The Real Thing: Stories and Sketches

"Doris Lessing has a powerful voice and a particular one. It speaks in anger at the distortion of personal relations ion a unsound society, but speaks it with a wit that manages to be both pitiless and compassionate." — Richard Eder, Los Angeles Times

The stories and sketches in this collection penetrate to the heart of human experience with the passion and intelligence readers have come to expect of Doris Lessing. Most of the pieces are set in contemporary London, a city the author loves for its variety, its diversity, the way it connects the life of animals and birds in the parks to the streets. Lessing's fiction also explores the darker corners of relationships between women and men, as in the rich and emotionally complex title story, in which she uncovers a more parlous reality behind the façade of the most conventional relationship between the sexes.

The stories and sketches in this collection penetrate to the heart of human experience with the passion and intelligence readers have come to expect of Doris Lessing. Most of the piece are set in contemporary London, a city the author loves for its variety, its diversity, its transitoriness, the way it connects the life of animals and birds in the parks to the streets. Lessing's fiction also explores the darker corners of relationships between women and men, as in the rich and emotionally complex title story, in which she uncovers a more parlous reality behind the facade of the most conventional relationship between the sexes.

"A rich portrait of contemporary London...As always, Lessing expertly deciphers the complex relationships that characterize modern life." - New York Times Book Review

"[The Real Thing] showcases the uncompromising realism that first won Doris Lessing fame...A real treat for Lessing fans." - Wendy Smith, Cleveland Plain Dealer

"A rich portrait of contemporary London...As always, Lessing expertly deciphers the complex relationships that characterize modern life." - New York Times Book Review

"Doris Lessing has a powerful voice and a particular one. It speaks in anger at the distortion of personal relations ion a unsound society, but speaks it with a wit that manages to be both pitiless and compassionate." - Richard Eder, Los Angeles Times

"The most accessible and lyrical of [Doris Lessing's] books, it registers the pulse of a modern metropolis." - Robert Taylor, Boston Globe