Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert

Amazon.com's Best of 2001

As a lifelong desert dweller, Terry Tempest Williams is intimately familiar with the multiple shades of red, and she explores many of them, among other things, in this tribute to the desert and canyon country of southern Utah that she holds so dear. In this collection of essays, poems, congressional testimony, and journal entries (some previously published), she ruminates on the meaning of wilderness and the need to preserve it as a way to save ourselves as much as the land itself. In Red, she lends an elegant and passionate voice to the growing "Coyote Clan" in southern Utah--"hundreds, maybe even thousands, of individuals who are quietly subversive on behalf of the land"--along with the many others ideologically in step with this movement. She also discusses those deeply resentful of active environmentalists as well as those seething at the U.S. government for the way it manages millions of acres of western land, writing that "Federal control in the American West remains an open wound." Some of these contrary voices even come from within her own clan, a reality she describes in an essay in which she gently debates the merits of the Endangered Species Act with her father and other family members who own and operate a construction company in Utah.

A beloved nature writer and environmental voice, Williams writes emotionally and even erotically of her relationship with the red-rock landscape surrounding her home outside Moab, closely analyzing the wildlife, human characters, and Anasazi petroglyphs of this magical, arid region. --Shawn Carkonen

Book Description

The beloved author of Refuge, Terry Tempest Williams is one of the country’s most eloquent and imaginative writers. The desert is her blood. In this potent collage of stories, essays, and testimony, Red makes a stirring case for the preservation of America’s Redrock Wilderness in the canyon country of southern Utah.

As passionate as she is persuasive, Williams writes lyrically about the desert’s power and vulnerability, describing wonders that range from an ancient Puebloan sash of macaw feathers found in Canyonlands National Park to the desert tortoise–an animal that can “teach us the slow art of revolutionary patience” as it extends our notion of kinship with all life. She examines the civil war being waged in the West today over public and private uses of land–an issue that divides even her own family. With grace, humor, and compassionate intelligence, Williams reminds us that the preservation of wildness is not simply a political process but a spiritual one.

“Lush elegies to the wilderness. . . . Earthy, spiritual, evocative.” —The Boston Globe

“Erotic, scientific, literary. . . . Her intimacy with this landscape is complex and passionate.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Her finest writing . . . Use[s] pure language in the face of laws that need to be changed and lawmakers and citizens who need to understand that there is another way to see.” —Portland Oregonian

Customer Reviews:

Interesting perspective.......2003-02-17

Terry Tempest Williams is without a doubt one of the finest writers to tackle the intricacies of the American West in literature of any sort. Carrying her own torch is impressive enough, but Williams also evokes the activism and urgent motivation that calls us to appreciate, respect and save our remaining western wilderness that was so powerfully put into words by Edward Abbey. I have reviewed a portion of "Red" before (see "Desert Quartet"), so I will limit this review to the remainder of "Red".

Williams carries on the great and ancient tradition of storytelling to raise consciousness about uniquely Western, and specifically Colorado Plateau, issues. From the Hopi and Navajo peoples, down through the early American explorers, the proverbial cowboys and the present activist community, storytelling has been a central method of encapsulating emotion, opinion and experience into messages that have wide appeal. Williams, in stories such as "Coyote's Canyon" here in "Red", presents her powerful vision of an environmental movement wrapped in the spiritual connection with the stark, often harsh, always awe inspiring desert and given wings by action. Like Abbey, Williams does not shy away from controversy, and her opening to the title essay is a list of places that strangely grows longer each time I contemplate the names set forth. Williams gets personal here, and the blunt approach of listing over a hundred places brings to my mind the fact that I have walked on much of that ground... and that I have seen the critical need to protect these remaining places from the industrious uses and agricultural manipulation that has occured on the infinitely vaster balance of the Colorado Plateau. In this way, "Red" has demonstrated its effectiveness. Some may say that as a resident of California I might have no reason to comment on Utah... and I would, as Williams exhorts in "Red", flatly disagree. Every one of us has a responsibility to work toward a better world, and Williams manages to say this without preaching it or patronizing the reader. (Besides, my mother lives in southern Utah, and I have walked hundreds of miles of that beautiful land...).

In summary, "Red" is another jewel of a book from Terry Tempest Williams. I am glad to see "Desert Quartet" back in print, though I sorely miss Mary Frank's wonderful illustrations that were in the original. This is a book which is not a difficult read, nor a scholarly treatise... rather, it is a frank, realistic look at a serious challenge facing the United States right now.

Writing to Save Wilderness.......2002-11-15

Terry Tempest Williams created this book to fight for Wilderness with the best tool she has, her writing. The beauty of her words hang in the air and cut like a knife. When asked by a friend why she writes, Williams responds: "I write as an exercise in pure joy. I write as one who walks on the surface of a frozen river beginning to melt. I write out of my anger and into my passion. I write from the stillness of night anticipating - always anticipating. I write to listen. I write out of silence. ...I write because it is the way I talk long walks. I write as a bow to wilderness. I write because I believe it can create a path in darkness."

In Every Way, A Great Work.......2002-04-13

Both a piece of literary artistry and passionate activism, "Red"'s audience appeal is the broadest of any book I've ever read. The book's structure, both wild and bounded by cadences of space, conforms strategically to Ms. Williams' conceptual take on the color red - red represents heat, anger, unpredictability, the lifeblood of the earth that runs through human beings and all earth's creatures, and is concentrated in the searing deserts of the American West where Ms. Williams lives. A thematic tapestry though it is, it is, at its core, a living breathing message presented selflessly and succinctly by a woman who I believe understands the need for a lifelong journey down the parallel rails of human and non-human nature until these rails converge. I recommend this book highly.

Red.......2002-01-29

This book made me feel very guilty that I am not out there taking a stand on conservation, supporting a cause, or putting my land into a conservation easement. Her passion as well as commonsense about wild areas is contagious! She clearly defines the political and social situations surrounding land use through a variety of short stories ranging from disagreements within her family to lyrical myth. Even though Red is about the Southwest US, it is about land use everywhere. As with all Williams's books, the writing is marvelous.
This should be required reading for everyone who deals with land use (yes, developers included), is passionate about conservation regardless of what part of the world they live in, and all who recognize the need for wild places to sooth our souls and give us some perspective on life.

Red, a Connection of People with Place.......2001-09-21

When Terry Tempest Williams starts this book with her simple equation place + people = politics, you know you've started reading a book meant to have political impact. But as the equation states, and as any TTW reader knows, you will be reading about place and about people, and you will be reading about these things as seen through the honest open heart of Terry Tempest Williams.

Red is a collection of stories, poems, journal entries and thoughts centered in one place, the redrock desert of southern Utah. While reading Red I found myself feeling similarities with it and Steinbeck's The Long Valley and The Pastures of Heaven. Like both of those books, Red tells the different stories of separate people and the one place that connects them. But unlike those books, the stories in Red span hundreds of years. The place remains relatively unchanged through time. But the people and civilizations pass through this unchanging landscape living, making their mark on the land, and dying. TTW tells these stories in geologic time-desert time. The people stay connected.

Hands connect the people. Hands appear everywhere in the book. Hands are the link between past, present and future. Hands come from the past in geologic forms with Anasazi handprints on clay pots and redrock walls, and a sharp obsidian chip "worked by ancient hands". They are in the present in biologic forms with a hand sliced open by the same sharp obsidian chip; one hand on the belly of a petroglyph while the other rests on a human belly in the present; and the story of children holding out hands to catch the desert's tears that drip from ferns. Then in the final paragraph hands are formed in prayer: "The eyes of the future are looking back at us and they are praying for us to see beyond our own time. They are kneeling with hands clasped that we might act with restraint....Wild mercy is in our hands."

I enjoy reading Terry Tempest Williams. Her writing seems to always reach out and touch me. She's done it again, and this time with Red hands.

Book Description

Scattered like rings across the Indian Ocean, the 26 atolls that comprise the Maldives are a diver's mecca. Encompassing channels, pinnacles and walls, the sites here have lyrical names that match their beauty. While hard corals recover from recent coral bleaching, the reefs still thrive with vibrant soft corals, sponges and anemones. Prolific fish life ranges from funny little blennies to massive, friendly Napoleonfish. Divers are transported to the reefs on colorful traditional dhonis and luxurious safari dive boats. This book describes 78 of the best sites in the Maldives, with full-color photos taken in the wake of El Niño damage.

You'll get specific information on:

dive site topography and access
safari boats, including contact information
resort islands across the archipelago
travel logistics and topside attractions
13 easy-to-read maps

Customer Reviews:

Maldives-A diving Mecca.......2004-10-29

If you are planning a SCUBA diving trip to the Maldives I would recommend this book for some useful information and eye candy in preparing an amazing underwater experience. I also recommend it because the photographs have been taken since the El Nino damage to the reefs so they portray a realistic view of what you will encounter. While the reef damage is unfortunate and visible, the Maldives are still an amazing for the variety of life that you can experience; whale sharks, mantas, hammerheads, napoleon fish, etc... can all be found in various location in the Maldives. Once, in the Maldives though, I would rely on the advice of the locals and the local dive shops. These people know which sites are best under the current conditions and where the sorts of things you would like to experience are to be found at that moment. So the book is not really a necessity, more something to wet your appetite for the trip. My experience included diving with a whale shark, being surrounded by giant mantas that swam in circles around me, seeing many sharks, and a very friendly sea turtle that seemed to think my camera might be an edible treat!

Cruising the Maldives: Diving Guide (Diving Guides)

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Cruising the Maldives: Diving Guide (Diving Guides)
Claudio Cangini
Manufacturer: Swanhill Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1853109428

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Diver's Guide to Fishes of Maldives
John E. Randall
Manufacturer: Immel Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0907151531

The Maldives Diving Guide (Diving Guides)

Average customer rating:

Great Photos - But little else.

The Maldives Diving Guide (Diving Guides)
Kurt Amsler
Manufacturer: Swan Hill Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1853105783

Customer Reviews:

Great Photos - But little else. .......2004-01-12

Once again we have a title claiming to be a "Diving Guide" but which contains little or no relevant information.

Kurt Amsler is a man with a very high reputation as an Underwater Photographer and the cover photograph for this book is particularly outstanding. With few exceptions, the plentiful supply of high quality photographs found inside the book are also by this man.

Some time ago, I was invited to visit the Maldives for a UK-based travel operator and immediately ordered a number of books in readiness for that trip. I took delivery of "Maldives Diving Guide" with great excitement - especially when I saw that cover shot. Sadly, I was immediately disappointed by the content and had to look elsewhere for the information I needed.

The contents page reveals an overall introduction followed by 28 specific dive sites taken from those Atoll Reefs closest to Malé - the country's capital. Diving on the northern and southern-most Atolls, however, are not covered at all. That just about sums up the problems with this book - altogether too much information is simply missing.

Surely, any diving guide to the Maldives should contain a little something from every corner of that country and not just concentrate on those sites nearest to the airport. This gives the impression that the book was completed within a period of least-time-possible spent in the country and brings into question the book's credibility as a serious diving "guide."

Certainly, any discerning diver might well drool over the excellent photography - BUT, having whetted that appetite, the book then fails to deliver any of the vital information which is both basic and yet so essential for a visit. In short, there is no information on; travel agencies, airlines, airport tax, tourist boards, hotels, diving facilities, safari boats, available equipment, what to bring, what to wear, electricity, currency, language, time differences, photography, local traders - and if I missed anything, then - yet again!, this book misses everything. In summary, this so-called Diving Guide is nothing more than a collection of pretty pictures of pretty dive sites - and I know this Author can do better.

That coupled with this particular publisher's own peculiar brand of "Italian-English" (often difficult to read) and their penchant for hiding photograph captions in every conceivable place - except, immediately below the photograph itself, leaves me totally bemused.

This book would have scored full marks had it been described as a "Photographic Guide to Underwater Maldives" but it clearly fails any test as a "Diving Guide." Certainly, the photography (for which the book retains a 2 star rating) will give the reader a first class taste to what is found underwater, but any diver contemplating such an expensive trip will then require another book containing the answers to the many questions that arise.

NM

Dive Maldives : A Guide to the Maldives Archipelago (Springfield Atoll Editions)

Average customer rating:

An Amazing Underwater Adventure
Perfect! So Exciting! Just what the Maldives needed.

Dive Maldives : A Guide to the Maldives Archipelago (Springfield Atoll Editions)
Tim J. Godfrey
Manufacturer: Sea Challengers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1876410000

Book Description

Dive Maldives is a detailed guide to diving in all the tourist atolls of the Maldives Archipelago. It contains 114 computer-generated maps with descriptions of over 270 dive sites based on the author's personal research over 12 years The maps are divided into three types: atoll, region and site maps. The atoll maps show the resorts in blue type with traditional island names in brackets. Also shown are uninhabited islands, reefs, Protected Marine Areas, heliports, channel names, and some of the well-known dive site locations. The region maps show the same features but in more detail with all the dive site locations described in this book. The dive site maps are useful references for divers and show the topography and scale of the reef. Through the use of symbols for features such as caves, overhangs, saddles and canyons, as well as commonly seen fish and marine life, divers get a pre-dive glimpse of what they can expect to see during the dive. Scattered throughout the book are 191 photographs with informative captions. All fish mentioned are listed in a separate index at the back and are grouped by class and family, with both their common and scientific name reported for easy identification. For those divers who have never been to this remote nation of 1190 islands, there is a useful section with practical information for travelers and divers, and an up-to-date index of resorts and live aboard vessels. Besides the diving related material, Dive Maldives covers other important aspects of this wonderful archipelago, including island history, Indian Ocean maritime history and shipwrecks, coral reef ecosystem and environmental problems. Although non-divers would find it extremely pleasant and interesting to read, this is indeed a book dedicated to divers, particularly those seeking a deeper knowledge and understanding of this top- class dive destination. Recommended to all those who want to know more than a simple dive guide can tell... And it comes in three versions too: English, German and Italian.

Customer Reviews:

An Amazing Underwater Adventure.......2001-08-28

To begin, The Maldives are a group of over 400 islands (many uninhabited) that can be found in the Indian Ocean south-west of the Indian continent. These are the 'paradise' islands - idyllic bleached sand, green lagoons and blue ocean. The sun is virtually guaranteed 365 days a year (though trade winds can help lower the temperature from time to time). Most islands can be circumnavigated on foot in less than ten minutes, so I would advise anyone thinking of visiting The Maldives to do so only if they want a holiday with nothing to see and nowhere to go, OR want to spend their holiday clutching the bar stool and watching the waves caress the beach, OR love water sports. It's as quiet as that, and scuba, snorkeling and water-skiing are about as active as you'll get. If you fit into the third category, you'll adore these islands and their friendly peoples. You'll undoubtedly appreciate the diving which, in my view, ranks with the very best in the world (and I've dived a lot of places). Tim Godfrey has spent a considerable amount of time and effort putting together 'Dive Maldives'. When you consider, for a start, that the islands cover an area of ocean as big as Texas, you'll understand the scale of the task. And for readers who have attempted underwater photography, you'll appreciate that it can take several dives just to get one good picture. This book contains 191 superb photos taken throughout the atolls that make up The Maldives. Also included are 114 computer-generated maps with descriptions of over 270 dive sites based on the author's personal research over 12 years. Included in this comprehensive book is information on uninhabited islands, reefs, Protected Marine Areas, heliports, channel names, and some of the better-known dive site locations. The dive site maps show the topography and scale of the reefs, using symbols for features such as caves, overhangs, saddles and canyons, as well as commonly seen fish and marine life. Here divers can get a pre-dive glimpse of what they can expect to see during the dive. EXCELLENT stuff, thoroughly researched and exquisitely photographed. For visitors to The Maldives, who have diving in mind, this book is an absolute MUST HAVE.

Perfect! So Exciting! Just what the Maldives needed........1999-06-09

The most incredible underwater photos yet to be seen of the Maldives; combined with the best dive spots and detailed descriptions. First fully detailed, reliable and accurate maps of all the Islands, a Great book that is a must to any Maldives traveller or scuba enthusiast.

Globetrotter Dive Guide: Maldives (Globetrotter)

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Globetrotter Dive Guide: Maldives (Globetrotter)
Sam Harwood , and Rob Bryning
Manufacturer: New Holland Publishers Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1843301075

Average customer rating:

Great Photos - But little else.

Maldives Diving Guide
Kurt Amsler
Manufacturer: WHITE STAR PUBLISHERS, VERCELL
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000PWLPXE

Customer Reviews:

Great Photos - But little else. .......2007-05-15

Book Description

Evidence from randomized controlled clinical trials is now widely accepted as the only sound basis for assessing the efficacy of new treatments. Since the inception of modern trials in the 1940's, their use and the associated methodology has grown rapidly, and there in now a considerable body of knowledge that must now be assimilated by anyone studying the subject. Statisticians have been amongst the foremost contributors to this methodology, with medical statisticians being involved in the conduct of numerous trials. This important new book provides undergraduates, masters students and researcher with a concise introduction to the principles used in this area. It introduces readers to the concepts behind randomization methods and their analysis, and includes chapters on meta-analysis and specialized designs, such as cluster-randomization trails, crossover trials and equivalence studies. It assumes no underlying medical background and material from each chapter is illustrated with problems and real-life examples.

Book Description

Because of their structural and dynamical properties, microheterogeneous systems have been employed as solvent and reaction media both to synthesize and stabilize nanoparticles. Following this route, inside their nanometer-sized heterogeneities the nanoparticles of many different substances have been incorporated. The book shows the distinct advantages of this synthetic strategy over that of many other methods. Moreover, it furnishes to the reader a collection of theoretical and experimental facts allowing him to reduce the number of trial and errors necessary to arrive at an optimal synthetic protocol.

Book Description

Learn math the easy way with FINITE MATH ON THE WEB 2.0 with accompanying CD-ROM! This visual and interactive project teaches you mathematical concepts in a visual and interactive way that textbooks cannot. The accompanying student workbook helps clarify difficult concepts with navigation instructions, explanations, and exercises. Mastering the material is made easy with the accompanying CD-ROM that provides you with a complete solutions manual and walkthroughs of each module.

Amazon.com

Much to its author's chagrin, The Golden Notebook instantly became a staple of the feminist movement when it was published in 1962. Doris Lessing's novel deconstructs the life of Anna Wulf, a sometime-Communist and a deeply leftist writer living in postwar London with her small daughter. Anna is battling writer's block, and, it often seems, the damaging chaos of life itself. The elements that made the book remarkable when it first appeared--extremely candid sexual and psychological descriptions of its characters and a fractured, postmodern structure--are no longer shocking. Nevertheless, The Golden Notebook has retained a great deal of power, chiefly due to its often brutal honesty and the sheer variation and sweep of its prose.

This largely autobiographical work comprises Anna's four notebooks: "a black notebook which is to do with Anna Wulf the writer; a red notebook concerned with politics; a yellow notebook, in which I make stories out of my experience; and a blue notebook which tries to be a diary." In a brilliant act of verisimilitude, Lessing alternates between these notebooks instead of presenting each one whole, also weaving in a novel called Free Women, which views Anna's life from the omniscient narrator's point of view. As the novel draws to a close, Anna, in the midst of a breakdown, abandons her dependence on compartmentalization and writes the single golden notebook of the title.

In tracking Anna's psychological movements--her recollections of her years in Africa, her relationship with her best friend, Molly, her travails with men, her disillusionment with the Party, the tidal pull of motherhood--Lessing pinpoints the pulse of a generation of women who were waiting to see what their postwar hopes would bring them. What arrived was unprecedented freedom, but with that freedom came unprecedented confusion. Lessing herself said in a 1994 interview: "I say fiction is better than telling the truth. Because the point about life is that it's a mess, isn't it? It hasn't got any shape except for you're born and you die."

The Golden Notebook suffers from certain weaknesses, among them giving rather simplistic, overblown illustrations to the phrase "a good man is hard to find" in the form of an endless parade of weak, selfish men. But it still has the capacity to fill emotional voids with the great rushes of feeling it details. Perhaps this is because it embodies one of Anna's own revelations: "I've been forced to acknowledge that the flashes of genuine art are all out of deep, suddenly stark, undisguiseable private emotion. Even in translation there is no mistaking these lightning flashes of genuine personal feeling." It seems that Lessing, like Anna when she decides to abandon her notebooks for the single, golden one, attempted to put all of herself in one book. --Melanie Rehak

Book Description

Anna is a writer, author of one very successful novel, who now keeps four notebooks. In one, with a black cover, she reviews the African experience of her earlier years. In a red one she records her political life, her disillusionment with communism. In a yellow one she writes a novel in which the heroine relives part of her own experience. And in a blue one she keeps a personal diary. Finally, in love with an American writer and threatened with insanity, Anna tries to bring the threads of all four books together in a golden notebook.

Customer Reviews:

A brilliant but flawed study in irony and self-indulgence.......2007-01-26

This is as much a period piece as, say, a Jane Austen novel. The characters in this novel are filled with self-pity and remorse, but this appears to be a function of the time in which they are living. For many the post-war (that is, World War II) era was fraught with anxiety and introspection, to the exclusion of joy and humor and mysticism. The bitter ennui of the characters in this novel borders on the amusing, much like present-day 20-year-olds attempting to appear world-weary and all-knowing. (Never mind that young people who are truly all-knowing and world-weary are not sardonic or ironic, but bitter and dangerous). Every other gesture, smile, or grimace in this novel is "ironic", and characters can seemingly intuit the motives of others through every gesture, tic, and change of facial expression. The influence of Freud is strongly felt.

The characters in this novel are largely amoral, and see no causal connection between their actions and the torpor and dissatisfaction of their lives. Yet, from the perspective of 21st Century morality (contradictory as that term may seem) it will be evident to even the casual, cynical reader that the amorality of their thoughts and the immorality of their actions lead directly to their dissatisfaction and that of those around them. They are nothing if not entirely self-indulgent. It seems that the main character, Anna Wulf, never sleeps with any but married men, and then wonders why her affairs end in recrimination and blame. Which is not to exonerate the men she beds; their cruelty and unthinking malice toward Anna and their wives is inexcusable. But as this novel focuses almost exclusively on the feelings and reactions of women, it is the outcomes of their actions which truly matter here, and those actions contain within them the seeds of their own destruction. No doubt the frank talk of sexuality and (briefly) menstruation were quite daring in 1962. Yet from the context of our current era, this knowledge is commonplace and therefore overdone.

Which is not to say that this is not a brilliant piece of writing by an enormously talented writer. Lessing has captured the tenor of the times with great skill. And, much like watching a train wreck unfold, there is a certain grim fascination in seeing Anna's self-destruction (and eventual though minor redemption) come to fruition. But at over 600 pages, it is a large dose of bitterness to swallow. Rumor has it that "The Summer Before the Dark" is a much more accessible book, and perhaps that is the right place to begin for a taste of Doris Lessing. But many consider "The Golden Notebook" her masterwork, and to say one has truly read Lessing is to have read this one. God help you.

Art Imitating Life Imitating Art Ad Infinitum.......2006-08-30

Whenever any author writes in a new fashion there are bound to be an equal numbers of readers who hail it as a groundbreaking work of art as those who wish to consign it to the ground as a turgid unreadable mess. Such was the case when Doris Lessing published THE GOLDEN NOTEBOOK. In it she juggles many literary balls, deftly keeping most aloft, while dropping only a few. Lessing's interest is in deconstructing both herself personally as an author writing this book and herself as the subject of this book. Lessing is the master magician. This is no standard autobiographical novel, no roman a clef with herself as the encoded celebrity. Lessing blurs the distinction between the "her" in real life and the "her" in fictionalized life. Lessing writes of Anna Wulf, whose life mirrors closely Lessing's. Both are of South African origin with an abiding interest in race relations, male-female interactions, the proper role of women in a post-War London patriarchal society, the angst of writer's block, sexual affairs gone awry, and for good measure, a dabbling into left-wing politics and communism. This is more than a mouthful, more than what even one talented writer can cover in six hundred plus pages. But Lessing uses THE GOLDEN NOTEBOOK as a literary buzz saw, first ripping to pieces Wulf's life and then using some pretty innovative writing to recreate that life one step at a time, so that the reconstituted Anna Wulf of the last few pages may have found some firm ground from which she may stand proudly and assert a multi-pronged femininity that she was sure was always there but had no way to bring to the surface.

There are several Annas in THE GOLDEN NOTEBOOK, all of whom overlap, diverge, and merge at various points into Doris Lessing, but the Anna at the first page is a weary, writer-blocked author who seeks to use her pen to heal herself, but can't. She struggles, not because of a lack of talent, but because she is not ready to break free from the many shackles binding her. So if Anna cannot build a new life with words, she can use them to break down the old Anna into four separate Annas, each with a new life, a new goal, a new history. The primary Anna places her four selves into colored books, with each color heavily symbolic of that Anna's chosen life course. There is the Anna who writes of her black days in a black country dealing with black issues. There is the Anna of her communist days who gets her little red book. There is the Anna of this Anna who writes of her hoped for golden days in a yellow book. And then there is the Anna who is sort of an amalgam of all of them who gets a blue book. Of all these Annas, Lessing tears herself apart, builds herself right back up, and weighs the differences and potential improvement of each. She does not choose one as the best although the reader probably assumes the last Anna is the best if for no other reason than quantity has a quality all its own. But such an interpretation is probably overly hasty since THE GOLDEN NOTEBOOK is a record of the journey that Lessing/Wulf took. But the linking of the first sentence of the book with the identical last sentence suggests a closed loop singularity that she/they chose to tread. Each reader is invited to deconstruct/reconstruct in a similar manner and in so doing may find that Lessing/Wulf has lit a candle that opens more doors than it closes.

The insufferable Anna Wulf.......2006-06-10

Like many other reviewers, I struggled with this book. For more than 600 pages, Anna Wulf explores every thought and emotion that comes into her head and tries to make sense out of her life. This might be an interesting book for fiction writers, who might understand the elaborate process Anna goes through to create characters and combine her life with her art. But for the average reader, this is just too much and too long.

I am very patient with novels. Perhaps too patient, because I should have put this one down sooner. I got all the way to page 500 before I realized I just couldn't go on. And it's quite depressing to invest so much time in a book and then put it down. Doris Lessing says herself that no one should force themselves to read a book they are not connecting with. I should have taken her advice sooner. But while some books you might not just be 'ready' for, I don't think I will ever be ready for this one.

It's disappointing because I am a Doris Lessing fan. The Four-Gated City explores many of the same themes - an emotional breakdown can be constructive in order to build yourself back up whole and understand the world around you. Anna Wulf did have a fragmented mind, as demonstrated through her keeping of four separate notebooks. She was kept together by the routines of her life, such as making breakfast for her daughter. When she didn't have anything constructive to do, she thought herself to death. And if you read this book, you'll likely be right there with her - going crazy.

An interesting mess of a novel.......2005-06-24

Intellectual energy is always a healthy attribute for a writer of fiction. Doris Lessing, an incredibly prolific author who has covered many different genres, has plenty; but her early novel "The Golden Notebook" too often sacrifices coherence and focus for ineffective artistic experimentation. That it doesn't have much of a plot is not a deficiency, because many great modern novels have discarded the notion of a necessity for a conventional plot; rather, its narrative power is diminished by Lessing's apparent indecisiveness about the kind of tale she wishes to tell. In one section she writes synopses of about two dozen short stories in quick succession, and we have to wonder why we're looking at blueprints instead of the finished product.

Summarily, "The Golden Notebook" is a work of fiction about the erratic process of writing fiction, and it problematically attempts to intertwine several novels into one. The main story is that of Lessing's alter ego Anna Wulf, who compiles her memoirs, blending the real with the fictional, into four color-coded notebooks of which the contents are revealed in an alternating fashion. Anna, a rising literary star who has published an acclaimed novel called "Frontiers of War" based loosely on her experiences and her circle of friends in Rhodesia where she lived during World War II, now resides in England with her young daughter Janet, drawing income from gradually dwindling royalties while being courted by philistine film producers who propose to adapt and warp her novel for the screen.

Love and sexuality play major roles throughout the multiple narratives, but "The Golden Notebook" is neither sentimental enough to be a romantic novel nor cynical enough to be a satire. Anna's relationships with a string of men, from her ex-husband Max, a German refugee whom she met in Africa, to an aimless American expatriate named Saul, are the basis of her fictional life; she has created an alter ego of her own named Ella, a struggling novelist who has numerous affairs almost exclusively with married men, to be used possibly as the heroine of a new novel. She can be maternal as well, not just to her daughter but also to her older friend Molly's son Tommy, a restless and discontented youth who is forced to endure the physical aftermath of a botched suicide attempt.

A central feature of "The Golden Notebook" is the changing course of Anna's political outlook which begins in Rhodesia. Her abhorrence of the "color bar"--the racist policies of white European colonists towards blacks--in southern Africa and her observations of the poverty of the workers steered her towards Communism. As it turns out, the British Communists with whom she associates are a muddled and disorganized group, inveterate liars and prevaricators with utopian delusions; but Anna's eventual decision to leave them arises more from her disenchantment with their attitude that art should be used only for political purposes and not to express personal ideas or emotions. This is anathema to a creative writer such as Anna, as it should be; "The Golden Notebook" is Lessing's defiant response to that dictum.

Were I to describe "The Golden Notebook" accurately as remarkably original, uniquely structured, overflowing with a multitude of literary thoughts, and driven by fascinating impulses, you might think it a book worth reading; but in fact I hesitate to recommend it to anybody but an avowed Lessing fan. When Saul asks Anna why she keeps four separate notebooks, she answers that "...it's been necessary to split [her]self up," and therein lies the trouble--the reader is made to suffer for Anna's narrative schizophrenia. I am unsure whether "The Golden Notebook," so energetic but so disjointed, is too much or not enough of whatever it is that it wants to be, but it is definitely not the correct amount.

Goes on and on and on, oh yeah, and on.......2004-07-19

This is a great book if you would like to listen to a crazy woman complain for about 600+ pages. So, if you're into that go right ahead. But if you would like to read something enjoyable, look at anohter book!

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