, and a kind of diary. Interspersed with these entries are the scenes Lessing allows us from Anna's life, a life which she struggles to control as events slip away from her, as she is faced with her own limitations, fears, phobias and guilts. Somewhere on the other side of her internal desert is the solution she instinctively knows she needs.

The edition I read includes an introduction by Lessing in which she describes letters sent her in which her readers described that part of the novel which stood out to them as being the whole, and yet none (or very few) did perceive the actual whole, which ironically is the unity towards which Anna strives, the importance of that golden notebook which brings everything together.

The Golden Notebook, the masterpiece by Doris Lessing, narrates the profound existential crisis of Anna Wulf, a writer and communist activist who struggles to find her place in the world. Set in the post-war period, the novel explores themes such as female identity, colonialism, political activism, and mental fragmentation. Anna, divorced and disillusioned with communism, seeks refuge in writing to find answers. Throughout the novel, she carries four notebooks of different colors, each dedicated to an aspect of her life:
- Blue notebook: Experiences in Africa, where she grew up.
- Black notebook: Political and philosophical reflections.
- Yellow notebook: Personal and romantic relationships.
- Red notebook: Personal diary.
Unable to reconcile the different facets of her being through these separate notebooks, Anna embarks on the creation of a fifth notebook, the golden notebook, where she seeks to unify her fragmented experience and find an authentic voice.

As the story progresses, Anna confronts her internal demons and questions the social and political structures surrounding her. The novel explores the difficulties of being a woman in a male-dominated world, the complexities of political activism, and the quest for truth in a world full of lies. The Golden Notebook is a complex and multifaceted work that has been praised for its psychological insight, social critique, and innovative narrative structure. It is a novel that invites reflection and remains relevant today.

Some key themes of the novel:
- Female identity: Anna struggles to find her place in a patriarchal world and defines her identity through her experiences as a woman, mother, writer, and activist.
- Colonialism: The novel critiques the repercussions of colonialism in Africa and the exploitation of indigenous peoples.
- Political activism: Anna questions the ideals of communism and explores the complexities of political activism in a world filled with contradictions.
- Mental fragmentation: Anna experiences a nervous breakdown, and the novel explores the effects of trauma and mental fragmentation on the human psyche.
- The search for truth: Anna seeks the truth in a world filled with lies and propaganda, questioning official narratives and searching for her own authentic voice.

The Golden Notebook is a novel that will captivate you from the beginning and make you reflect on the human condition, politics, and the quest for truth. It is a masterpiece of modern literature that has left an indelible mark on the literary world. The final part reflects the disenchantment of her own dreams, those that were unfulfilled and that have led to the creation of this new society, surrendered to sadness, individuality, and the superficiality of romantic relationships, profoundly marked by sex. It is in this last part that I have visualized the characters from the film "Last Tango in Paris," two lonely people, incomplete in their dreams and beliefs, seeking and finding each other through sexual relationships. All the other chapters are the author's alter ego, reflected in the experiences of the protagonist Anna Wulf and the other characters.
An essential work. (Translated from Spanish)

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 its meaning.

Wonderfully shattered narrative.

One of the most magnificent

I found this book initially very difficult to read. The first notebook went on and on. I remember thinking to myself that I couldn't possibly read it. However, as it is considered a 'must read' I forced myself to persist and I am really glad I did. Still current and insightful all these years later.

This is an immense, dense novel about a lot of things: identity, sexuality, feminism, communism, postmodernism, and postcolonialism. At times, the various notebooks become entangled, and the nature of the story is challenging to suss out. Also, after awhile, I got tired of Anna's sex life falling into a tired pattern. The novel was interesting in some spots and rather fusty in others.

A work based on four notebooks, blue, red, black, and yellow that intertwine with each other, is the social story of the protagonist Anna Wulf, a working-class Englishwoman. The work focuses on social and sexual relationships, emphasizing her adventures with her friends in Mashopi, now Zimbabwe. Upon returning to London, she remembers it nostalgically, while her new life is dedicated to caring for her daughter Janet and her tumultuous sexual relationships. It is a fierce critique of Stalinism, the English upper class, and the oppressive whites in Africa during her stays in Mashopi. (Translated from Spanish)

"- Dear Ella, do you not know what the great revolution of our time is? The Russian Revolution, the Chinese one, are nothing compared to the authentic revolution, that of women against men."

A vast, radical, immense, and complex immersion into the world of Doris Lessing and her testimony about the female condition. (Translated from Spanish)

I gave this book a three, but that was because I couldn't decide whether to give it 1 or 5. I loved the whole premise of a British communist "free woman" with South African past. I absolutely loved the Mashopi Hotel story line. I loved the idea of different note books to reflect different personalities. However, it was soooo long! I couldn't put it down in the beginning but in the end I couldn't wait for it to finish. I found in the end of the book a lot of passages were repetitive and didn't carry too much extra information. In the end, I'm glad I've read it but I don't think I will re-read it or recommend it to anyone

I read the golden notebook when I was very young. I barely remember more than the essential ideas: the defense of feminism and political activism. (Translated from Spanish)

I read this when I was a young woman and was profoundly influenced by it. I had a paperback edition which disappeared long ago, much to my chagrin, and I am very glad to have a digital copy of it. It is much how I felt when I was in romantic relationships, and it is profoundly political. You can't help but admire this deep and complex book.

The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing First let me say that I cheated a bit and listened to this 27 hour audiobook and that part was a mistake. It made the divisions in the story more difficult to understand and I ended up going back and getting the ebook to make sense of it afterword.
The book hit me much like Madame Bovary did back when I read it first but I understand the problem now and can honestly say that I see why it is considered a feminist classic and how it contributed to the body of work that eventually won Doris Lessing the Nobel Prize in Literature.
The book is incredibly problematic in many ways right from the start. The point of the book though, is the introspection into the four notebooks where the main character looks at all the ways in which the bubble of her life as an upper middle class white heterosexual in the society of England just afte WWII is problematic. While I'm sure problematic would not be the word Lessing would have used at the time, this is where we've come in looking at books and feminism and all the intersections of life. As part of this, there is also a diversity problem throughout. Nevertheless, we do get to see some people who still have representation issues and though the characters aren't treated well, it's a part of the book that the main character spends time writing in the notebooks about her treatment of them, her feelings about it, and sometimes debating other tactics. None of this makes her noble, but it definitely makes the book ahead of its time. For the record, it was originally published in 1962, which is a year before The Feminine Mystique. Along with the aforementioned notes about people, she also takes a long and introspective look at her life, her role in society, the way society treats her and the things expected of her by everyone.
Like I said, it was a book ahead of its time. It's problematic in many aspects right from the start but the point is looking at her life. For me, that makes the nature of the problems a part of the plot and not an afterthought or something the writer neglected to care about. The whole point is seeing for yourself if you are a racist or sexist or hetero-sexist.
Some minor spoilers ahead.
To elaborate on what I was getting at above, this book is great in that it so well explains that plight of women in several walks of life during it's time. The part that bothers me is intricate to what makes it great. It's so true.
Yes, it gets quite complicated and it may be difficult to understand what I mean by that in a review and I did think at first that maybe it was just me and I just really identified with the women the story is about. But it's not. I know that because I also get the ebook, as I mentioned above, which has two introductions that were written by the author, one in 1993 and the other in 1971. She has received enough fanmail and letters stated this that I know I'm not alone in that.
What I mean by the "plight of women" is that there are things that we all know happened back in the time that this book was made that we like to gloss over. We watch old movies where men say things that we would not consider a compliment if said now and the women laugh and then we laugh as if it's okay because those aren't real women anyway, right? Well, many of those very things had to be a part of the culture, it only makes sense when it pops up in, literally everything made in the time. Let's go ahead and add in the feeling that there is a requirement to have sex with a guy who buys you dinner now, let alone in a time before the Women's Liberation movement.
So yeah, what made me squirm as I read the story wasn't that I didn't like it as a masterful piece of work with a beautiful prose that just makes you feel what the characters feel, but the idea of living and breathing in that world terrifies me. A lot. Like, A LOT. It's not Hunger Games level, but it's not necessarily far off either.
I grew up knowing that there were lots of women around me that felt like they had to just be happy with the man they married despite affairs and poor treatment because they were unemployable and he was a decent provider for their kids. And just like with some of the men here, it was her kids, not their kids together. These guys don't feel anything for their children, they aren't a part of their lives. Having kids was a favor they did for the women they kept all but chained to the house. Now, don't get me wrong, house-wives are great. It's the idea of a man looking at his housewife as if she exists as a burden to him and having children with her solely to give her life meaning because he won't "let" her do that by any other means or because she feels bound by society to make that the meaning of her life that I have a problem with.
Part of what makes this so clear is that the book itself isn't about a housewife, it's about a serial mistress. She doesn't want to be married. I don't want to spoil all the details of why and her circumstances, but this gives us the window through which we get to see these men. Married men in pursuit of her as their girl on the side and then we get to walk through her thought process and whether or not she wants to sleep with them and whether or not she does in spite of desire but out of obligation. All of these things leave her in positions that I would loathe finding myself in as well as most of the other women in the book. Before I get accused of making the distinction, though I don't think it should be necessary, I do understand that this is her circle and the people she finds herself around. I'm sure there were plenty of perfectly happy marriages with men who didn't sleep around. This book isn't about those marriages or those men.
What makes it a truly interesting book despite all the things that terrify me is that what makes the plot move along is Anna's introspection that is brought on by her notebooks. She has written a successful book and is compartmentalising in an effort to find adequate inspiration for a new book. Her introspection makes her take a second look at everything, even the most menial, repetitive, or normal things. For example, she mentions washing up several times a day while on her period and changing out her tampons. She doesn't just mention it but thinks on how it makes her feel, how it effects what happens throughout the day that she has to take this extra precaution.
The commentary on communism is an interesting one that I've never really heard before. It makes sense to see it in the beginning as something hopeful on that level but I love that it is also broken down into people and how people can so easily break a concept like communism. My dad once said (and he was probably quoting but he's my original source) that communism is a great idea until you add people to it. I remember working to figure out what that meant and realizing that it does sound like it should create a better world, then later realizing that some greedy people will always come along and destroy it all. This, of course, was well after the Cold War ended and that cat was out of the bag. I'm sure I was watching something that mentioned something about it.
Due to her experience in Africa and the nature of her first novel, Anna does also get introspective about racism and even colonialism. The plot of that first novel would be considered very problematic these days and she realizes it in the book and spends some time on why and how and what she could have done differently but that it would not have sold that way. No one would have believed it or wanted to see it if she had told the real truth.
I found her dreams toward the end with the projectionist interesting. I had a similar, though different, experience recounting events in my life as I had started to become better versed in feminism these last few years and started to see all the little ways that I had bought into internalized misogyny. I had been a girl who said that I wasn't like other girls because I genuinely didn't like many other girls at the time. The list of faux pas from back then goes on, but the introspection was an important part of it. It's a little jarring when you sit down to it, at least it was for me and I appreciate that it was equally so for Anna.

I admit it, I had thought this would be extremely hard-going. I’d read a couple of Lessing’s other novels and not been taken with them – and even if the first book of her sf quintet, Canopus in Argos Archives, Shikasta, felt to me like being beaten about the head by Ursula K Le Guin. The Golden Notebook, Lessing’s most celebrated novel, I expected to be a bit of a chore – especially given its 576 pages… So I was pleasantly surprised to discover it was an engrossing read. I’m only glad I read it after writing All That Outer Space Allows, as some structural elements of my novel might well have changed and in hindsight I’m not convinced they’d have been improvements. The Golden Notebook is a novel titled ‘Free Women’, about Anna Wulf, writer of a single successful novel based on her years in Africa during WWII, who is now living in London. She is also a communist. Between Sections of ‘Free Women’ are Wulf’s notebooks – black, red, yellow and blue. In the black notebook, she describes her time in Africa – on which her one published novel, ‘Frontiers of War’ (and which I kept on mis-thinking as Olivia Manning’s Fortunes of War) was based – and later, her life in London. The red notebook details Wulf’s politics and her interactions with the Communist Party. The yellow notebook is a fictionalisation of Wulf’s own life, title ‘The Shadow of the Third’, in which Wulf’s part is played by a woman called Ella. And the blue notebook starts out as a diary, but at times is more of a scrapbook, filled with newspaper cuttings. The five narratives, despite covering similar ground, don’t actually confuse The Golden Notebook‘s story, they actually deepen it and successfully show different aspects of Wulf’s character – as a writer, as a communist, her sex life (especially her affairs, none of which last) and her relations with her friends. The more observant among you will have noticed that the title of Lessing’s novel refers to a notebook not yet mentioned. This only appears near the end, opens by describing Anna breaking free of her then-boyfriend, before becoming that boyfriend’s own novel (a précis is given only), since writing is the catalyst the two use to part amicably. I really liked The Golden Notebook, and I honestly hadn’t expected to. I can see how it might have shocked in 1962 – Lessing is very forthright about Wulf’s sex life – and the sharp criticism of the lives women were expected to live can’t have gone down too well. I expect the communism would be more of a turn-off to twenty-first century readers than the sexual politics. But The Golden Notebook does read like a book ahead of its time. Recommended.

More of a 4.5 really, because of a few issues. However, I'm still fairly certain this is a masterpiece. Review to follow.

This book explores the Communist Party, relationships, treatment of women in society and mental illness. Although there are amazing insights into membership in the Communist Party in the'50s and the male/female dynamic, the book seems disjointed, often hard to follow and, at times, somewhat boring. The author's feminist viewpoints are amazingly current considering they were written over 50 years ago. I expected the contents of the four notebooks to be more clearly defined bringing it all together into a cohesive "Golden Notebook". That didn't happen.

Some bits were fascinating - but I found others dull and some very irritating

Big thick book. Bigger than I usually read, but I was committed after not very many pages. About the novel, about politics, about women and men. The structure was fascinating, the way the different parts of the book talked about one another. I read Lessing's introduction maybe three times and found it deeper each reading.

This was a must-read during my later years in college when feminism was just getting started. Not just in Women's Studies courses (which were JUST getting started) but friends would press it upon you. So I read it, but I don't recall liking it that much. Maybe this is another one I should take another look at.

I love Doris Lessing, but I admit that when I first read the Golden Notebook (about..40 years ago) I found it slow going and fascinating both. I've always thought Lessing was a great writer who now and then had editors who fell asleep during paragraphs or something.
It's a pivotal book in the women's history shelf, if only to get a glimpse of how it was back in the day.

My wife was unsure about this because 'the author is too obviously a communist'. My reading of this brilliant novel is quite different. Yes of course only someone with direct experience could write from such an insider perspective, but the perspective of the novel is deeply sceptical about communism as indeed about many other things. Don't read if you don't like women (or wimmin); but otherwise don't miss it!

A great chunk of hostory, yes, I realise that. It documents and sorts out some of the issues of an important time. Still, here is something about Lessing's writing I simply do now enjoy. It reads to me heavy and troublesome, an effort and a chore. Perhaps she is more of a historian than a novelist?

Op zich is de structuur van dit boek: een doorlopend verhaal, doorsneden door fragmenten van de 4 notitieboekjes die de hoofdpersoon bijhoudt, best een leuke vondst. De afwisseling van dialogen, introspectie en externe beschrijving maken het geheel redelijk goed volgbaar. En de thema's: de door Lessing zelf zo vermaledijde "sex war", het ambigue engagement binnen de Communistische Partij, en de moeilijke strijd van het hoofdpersonage voor haar mentale gezondheid, zijn zeker de moeite. Maar toch: het geheel overtuigt me niet en af en toe zat ik te denken: wat langdradig. Lessing weet alleszins de moeilijke verhouding tussen mannen en vrouwen en de problematische omgang van individuen met de werkelijkheid goed in de verf te zetten, maar ze doet dat op een te gekunstelde, te geconstrueerde manier.

The Golden Notebook is not a task to be undertaken lightly. It's a very dense and complex book, much of which is basically in stream-of-consciousness. The structure alone is daunting, comprised as it is of five different documents--the main character's four different journals, which she keeps simultaneously on four different parts of her life (one of which is a fiction within the fiction) and the omniscient narrator's exposition. It's satisfying, perhaps partly because it is so difficult, but also because the literary quality--especially the historic value--is very high. Think of The Golden Notebook as the aggressive feminine response to James Joyce--both in content and in style. Like Joyce, it often devolves into neurotic navel-gazing, but at least it's navel-gazing of high quality and intelligence.

Like having a depressed, middle class friend sitting in their new conservatory and rambling on at you for hours about how awful they think their life is, 576 pages in the company of Anna Wulf was about 500 too many. On the one hand I wanted to be empathetic and not denigrate her personal unhappiness but on the other was the irrepressible desire to shout "Arrrggg!!!, just cheer the hell up". Whilst there is undoubtedly good writing here and striking characterisation (were men really this obnoxious in the 1950s?) my sympathy and interest rapidly dribbled away. Despite it's vast length I found its world too claustrophobically narrow. The supporting cast of indolent, disaffected communists and intellectuals began to grate early on as the working classes and black Africans hovered in the background trying not to get into the way of all that profound misery. I'm afraid I had to make my excuses and leave early.

I will probably never manage to read this book again so I thought maybe I should write what I remember. It was one of those reading experiences where I remember lots of moments sitting and reading it. It took a while, the better part of a year I think.What made it so difficult to read was being so immensely psychological that practically every sentence needed time to properly land in my brain and resonate. Impact, impact, impact. It's terrifyingly insightful. Lessing is merciless while exploring the women's sexual and familial lives, mental breaks, and lost political hope.Tellingly, I have a paragraph of notes I took while I read it (I never do that) and they are incoherent now: "Children of a man who doesn't love you." "Sex: making room for him when he doesn't deserve it." "Calling yourself free and love when you are buying, sheltering, effacing." That's kind of how it felt to read.I worked hard to get a grasp of the existential feminist need in the book and it was meaningful. Though, Lessing doesn't accept that; this edition includes her 1971 introduction about the book's unintentional involvement in "the sex war" and "Women's Liberation," except this is not "the right way" to read it.Appropriately, my used copy crumbled all to pieces as I got to the end.

1041 The Golden Notebook, by Doris Lessing (read 21 Jan 1970) This is another book listed by Time as a Notable Book of the Sixties [the complete list is in my review of The First Circle by Alexander Solzhenitsyn here on LibraryThing]. Set This House on Fire [which I read 31 Aug 1969 and did NOT like] was a veritable masterpiece compared to this trash. This book is just nothing. it doesn't have anything. Boring, scatological, inane, disorganized--it is just junk. Notable? Ugh. I must be awful stupid. The book got worse and worse. The part on the "I"--Anna Wulf--and Saul Green took the cake. Stupid, ignorant, asinine people--how can anyone care anything about such impossible moronic people?