69. The Memoirs of a Survivor by Doris Lessing

Lessing has referred to this fictional book as “an attempt at autobiography.” Set after an apocalypse of some sort, society in Lessing’s novel is moving out of the unnamed city. Most services have stopped, and electricity, food, and water are scarce. People stay in their homes, as large gangs of kids run through the city, stealing useless electrical gadgets from homeowners. An unnamed elderly woman lives in a small apartment, content to live her lonely life, when a young girl, Emily, comes to stay with her. Emily, at age twelve, soon joins up with the pack of roaming children and falls in love with the gang’s leader, Gerald. All the while, the elderly woman sits in her apartment and views endless “rooms” in her and Emily’s past beyond her apartment’s walls.

I chose to read this book after Lessing was honored with the Nobel Prize for Literature. I have read her before, with my favorite book being The Fifth Child. This was a difficult read, yet an ultimately rewarding read if you can stick with it. Topics such as a society falling apart, the role of women, loyalty, and fear are present and while I am not sure if it is truly autobiographical, it is a memorable contribution to apocalyptic fiction.