I have started reading this new book called The Cleft by Doris Lessing. It won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007.

It is absolute genius. It is a fiction novel.

I want to paraphrase a part of the book I read because it is has very interesting themes.

For mature audiences.

"It is described, that women were created first and men came from women, unlike what the Old Testament describes as women coming from a man's rib.

There are the Clefts, the Shes, although, why should they be named something when there is only Shes. Mothers gave birth and as soon as they were old enough, they gave birth too. All female. Shes.

One day, a Cleft gave birth to a deformed child. They had a tube and two sacs. They did not want deformed children, so they threw them on the shore and a giant eagle would come along and take it away. Soon, more Clefts were giving birth to these deformed children. The Old Shes became worried. These Monsters were coming up everywhere. They continued to throw the babes onto the shore and an eagle would take it away.

The Clefts thought that the eagles were taking the Monster babes away to their nest to be eaten but one day, they saw a full grown Monster near their shores. How could this be? The Old Shes ordered that the Monster babes be thrown into the ocean, but the eagles still attempted to take these babes.

This started a war against the eagles and the clefts and many died. Yet, the Clefts continued to give birth to Monsters. The Old Shes decided that they would try to understand these babes. They noticed they looked like Clefts. They had nipples and looked the same except for their tube and sacks. However, because they weren't Clefts, they mistreated these Monsters. They fed they just enough, but they were always hungry. They wanted to see if they really were Clefts. So they removed the Monsters tubes and sacks but they always died. The eagles could hear the Monsters screams and tried to save them.

The details of the story is not clear, as it has been passed down via the Memories, but the Old Shes noticed with the jellies, that the Monster jelly would put his tube into the She jelly and she would make the eggs. There are other tales that the Young Clefts went to visit the Monsters and they put their tubes into them, but it is uncertain. However, after some time, the Clefts lost the ability to give birth without the monsters"



I am only just into the book, and it is said that there is a lot of holes in that tale, so I am sure that it going to be explained.
However, just the ideas that are being put into their reader's head are quite interesting.

So is it set on earth?

I guess so, but it never actually says.

I read a review of the book since that weird little passage that you put there intrigued me somewhat Emilia and basically its a fictional view of what the origins of the human race may have been like. The book has no real characters, as in no personality or interaction and apparently the entire book is written like that with a whole heap of random stuff happening.

The book seems like a heap of crap to me, I don't understand whats so good about it or why it has good reviews. This is certainly not what I would normally read.

You would be better of reading Darwin's book about evolution, at least you would learn something worthwhile from that.

This book just seems like some crazy lady's view of the world.

I wonder Emilia, how long is this book? I'm interested to hear how much she writed about this crap and do correct me if I'm wrong, this is just from what I read in a book review.

Here is a link of the book review that I read if anybody feels the need to see it, it was the first result in Google anyway I think... http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/jan/07/fiction.dorislessing

Just because it is different, doesn't mean it is a heap of crap. What is so wrong about seeing things from different perspectives.

It is 260 pages long and no matter what you say, it must be good because it got a Nobel Prize.

Yeah I know it must be good, since it got a Nobel Prize... I just don't understand why lol.