The Sweetest Dream: A Novel

While there are many critiques of the radical left written by conservatives (often as dogmatic and out of touch with reality as their targets), this is a critique from a liberal/moderate left viewpoint that should touch a chord to people who are concerned about the injustices in the world while knowing that there are no simple solutions. The title of the book refers to the dream world that will come after the "glorious revolution."This book is in the form of a narrative about a group of people from the sixties until our time. The plot is rather weak and several of the characters are extreme stereotypes but they and the story serve as a vehicle to chronicle the social evolutions of the last 40 years and it is there where Lessing is at her best giving wonderful snapshots of the times while providing her sharp social commentary. The story takes place in London and a fictional African country that seems to stand for Zimbabwe. There are strong sketches of the suffering of the African people, emphasizing the role of the local corrupt despots in contributing to their misery. Lessing does not use the term, but I have heard Africans describing their new elite as the "black British". Her descriptions do justice to the term. She provides devastating pictures of the radical left, both of the old time Communists and of the "new" left. Comrade Johnny is as irresponsible a husband and father as one can possibly imagine and at the same time an unrepentant Stalinist who completely disregards reality. His dogmatism may seem unreal but I had the misfortune of knowing such people when I was growing up (outside the U.S.) and they are indeed as dogmatic as Lessing describes them (and often almost as irresponsible as comrade Johnny). The main sympathetic characters are three women, unselfish in the extreme. Johnny's mother Julia, his first wife Frances, and his stepdaughter Sylvia provide the models for women who keep families and societies together in each of three generations. There is also an African woman, Rebecca, who plays a similar role in a mission and eventually she dies from AIDs transmitted to her by her husband. Sylvia works as a doctor in an African mission hospital and she provides the main link between the two geographical locales. Most of the male characters are unsympathetic, from the corrupt African officials to the globe trotting agents of "philanthropic" organizations that tend to do more harm than good. However, there are several female villains as well. One of them, Rose, is a vitriolic yellow journalist as self-centered and irresponsible as the male villains. Lessing provides devastating and funny sketches of her and other extreme feminists. With all her feminism Rose complains that "political correctness" is plot of the American imperialists to take over the world. Another ultra-feminist comes across the statement that the "female mosquito transmits malaria" and rails against the "fascist" establishment that she thinks is responsible for the statement.Because political and social commentary is a big (and the strongest) component of this book the reader's own political orientation will affect the enjoyment of the book. If you think that Stalin has been misunderstood, or if you think that social problems will be solved by posting the ten commandments in schools, this is not a book for you.

I came back to this after reading Jenny Diski's cancer memoir, which detailed her role in Lessing's life and the particular unkindness of this book. Strangely, I liked The Sweetest Dream better this time around, not because of Diski's veiled references (which I think have to do with the representation of Lessing's one-time best friend, a prototype of Molly in The Golden Notebook, a minor character here) but because I feel more tolerant of the main character, a woman who never gives up her self-sacrificing caretaking of her extended family. This book now strikes me as very much a document of a particular chunk of the twentieth century and quite satisfying for that reason. The "sweetest dream" of the title is still European communism, but the story also focuses on the failures of European NGOs in African postcolonial states.

The Sweetest Dream begins as the story of Francis Lennox, and the group of disparate youths who come in and out of her life and her London home. The era is evoked by Lessing in her typically intelligent prose, with characters who are well-defined and a plot that, although very loose, is always interesting. Halfway through the book, however, the young Sylvia leaves to become a doctor in ravaged Africa, and when she arrives there the book loses all its focus. It's a steep decline from the book's enjoyable first part, and is emblematic of Lessing's tendency to (in her later works) go off the deep end and never really find her way back. Lessing is interesting throughout the book for her powers of observation, as well as how she defines the character's desires and the way they intersect, but the book nevertheless quickly becomes a tedious chore to finish as the plot offers a dwindling amount of storytelling for the reader to hold onto (or even be interested in). The end result is a mess, a beautiful one that is written in earnest with genuine compassion at its center, but a mess nonetheless. Tepidly recommended for Lessing completists only.

The main character is basically Mother London who spends her time cooking for a group of feckless and purposeless waifs who, miraculously turn into to highly successful world players in a conclusion that stretches the reader's ability to suspend disbelief to the limit. Structurally, the book follows the central Mother London character in almost linear fashion until, a quarter of the way from the end, the book takes a right angle turn to follow one of the redeemed waifs through an African odyssey. I don't know a single other author who could get away with this kind of shift without bringing down the critical roof on her head.

This novel spans multiple generations (covering approximately the 1960s to the 1980s, flashing back through World War I, and ranging over two continents), reminiscent of a less mythic East of Eden, all while retaining Lessing's always-impressive attention to the details of human thought and behavior, whether those characters are at a kitchen table, attending a Marxist rally, or in a dirt-floored schoolroom. Fans of Lessing's The Golden Notebook will find this work similar in many ways but more accessible. A compelling read from start to finish.

Another brilliant novel by Doris Lessing...if you're a fan of hers, this is a must read....if you're not, this novel is a good place to start. It's a story set in the 60's in London of a communal "family" who eventually splinters off to work in Africa and re-unites many years later. It has a political background, as most of Lessing's novels do, but she brings out the best and worst in her characters to tell a story that comes full circle. Brilliant.

Struggling to finish reading the book.

The Sweetest Dream is a 'proper' novel dealing with real issues by means of well-drawn characters against a historical backdrop. It's not an easy read but it is rewarding. Lessing makes her points and states her views so forthrightly that it seems impossible that they are not always generally held views. The main feminine character, Francis Lennox, is a very put-upon lady and indeed men do not come out of this book very well. The men in the book pursue big agendas which are frequently at odds with how they behave to those around them. The heroine literally devotes her life doing good to others but is taken advantage of by most of the men in her life (the reader urges her to say 'no' but she will not listen!). The last third of the book deals with a sub-plot about HIV in Africa and continues the themes of hypocrisy and corruption by men and some unselfish behaviour by one of the young women, Sylvia, who grew up in the unconventional household overseen by Francis. This book deals with the rise and fall of communism and the impacts that it has had on people involved in its propagation and those who love them.

Well written but I thought the book was too drawn out. Too pedestrian in first half.

Excellent, a denunciation of what she once believed in

A fantastic book! I found it hard to put this down. The characters are very well developed and Africa is a fascinating backdrop for the second half of the book.