Somewhere

As I previously mentioned I re-read Kiss Judit Ágnes's second collection of poems, Nincs új üzenet, and this was my tenth book this year, but for the sake of fairness I'll call The Grass Is Singing by Doris Lessing my tenth one.

As you probably know, Lessing won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007. This was my first read by her, so I was more or less unbiased. Actually, it would be hard to compare the book to anything I'd read before. It reminded me vaguely of Karen Blixen's Out of Africa, but I'd only seen it on film, and the story was quite different, too. This one is set in Rhodesia, which is as far as I figured out a part of Southern Africa, named after a guy called Rhodes. More particularly, the story is set on a farm, the Turner farm. We get to know as soon as on the first page that Mary Turner was murdered by the native cook, or as they put it "boy." The book is about the how and why. As you would except, it deals with the issues of colonization, slavery, and the color boundary in general. In addition, it closely follows the psychological changes in Mary Turner. I found it amazing how many aspects there are to a relationship.
In short, Mary grew up in a poor family in Rhodesia, and her father drank most of their money, so the mother was practically a begger and a nervous wreck. To protect herself, Mary decided to become an independent woman, and lived happily as a typist until about her 30th birthday.
I wrote the above part a few days ago, and now I don't think there's much else to it. It wasn't the kind of book that blows my mind, and I'm not sure if I'd give the Nobel for that, but it's not up to me to decide. I enjoyed the psychological part but I couldn't identify with the characters. All that we know is centered around Mary. She married Dick Turner, a stranger, because she felt she had to. She felt her friends despised her for being a spinster. The farm and the house her husband took her to was the home of a loser, in short. Whatever farming experiments Dick launched, never turned out right. Basically, all the other farmers laughed at him for being a fool. Mary spent her days solitary under the unbearable heat of the tin roof. Because of her temper the kitchen servants never lasted long, until one day Dick told her not to spoil it that last time. As the boy, Moses sensed his power over Mary, a strange relationship formed between them, a mixture of hatred and desire.
I guess I might not have been interested enough in the story, I don't know. Towards the end it started to be gripping, but of course I already knew the end. Perhaps I should try other books by her.
At the moment I'm reading Man and Boy by Tony Parsons, and its humor bought from the very first page.

P.S. The book club is about ready to set off, with 11 likes on Facebook, and a few additional people interested. I'm so excited about it.