Having read a few of the books by the Nobel Price winner in literature, Doris Lessing, I am curious about her another genre that is not popularly accepted by the critics – science fiction. So I picked up “Mara and Dann” (year 1999, 407 pages) from our National Library. I have not read all of her thirty over books yet but if the book publisher describes the heroine of this book as “one of Doris Lessing’s most appealing heroines”, I would gladly take their words for it is a nice departure from the rather dark and depressing titles of “The Fifth Child” and its sequel “Ben in the World” whereby the main character is more or less a monster living in our own world.
Perhaps human condition regardless of time is depressing. Life is hard. And the saving grace throughout the time continuum is love. In “Mara and Dann”, the story is set somewhere in the distant future when our Earth is covered in ice – except Ifrik (equivalent to our modern day Africa). Dotted in this continent Ifrik are civilizations of different progression (stone age, medieval, military, religion, and science), people of different shapes and colors, richness and the poor, and in the diverse race of the Mahondi, the Rock People, the Hadrons, the Hennes, the Agre, and the Albs, nothing escape the sharp eyes of Mara who is always hunger for knowledge.
Abducted since young, Mara – a Mahondi by birth – began an epic journey traversing Ifrik together with her little brother Dann. The main plot evolves around Mara with Dann coming in and out of Mara’s journey. In “Mara and Dann”, you will get to experience Ifrik first hand with Mara. You may even feel the thirst and hunger of Mara like I do, and the joy and desperation. You will certainly see how the characters grow as they aged, how their bonding gets stronger as days go by.
What some may see lacking maybe a main quest within the story. What propel me to continue reading the book, however, was simply: what will Mara see next? In such, “Mara and Dann” is a different type of page turner perhaps more appealing to those who are drawn to the world of scare resources, slavery, conflicts, racism, and sexism. My main take home messages are two: (1) we always expect things to remain the way they always do (which they don’t) and (2) we can’t truly understand something unless we experience them.
A timely read as we ourselves are faced with the challenge of climate change, today.
Related Entries:-
- The Cleft By Doris Lessing – Drop All That You Know And Start Over
- Mara And Dann By Doris Lessing – An Adventure Of A Sister And A Brother During The Next Ice Age
- Doris Lessing – The Story Of General Dann And Mara’s Daughter, Griot And The Snow Dog
- The Fifth Child By Doris Lessing – Horror Or Tragedy? You Decide
- Ben In The World By Doris Lessing – Sympathetic Love And Desperation Mashed Into One
14 replies on “Mara And Dann By Doris Lessing – An Adventure Of A Sister And A Brother During The Next Ice Age”
I have read ‘Descent for a Briefing into Hell’ more than a decade ago. Heh. May I know if you have read that one? If so, how did you find it?
CSC – How coincidental when you brought that title up! I was just researching today on what to read next and I am intrigued by “Briefing for a Descent into Hell”. From what I gather, readers either get it or not at all.
I have not read that yet and I am still torn between that and another quasi sci-fi / fantasy book from Doris Lessing. What would you recommend?
PS. I have already read the sequel of “Mara and Dann”. Kind of a bit behind in blog publishing.
*looks at the huge pile of unread newspapers*
I wonder how you get the time to read so many books and watch movies when I don’t even have time to go to the loo! I’m wearing diapers soon to save on time. hahaha…..
I guess I have very little recollection of it. I probably didn’t get it when I read it fifteen or more years ago. I can’t speak more on it. It’s really been a long long time. It was tedious to read and I recall that I haven’t gone back to reading Lessing. There were other more compelling works out there, at least for me. Calvino, Borges, Lem, etc.
I lack the understanding of Lessings and also I have not read her other works to be able to say more. She had wrote a five volume SF sequence which I know little about. I have the first volume somewhere.
Life is funny…
You mentioned that we always expect things to remain the way they always do (which they don’t). BUT, on the other hand, when you expect things to change, they don’t ! Unless if you start the process and make the effort to change.
I guess that’s what make life interesting – the unknown and unpredictability.
ECL – I think you have utilized your time nicely to discover new places and new events in Singapore and share with the rest of the online community. So no time for even … loo!
So, am I right or am I right? 🙂
CSC – I am a fan of Calvino too! In fact, I read quite a number of his books. Always a good read. The writing style (so far as I discovered) has been very consistent.
I usually do some research before reading a book. Hence, there is a hesitation for me on that Lessing book you mentioned because usually I enjoy something rather light.
Cynthia – I guess things just don’t change overnight. And many of us are too ignorance on things do change over time.
Doing research before reading a book does give proper context and a framework for understanding. That is a shrewd thing to do.
May I suppose that you have read a lot of works involving magic realism?
Calvino is indeed consistent, at least, his translators are.
That Lessing book was tedious. Metaphysical and ontological concerns in Calvino and Borges’s work were less tedious at least. The abstractions were delightful.
CSC – For fiction, I usually like to read a book that is either (a) intelligent, (b) written on the topics that concern human conditions, or (c) something that is totally brainless but entertaining (great for reading on the plane).
And I dig books that have some very original concept.
Oh, you brought up a good point: translator’s consistency. I used to have a hard time finding a good translator for Milan Kundera. The same title translated by two different persons can give me a different feel. If my memory serves me right, I often stick to Linda Asher and Aaron Asher as the translators for Milan Kundera. I am not sure if those two Asher are related.
[…] no means I wish to diminish the genius of Doris Lessing, the sequel to the epic novel “Mara and Dann” reads more like an extension than a novel that exists in its own right. But, any kind of follow […]
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