Mara and Dann (1999) by Doris Lessing

 Book Review

Mara and Dann (1999)

by Doris Lessing

   Doris Lessing won the Nobel Prize in Literature 2007, which led to an early "viral" moment of her nonchalantly reacting to the news.   When she won, the Committee noted that her bibliography included 50 titles and several genres.  Lessing had four novels on the 1,001 Books to Read Before You Die list, which was published just before she won the Nobel.  One of them, her 1979 book Shikasta, is from the science fiction portion of her bibliography, like Mara and Dann. 

   Mara and Dann flopped back in 1999- the New York Times called it flatfooted and tedious.  It's a picaresque about a brother sister duo who have to flee southern Africa in the far-future, after a new ice age has rendered the northern hemisphere uninhabitable. Unlike the New York Times, I enjoyed Mara and Dann, specifically the Audiobook.  Picaresque's are similarly well suited for the Audiobook format, since you are taken on a journey with the characters.    Lessing's future Africa, called Ifrik in the book, keeps the reader in the dark for the first portion of the book, these austere portions are the ones that work best.  As Mara and Dann work their way north the world becomes more familiar, and for me, less interesting.

 Still, I'd rather listen to Mara and Dann again before I'd listen to an Audiobook narrated by a precocious but confused adolescent living in difficult circumstances.