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Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant & fascinating, but needs grain of salt.
Review: Buy five of these, read and keep one, and then start giving out the others to those you love and respect. This collection of essays is absolutely marvelous, and not to be missed. You will return to it again and again.
Rating: 
Summary: A must Read!!!
Review: I love Doris Lessing! I have read many of her works of fiction but, I am new to her essays. I was blown away by her honest "bird's eye view " of our world. She has the insight to look around us and truely see what the world has become and how we got here. Her points are simple yet, seem to escape most of us. Reading Prisions will give a first time reader the oppertunity to experience the witt and prose of a master. After finishing try The Fifth Child!
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Summary: Lessing: A Voice Needed in the 21st Century
Review: I teach college sophomores in a Humanities course where we spend 4 semesters trying to answer the question "What does it mean to be human?" Starting in the spring of 2003, I will do my best to see that students completing the course have read this enlightening piece by Lessing. Her critique of "groupthink" has never been more relevant. In a world where multiple brands of fundamentalism seem to be gaining ground every day, with marked influence on the under 30 set, I believe that Lessing is a must read.
Rating:
Summary: Lessing: A Voice Needed in the 21st Century
Review: I teach college sophomores in a Humanities course where we spend 4 semesters trying to answer the question "What does it mean to be human?" Starting in the spring of 2003, I will do my best to see that students completing the course have read this enlightening piece by Lessing. Her critique of "groupthink" has never been more relevant. In a world where multiple brands of fundamentalism seem to be gaining ground every day, with marked influence on the under 30 set, I believe that Lessing is a must read.
Rating:
Summary: Could be one of the most important books you'll ever read
Review: In straightforward, unsentimental language, Doris Lessing gives a message we all need to hear. Reading 'Prisons...' will take about an hour of your life but may change it forever.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant & fascinating, but needs grain of salt.
Review: This book contains a series of 5 lectures given by Doris Lessing, sponsored by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1985.Their basic thesis is that groups of human beings behave in certain predictable ways under cetain circumstances, and that those who value liberty and individual thought could make the world better by doing 2 things: 1. Learn about the many studies that have been done about group behaviour, brain-washing, & so on. Governments, advertisers, & others in a position to make use of this knowledge to manipulate us are certainly doing so. We should make use of it to avoid being manipulated. 2. Hold on to cool reflection & individual thought, despite all the pressures to conform, adhere to dogma of various kinds, party lines, & so on. Many of the ideas presented here are also expressed in Lessing's novels. Better expressed, in my opinion, but it's certainly interesting & instructive to have them all together in one book. The trouble is, this book is the equivalent of an academic thesis or scholarly study, yet without any of the documentation or foundation which would take it out of the realm of individual reflection or opinion. If one wants to look up any of the studies she mentions, one is on one's own, as there is no bibliography, no citations, no references, etc. Lessing's views are very interesting, but don't mistake these essays for social science. Doris Lessing is a brilliant thinker & keen social & historical observer. She has been a first-hand witness to or participant in much of what has happened politically in the 20th century. She is superbly self-educated, but she is not a sociologist or a historian. She is not even a high school graduate. This book is short, so it does not take a big investment of time to read it, and it certainly sheds light on many phenomena one may have noticed. For example, it helps explain how quickly in the wake of the September 11 attacks on NY & Washington, Americans polarized into 2 camps - the "bomb 'em into oblivion" camp and the "evil/misguided/mistaken US policies are to blame for bringing this hatred upon us" camp. A more mundane example might be how new mothers polarize into "conservative: train your baby to be independent, sleep alone, suck on a pacifier, wean early" & "liberal: a filled need goes away, sleep with your baby, nurse until the baby chooses to wean" positions. It also help explain the process by which suicide bombers and kamikaze hijackers come to be. So if you are interested in these issues, or enjoy the more analytical passages of Doris Lessing's novels, this book is defintely worth a read. But take it with a grain of salt. And if you don't like that sort of thing, read MARTHA QUEST instead.
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