Doris Lessing

Doris Tayler Wisdom Lessing is the writer of this book about her life. Although she is British, she was born in exotic Persia and raised in Southern Rhodesia. Hers was a life very different from the London women of her day, and she adds to this uniqueness by being a very independent and strong woman. This book only covers her life from her birth through 1949, until she is 30.

Doris' parents are of strong character, and independent from their British contemporaries, but both of them suffer from a sort of madness and depression throughout their lives. Doris struggles against her mother her entire life, over clothes, over music, over career. Her relationship with her father is one where she yearns to have him love her, but she turns away from him because of his rough hands and gruff behavior.

Doris is born in Persia, and the family lives...