Flight Dorris Lessing The Mother Series Was Not

Flight Dorris Lessing The Mother Series Was Not

The series was not well received by some of her readers, 14 who felt she had abandoned her rational worldview. 16.

She had been a member of the British Communist Party, but left after the 1956 Hungarian uprising.

Some reviewers labelled the novel a satire, while Lessing called it humorous.

The title is an oxymoron which highlights Alices ambivalent nature.

Some praised its insight and characterisation, others faulted its style and the characters lack of depth.

One critic complimented Lessings strong descriptive prose and her precise and realistic characterisations, 1 another her brilliant account of the types of individuals who commit terrorist acts, 2 yet another called it surprisingly bland, 3 and the characters trivial or two-dimensional or crippled by self-delusions.

The Good Terrorist was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and won the Mondello Prize and the WH Smith Literary Award.

She is trailed by Jasper, a graduate she took in at a student commune she lived in fifteen years previously, who sponges off her.

Alice fell in love with him, only to become frustrated by his aloofness and burgeoning homosexuality.

She considers herself a revolutionary, fighting against fascist imperialism, 4 but is still dependent on her parents, whom she treats with contempt.

In the early 1980s, Alice joins a squat of like-minded comrades 5 in a derelict house in London.

Other members of the squat include Bert, its ineffective leader, and a lesbian couple, the maternal Roberta and her unstable and fragile partner Faye.

In the face of the indifference of her comrades, Alice takes it upon herself to clean up and renovate the house.

She also persuades the authorities to restore the electricity and water supplies.

Alice becomes the houses mother, cooking for everyone, and dealing with the local police, who are trying to evict them.

The members of the squat belong to the Communist Centre Union (CCU), and attend demonstrations and pickets.

Alice involves herself in some of these activities, but spends most of her time working on the house.

A more organised group of revolutionaries moves in next door and start using Alices house as a conduit for arms, to which Alice objects.

Mysterious strangers visit the squat and question their decision making.

Alice does not fully support this action, but accepts the majority decision.

They target an upmarket hotel in Knightsbridge, but their inexperience results in the premature detonation of the bomb, which kills Faye and several passers-by.

The remaining comrades, shaken by what they have done, decide to leave the squat and split up.

Alice, disillusioned by Jasper, chooses not to follow him and remains behind because she cannot bear to abandon the house into which she has poured so much effort.

Despite her initial reservations about the bombing, Alice feels a need to justify their actions to others, but realises it would be fruitless because ordinary people simply didnt understand.

She acknowledges that she is a terrorist now, though she cannot remember when the change happened.

She was attracted to a group of quasi-Communists 12 and joined the chapter of the Left Book Club in Salisbury (now Harare ).

Later, prompted by the conflicts arising from racial segregation prominent in Rhodesia at the time, she also joined the Southern Rhodesian Labour Party.

She became a member of the British Communist Party in the early 1950s, and was an active campaigner against the use of nuclear weapons.

The series was not well received by some of her readers, 14 who felt she had abandoned her rational worldview.