Human Conditions: 'The Golden Notebook' by Doris Lessing

Pankaj Mishra joins Adam Shatz to discuss ‘The Golden Notebook’, Doris Lessing’s formally brilliant and startlingly frank 1962 novel. In her portrait of ‘free women’ – unmarried, creatively ambitious, politically engaged – Lessing wrestles with the breakdown of Stalinism, settler colonialism and traditional gender roles. Pankaj and Adam explore the lived experiences that shaped the novel, its feminist reception and why Pankaj considers it to be one of the best representations of ‘the strange uncapturable sensation of living from day to day’. This is an extract from the episode. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series, sign up: Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://lrb.me/applecryt In other podcast apps: https://lrb.me/closereadingsyt Further reading in the LRB: Anita Brookner: Women Against Men https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v04/n... Frank Kermode: The Daughter Who Hated Her https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v30/n... Jenny Diski: Why can‘t people just be sensible? https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v37/n... Close Readings is a multi-series podcast subscription from the London Review of Books exploring different periods of literature through a selection of key works. Enjoy an introductory grounding like no other from Europe's leading literary journal: fluent, rigorous, irreverent and never boring. Find more episodes here:    • Close Readings   Running in 2024: ON SATIRE with Colin Burrow and Clare Bucknell HUMAN CONDITIONS with Adam Shatz, Judith Butler, Pankaj Mishra and Brent Hayes Edwards AMONG THE ANCIENTS II with Emily Wilson and Thomas Jones Plus two bonus series: MEDIEVAL LOLS with Irina Dumitrescu and Mary Wellesley POLITICAL POEMS with Seamus Perry and Mark Ford Also included in the Close Readings subscription, the full series of: AMONG THE ANCIENTS I with Emily Wilson and Thomas Jones MEDIEVAL BEGINNINGS with Irina Dumitrescu and Mary Wellesley THE LONG AND SHORT with Mark Ford and Seamus Perry MODERN-ISH POETS: SERIES 1 with Mark Ford and Seamus Perry ABOUT THE LRB The LRB is Europe’s leading magazine of books and ideas. Published twice a month, it provides a space for some of the world’s best writers to explore a wide variety of subjects in exhilarating detail – from culture and politics to science and technology via history and philosophy. In the age of the long read, the LRB remains the pre-eminent exponent of the intellectual essay, admired around the world for its fearlessness, its range and its elegance. As well as essays and book reviews each issue also contains poems, an exhibition review, ‘short cuts’, letters and a diary, and is available in print, online, and offline via our app. Subscribers enjoy unlimited access to almost 15,000 articles in our digital archive. Our website features a regular blog and a channel of audio and video content, including podcasts, author interviews and highlights from the events programme at the London Review Bookshop.