The Golden Notebook - Doris Lessing

The Golden Notebook is a hefty number at almost 600 pages in length, and was originally published in 1962. It is dubbed a seminal novel which explores mental and societal breakdown, and won the Nobel Prize for literature - undoubtedly, here we have a technically brilliant novel which is far ahead of its time. I was a little intimidated when I started it (as I often am with novels of its gravitas) and it was slightly slow to begin, but I soon settled in to Lessing's writing style and the format of the book.

The story follows the protagonist Anna Wulf, a writer who is struggling for inspiration, and documents her disjointed and hectic thoughts in four different coloured notebooks. The black notebook records her literary life and experience in Africa; the red notebook her political views and disillusionment with her role in the communist party; the yellow notebook records her emotional life in the form of a novel about a girl called Ella who closely reflects Anna herself; and the blue notebook is for everyday events, much like a diary. Interspersed between four rotations of notebook entries are sections from 'Free Women', a realistic narrative of the life of Anna and her friend Molly. After falling in love with a destructive and emotionally abusive American and beginning to verge on a mental breakdown, Anna finally decides to discard the separate notebooks and accumulate all of her thoughts and feelings into one notebook, the infamous 'golden notebook' - in the hope of piecing herself back together again. 

Since finishing The Golden Notebook, I’ve read lots of reviews from people who struggled to get past the first few chapters, but I have to emphasise that it takes some patience and perseverance, so don't give up! It’s a slow-burner, full of metaphor and symbolism - and pretty emotionally draining. Anna has a bit of a thing for rather horrific men, somehow falling deeply in love with them and willingly becoming completely submissive to them, both emotionally and physically. Frustratingly, none of the numerous men Anna has love affairs with is single - they are almost all married! And yet she willingly falls and ultimately is left heartbroken, a shell of her former self. Anna is in many ways a strong, self-assured woman, so how is she so defenceless when it comes to manipulative (and vile) men? Overall, I really enjoyed this novel - despite wanting to scream at its protagonist through the pages!