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Lessing's London |
| Section: BOOK WORLD / REVIEWS |
| Author: Alexandra Johnson |
| Publication: The world & I online |
| Issue Date: 7/1/1992 |
| Size: 1,948 Words, 11,739 Characters |
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THE REAL THING
Doris Lessing
New York: Harper Collins, 1992
224 pp., $20
In the title story of Doris Lessing's new collection, an American sitting in an English country pub has an uncomfortable insight as she watches various social classes enjoy the Sunday ritual of a prelunch drink. In that "darkish room that had something of the aspects of a cave," she observes,
it was as if some key or root definition, something primal, had only to be made and everyone here would at once agree, but these words had not been said, and never would be, for there was no need for them. In this scene there was something secretive and intimate and deeply shared, something reckless and even dangerous.
Although Jody, the character in question, is referring specifically to Britain's not...
. . .
...t begins as an idea in a sketch is literally given character in the story immediately succeeding it. In that sense, Lessing provides an invaluable look at how the so-called real world of the factual sketch is often less a complete truth than its fictional counterpart. In The Real Thing we are witnesses to the raw edge of insight and its subtle transformation into the art of the short story. vbcrlf
(827 of 11,739 characters)
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