Reading a Wordless Statement: The Structure of Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook
The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing assures us, is a "very highly structured book, carefully planned." Its point is in "the relation of the parts to each other" (Personal Voice 51). Her "major aim was to shape a book which would make its own argument, a wordless statement; to talk through the way it was shaped" (Notebook xiv). And yet, judging from the reception of the novel, it appears that, for all of Lessing's careful planning, her intentions have misfired. Her irritation with the reviews of the novel is well known. Since then, many careful and appreciative critical essays have been written that should mitigate her disappointment.1 However, I think the "argument" written in the "shape" of the novel remains largely unread. One reason for this is that in spite of its obtrusiveness, the structure of the novel is easy to circumvent. We can appreciate the novelÂ—be moved by it, be impressed by its perspicacious commentary on reality,