Diaries of Jane Somers

by Doris Lessing

Book Overview

First published in 1984, under a pseudonym, as 'The Diary of a Good Neighbour' and 'If the Old Could ...', now published as 'The Diaries of Jane Somers', this is in many ways classic Lessing. As... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394729552
• ISBN13: 9780394729558
• Release Date: January 1984
• Publisher: Vintage Books USA
• Length: 501 Pages
• Weight: 2.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 4.3" x 7.2"

Customer Reviews

Beautifully written

The Diaries of Jane Somers is actually two novels: "The Good Neighbor" and "If the Old Could" written by Doris Lessing under the pseudonym Jane Somers. This was Lessing's attempt to demonstrate how difficult it is for new writers to get published. Her regular publishers rejected the novels, so she proved her point, but why any publisher would pass by these novels is beyond me. These beautifully written novels tell the story of Jane Somers, successful London career woman, who gets involved with a poor, elderly woman. An intricate relationship develops between Jane (Janna) and Maudie that changes Janna forever. In "If the Old Could" Janna's visiting of the elderly fades into the background as she has a platonic affair, and also has to deal with a difficult niece who moves into her flat, uninvited. I feel like I can't do justice to the plot in this review, but the writing is so good, the characters so perfectly drawn that the plot is really hardly the point.