About this item
Highlights
- "I was born with skins too few.
- Author(s): Doris Lessing
- 448 Pages
- Biography + Autobiography, Literary Figures
Description
About the Book
Lessing has always incorporated her life into her fiction, but not until the eagerly awaited publication of Under My Skin did her readers have direct access to the fascinating and tumultuous life story of this most celebrated literary talent. Photos.Book Synopsis
"I was born with skins too few. Or they were scrubbed off me by...robust and efficient hands."
The experiences absorbed through these "skins too few" are evoked in this memoir of Doris Lessing's childhood and youth as the daughter of a British colonial family in Persia and Southern Rhodesia. Honestly and with overwhelming immediacy, Lessing maps the growth of her consciousness, her sexuality, and her politics, offering a rare opportunity to get under her skin and discover the forces that made her one of the most distinguished writers of our time.
From the Back Cover
"I was born with skins too few. Or they were scrubbed off me by...robust and efficient hands."
The experiences absorbed through these "skins too few" are evoked in this memoir of Doris Lessing's childhood and youth as the daughter of a British colonial family in Persia and Southern Rhodesia Honestly and with overwhelming immediacy, Lessing maps the growth of her consciousness, her sexuality, and her politics, offering a rare opportunity to get under her skin and discover the forces that made her one of the most distinguished writers of our time.
Review Quotes
"Absorbing...Arouses our cheers and sympathy...Her work is cathartic and exhilarating." -- Cleveland Plain Dealer
"Compelling reading...Readers familiar with Doris Lessing's work will savor her self-revelations in Under My Skin flavored with her characteristic wry tone." -- Chicago Tribune Books
"Extraordinary. . . Eloquent. . . Lessing recounts this passage in her life with complex candor...[and] with the vividness of a fine novelist." -- New York Times Book Review
"Lessing summons the girl from half a century ago with such freshness and immediacy that she seems alive today." -- Ms. magazine
"One of the 20th century's most important and influential novelist here presents a memoir as probing, unsparing and darkly funny as her fiction." -- Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Reminds us of what an autobiography can do in the hands of a master." -- Washington Post Book World