But The Golden Notebook sat there taunting me. I have always felt compelled to finish reading any book I start, no matter how bad. But I thought, in this case, that I would let myself off the hook. But no. After I finished the Boyden, I took it up again. And just finished it today. I am absolutely positive I will never be tempted to read it a second time, but I came to have a sort of grudging respect for what Doris Lessing was getting at. The style, which I found so irritating, is really a reflection of what the character Anna is grappling with in her own head. So to me, it's a real portrait of a person who is either losing her sanity or fears she is and is working hard to make sense of a world that doesn't make sense.
I found a podcast this afternoon that shed further light and made me think about things in the book I hadn't thought about before.
So, if anyone else has choked it all down, you might find this interesting. And if you haven't, it might make you reconsider picking it up again.
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