The blessings and curses of the short story
collection is that one gets to view the writer’s universe in a relatively close
frame. We get to see the concerns of
the writer, and how he or she develops them across plot, character, setting and
pace.
This is certainly the case with Doris Lessing’s
collection of stories, The Habit of
Loving. The settings take place in
post War London, or the veld of a South African British colony, a resort in
Germany between the wars, and in the final, longer story, post War Germany.
The stories are impressive and of uniformly high
quality. There is not the feeling in
this book that one or two stories are holding up the rest. By the same token, no single story really
stands out in this collection. They are
evenly good, and as such, not particularly noteworthy.
But even without the punch, this collection is certainly worth reading. If one is new to Lessing, you can get a
flavor for her style and range. For one
who as read some Lessing, especially The
Golden Notebook, you can see her different voices on display in another
context.
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