The Golden Notebook

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1. • CommentAuthoradmin
   • CommentTimeNov 18th 2008

    

   This thread is for discussions about Page 188 of the online edition of The Golden Notebook, and the readers' comments. Please show a courteous regard for the presence of other voices in the discussion. We reserve the right to edit or delete comments that do not adhere to this standard.

2. • CommentAuthorKirsten
   • CommentTimeNov 18th 2008

    
   "To show a woman loving a man one should show her cooking a meal for him or opening a bottle of wine for the meal, while she waits for his ring at the door." This paragraph has been on my mind for the days since I first read it; it is a moment again where Lessing reaches to film for a way to apply layers of complexity to a single image (in this case, orange slices). Anna makes this sound melodramatic (he looks the other direction, thinking of something else) but the idea that affection is expressed through everyday chores seems both sad and lovely. It strikes me that the examples Anna gives are all practiced in isolation - the women are alone doting on the men, waiting for doorbells to ring or peeling oranges (while men ignore them). These are very concrete expressions of an abstract capital-L Love.
   
   It seems to be no accident that Lessing suspends their animation in these "film" moments, that the women alternately savor the slow motion and feel their lives are being held up by these relationships. Anna herself wakes one night and wants nothing more than to hold Michael's head on her chest; Marion, drunk, demands to know why she has to spend all of her time caring for Richard's children when Richard doesn't care for her. Lessing allows these scenes to exist side-by-side, implying reality is somewhere in between.