Description: "One of postcolonial fiction's brightest lights makes mythic the battle of the sexes. . . . A dark parable, powerful . . . " - Kirkus Reviews "A superb and daring work...An extraordinary vision of the establishment of human life on Earth that overturns every other way of seeing it...As speculative and outrageous as it is, it is also convincing in the way all fine art is convincing...What an amazing book, bringing together as it does Lessing's radicalism, her feminism and her propensity for speculative fiction in a marvelous...gift from one of the great mothers of the contemporary novel." - Alan Cheuse, Chicago Tribune "Doris Lessing-iconoclast and feminist icon...stirs up debate...She has written a revised origin of species...ironic, provocative, epic, heretical, post-modern...vividly descriptive" - Elsbeth Lindner, Miami Herald "Lessing, as she so often does, begins with stereotypes and ends with archetypes...This, she says is how it is and always has been with men and women." - John Leonard, Harper's Magazine "Eminent novelist Lessing offers an alternative origin story for the human race." - Publishers Weekly "Like Philip Roth's EVERYMAN, [THE CLEFT] has the feeling of a conceptual fable, a pared down form that perhaps only writers who have tried so much can permit themselves. Where Roth gave us life told as a tale by a mortal and altogether male body, Lessing gives us a myth of origin and a speculation on how sexual difference tumbled us into history where generation is key." - Lisa Appignanesi, The Times (London) "Thought-provoking and compelling...This multifaceted account of life, love, gender, history, and the power of story is engrossing." - Library Journal "Lessing satirizes the unchanging behavioral patterns of men and women...Her engaging tale is told with the simplicity of an aural history committed to memory." - New Statesman "The raw excitement of life in an age when fire was a novelty, and notions of time, family, morality, were completely alien, is well captured...Pure entertainment; an amusing series of what-ifs by one of the world's great storytellers." - Sunday Telegraph "A distinctly feminine fiction...A measured acknowledgement of a universal ignorance, which compels men and women to be only belatedly aware of what makes them most themselves." - Times Literary Supplement (London) "A bold, inventive and challenging book from a writer who continues to enlighten and astonish us." - Michael Arditti, Arts & Book Review "At the age of 87, the grande dame of British letters has lost none of the grit or political drive that has propelled and compelled her writing over the years...At its core, THE CLEFT is a creation myth...Lessing...tells an interesting tale, one that is both cautionary and consistent with what we all know to be true--we can't live with 'em and we can't live without 'em." - Baltimore Sun "Outspoken, prolific, and influential, Lessing has cycled through an array of literary genres in her quest to tell stories that protest prejudice, fathom consciousness, and chart the entrenched battle between the sexes....A mordantly entertaining fable rich in incident, discernment, and reflection." - Donna Seaman, Booklist

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