The Grass Is Singing

A slowly unfolding story, beginning with the murder of a woman. We get to follow the prequel story leading up to her murder: how that woman, Mary, marries a farmer in 1940s South Rhodesia (or is it South Africa? I never really got to know) and has a *really bad time*, bluntly speaking. There are so many layers to this book, I'm not smart enough to put it down into words. First of all, Lessing doesn't shy away from picturing the blunt racism in southern Africa back in the day. There are many taboo words being thrown around. There are zero perspectives from any non-white person ("natives", as they're frequently referred to). Further, there's Mary's descent from a seemingly naïve, carefree bachelorette in the city, to a really *bad* person suffering from mental issues. Her story is traumatic and claustrophobic. There's no light in this story. I appreciate Lessing's hyper focus on Mary throughout: how we get to follow her darkest thoughts and actions. There's no smoothing things over. In…