Customer Reviews

Mara and Dann: An Adventure

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A great fan both of Doris Lessing and of science fiction, I have no idea how the publication of this book escaped my attention: it's a marvel. Lessing has visited the future before, in her five-volume Canopus in Argos series, but this book bears little resemblance to her earlier opus. Sporting less philosophy and more "adventure" (and not as challenging to read as many of Lessing's books), the novel seems aimed at a broader audience; I even suspect she may have written this story with the "young adult" market in mind.

Set in Africa thousands of years in the future, after cataclysmic events have destroyed civilization and towards the end of a new Ice Age, the novel certainly boasts plenty of coy references to fossilized and bastardized remnants of our own era. Yet, in spite of its futuristic veneer, "Mara and Dann" has more in common with many fantasy novels than with science fiction. Lessing's plot is modeled after a sword-and-dragon tale: their parents slaughtered, siblings Mara and Dann are spirited away from their homeland during the calamities prompted by an unrelenting famine and drought. As the heat wave advances north, they flee up the continent, searching for a new paradise.

Some of the reviews in the press fault the book for being repetitious, and those notices may have, unfortunately, turned off some readers. The New York Times, for example, assigned two inappropriate reviewers: for the daily paper, a critic who has shown a recurring and predictable hostility towards "literary" sci-fi/fantasy novels (and who, if she in fact did read Lessing's Canopus series, certainly doesn't remember as much of it as she pretends) and, in the Sunday Times, a little-known novelist and admirer of Doris Lessing's more "realist" novels who seems never to have read post-apocalyptic fiction at all.

On the surface, their chief criticism is correct: like many fantasy novels, this one employs a cyclical rhythm in its presentation of Mara and Dann's escapades--new locale, followed by capture or separation, then dangers and threats, ending with flight or escape. Although the story doesn't start with "Once upon a time," Lessing admits in her introduction that the characters in this "reworking of a very old tale" end up "happily ever after." But the critics entirely miss the allegorical (and, yes, political) undercurrent: as the two survivors travel north and each civilization they encounter becomes more "advanced," individual liberties deteriorate in more elaborate--and more troubling--ways. While journeying through a continent, Mara and Dann progress from the tribal culture of the Stone Age to the mercantile society of the Middle Ages. Their adventures may resemble each other in kind but definitely not in degree, and they "live happily ever after" only when they escape the trappings of "civilization" and accept an arrangement that values individual freedom over collective subjugation.

One could argue further that Lessing has created a microcosm of human history, but she's also managed to tell a great story. Indeed, instead of finding the book monotonous or slow-paced, I (like many other readers) couldn't put it down.

A little girl and her baby brother are suddenly ripped from a life of ease and safety and thrust into a life-long adventure, fleeing for their lives in a world gone mad. Lawlessness and social disintegration run rampant, hard on the heels of pervasive drought which will soon make their world uninhabitable. The story takes place far in the future, in a continent called Ifrik (Africa), at a time when our present civilization is buried beneath a new ice age.

How will the brother and sister survive? How will they change? What is the meaning behind their incredible adventures? As they move slowly and painfully north, from one disastrous situation to another, North becomes a metaphor for everyone's search--the place where things will somehow be better. The place where life will have meaning. As always, Lessing is creating more than an adventure; it is also a commentary on the human condition, on the rise and fall of civilization, on the desperate human wish to ignore bad news and cling to a comfortable present, on the thoughtless destruction of the environment, on meaningless cruelty, on tribalism, on hope and hopelessness.

It takes a little effort to get started, to travel this hot, dry, dusty road with Mara and Dann, but the adventure soon takes hold of you and draws you onward. You also have to go North. This book is a masterpiece.

Doris Lessing is writing some wonderful books these days, and Mara and Dann is one of her most interesting tales. My initial impression is that this book holds it own with some of her masterpieces. Suffice it to say that it is simply wonderful.

Mrs. Lessing's strong imagination and narrative control results in a fully developed future world that reads more like history than science fiction. The novel is set at the presumptive beginning of the end of an ice age far in the future. We follow Mara and Dann, the two protagonists, on their quest from drought-stricken south central Ifrik, what we call Africa, towards the undefined North. A permanent drought has developed where they live, and the region no longer supports human life. The North becomes the symbolic goal of their quest, an undefined something where things simply have to be better. This is an heroic quest, but the characters are seeking a life, not a throne.

The book is brutal, and the characters live unforgiving lives. In a time when there is not enough, people steal basic necessities from others and look upon death in a roadway as just another part of life. Children die, are left in the desert, and no one grieves for them. Ifrik is changing so that only insects and reptiles thrive. Humans have changed inexplicably, but the protagonists have no frame of reference to explain what is different. Some groups seem almost Neanderthal, living in caves and rock villages, and some villages contain only people who are exact copies of each other.

As the characters move North on their quest, they pass through many cities, towns, and villages. There are moderately benign states that ignore the expanding drought to their ultimate detriment. There are river towns that live in more or less anarchy. There are states ruled by incredibly stupid generals. There are frontier cities where money is still the most important thing and women can be won and lost at dice. The pictures Lessing paints of these different ways of life is for me the most fascinating aspect of the book.

Mrs. Lessing continues to amaze me with the range and depth of her talents. "What did you see?" I saw a world that is hard to forget.

HIGHLY recommended.

This is the tale of the survival and adventures of two interesting characters in the distant future after much of civilization has declined on the earth. At every point, the reader could cynically question the believability of the details of what happens, but it is much more fun to be carried along for the ride. This is an adult "Chronicles of Narnia" with themes about loyalty and hope. Lessing carries the story energetically along, and there is always something new. The most difficult character is Dann. I am guessing that his mercurial changeability is meant to result from his early abuse, but it does get a bit tiresome, and you wonder why someone doesn't suggest he try to do better. Lessing is a "big" author. She just seems to have stories spout from her as from a spring, and they tumble down the hillside in somewhat unruly manner. If you want perfection of plot and style, she may not be your cup of tea. If you want a boundless and sympathetic exposition of human frailties and human efforts at goodness, you will find her wonderful

In her novel, Mrs Lessing depicts the epic adventure of Mara and her brother Dann who live in the distant future on the African continent, then called Ifrik. Its centre is plagued by an incessant drought whereas its northern part is permanently covered by a coat of ice. Mara and Dann are respectively seven and four when they become orphans. They are brought to a place called The Rock Village and it is Daima who takes care of them. A few years later they begin their epic journey from the centre of Ifrik to its northern part where there is more water and consequently more food. During their trip they come across all kinds of primitive peoples living in very poor conditions and in many instances Dann and Mara have to fight in order to survive.
It is an apocalyptic world which Mrs Lessing imagined for her novel. One in which people live in tribe-like colonies and behave in a very aggressive manner toward each other. It is a world in which all scientific knowledge has been lost and in which there is no more room for culture or art. There are cities which were once splendid and now have either turned into ruins or have been submerged by floods. Nature has become so hostile that it is barely possible for people to inhabit the centre of Ifrik. There are giant spiders, water dragons, enormous lizards and huge beetles who can bisect a child with their pincers. A frightening vision of the future of our planet indeed.
Readers will no doubt be comforted by the fact that there are still authors today who manage to write a powerful adventure story without resorting to the tedious ingredients of guns, cars, explosions, terrorists, FBI/CIA & Co. and billions of dollars.

Another one of Doris Lessing's eye openers. A fantastic (and even optimistic) adventure story with all the ingredients to keep anyone entertained... A story that will make you think, too. I.e. about how people in any kind of society absolutely refuse to LOOK at their reality. Where they're really at. How they/we try our hardest to stay asleep (comfortably or not), even in the face of disaster. Mara almost falls prey to that same habit (nobody's perfect - and she certainly isn't either), although she has had the benefit from an early age of some special training in *How to See*. The simple description of how this training is achieved (what it enables you to do and what still is up to your courage and guts) is by itself worth reading the book for. Go and get it - it'll be fun and well worth your while.

How wonderful to be able to imagine that you are running alongside Mara and Dann. This page turning book most definitely features in my top 10 favourites. The adventures experienced by this courageous brother and sister were spell binding. The images conveyed by Ms Lessing are both sobering and wonderous. For Mara and Dann to have finally reached the North and home was super but I selfishly wanted them to experience a hundred more adventures. Thank you for such a smashing read.

After carefully reading cautionary reviews on LivingSocial (Facebook), I surmised that Mara and Dann would be slow and rewarding. After reading the book, I agree with the many reviewers who describe the book as slow. But rewarding? How can a book filled with so many implausible actions and two-dimensional characters be rewarding?

For quite a while (150 pages?) I was hooked. I loved the landscape and characters Lessing created. I was swept away into a new world, with intriguing cultures and a vivid landscape. I was curious to know Mara's thoughts and what would become of her. But as the characters journey northward, the story loses coherence.

We move through several areas of Ifrik (Africa) and survey their societies. But the journey itself has very little to compel us--we want to get north, because of some vague notion that things are better. Other than that, there is precious little to pull us through the pages. The book feels like a clump of settings tossed together. At each stop, our protagonists get heavily involved, have intense relationships, lose each other, find each other, ditch everything, and move on. At times the novel feels slapped together, with unlikely little moments to solve its own connundrums.

Worst of all is the goofy presence of Kulik, who somehow lurks in a variety of settings, all across the continent, only to end up in a comic book battle at the novel's end. In her finale, as Lessing rushes to patch together and finish her increasingly silly story, she magically waves in a couple of long lost romantic interests.

I don't doubt that Lessing deserved the Nobel: I've heard that some of her other work is sublime. But this novel, despite its promising start, reads more like a trinket: Lessing played with it for a while, then left it to be kicked around in the dust.

This is a futuristic story of the world taken to the brink of time. The characters are Doris Lessing's most unforgetable.I place Mara as being one of the most unforgetable heroines of all times and Dann- the troubled boy child of a civilization on the brink of non-existance. The trials they endure ,the peoples they meet and conquer, all add up to a very fine read indeed. The story is gripping with the world in utter chaos at the end of an Ice Age. Doris Lessing has managed to play with mental illness in a futuristic world, showing how the depth of unease can mar a child for all time. I can't believe I missed this book for so long. It truly is a good read and not easily put down.

I enjoyed this book very much. It gives a clear-eyed vision about what can happen in the future, although I think the changing of the climate in this way would take much more than thousands of years. The description of the qualities of character of Mara, Dann and the other persons in this book is unsurpassed. My advice: read the book, it is a masterpiece!

Margreet de Kloe