extraordinary - Rated 
Lessing's understanding and generosity of spirit in the depiction of relationships between men and women is unsurpassed. The women have insight depth and generosity and a knowledge of men's inability to be emotionally direct. And that too is an attraction between the genders. And repulsion and rejection and abandonment and forgiveness and a great big hole of misunderstandings. No one is to blame it is just a tour de force of speaking the unspeakable - and knowing the unknowable.
Hmmmm... - Rated 
There were parts of this book i found a little boring, self-indulgent and a bit unnecessary, but all in all i did enjoy it and it was a good book, i just probably won't be reading it again any time soon!
Complex and Quietly Absorbing... - Rated 
One of the most illuminating additions to this edition of the novel is its introduction: two introductions in fact, each written by Lessing in 1971 and 1993 respectively. The inclusion of an author's thoughts on their own work is always fascinating. That Lessing imagined her own central theme as being about breaking down, in her own words: "when people "crack up" it is a way of self-healing, of the inner self's dismissing false dichotomies and divisions", is an excellent example of how the writer loses control over their text once it is let loose in the public imagination.
Whilst it most certainly is a novel about breaking down, it is also a novel that engages with political, sociological and personal landscapes. The scope of the book, in terms of content, is immense: the decadent life in Africa around the beginning of WWII; a growing disillusionment with communism; life and politics in 1950s Britain; women and love, sex, work, motherhood, men; psychoanalysis; writer's block... the list is almost endless. It feels like numerous novels worked into one encyclopaedic whole, and I'm convinced that Lessing has succeeded in filling one of the "blank spaces where novels ought to be".
The structure of the novel is no less extravagant than its subject matter - and make no mistake, this is a firmly post-modern novel, experimenting with juxtapositions of form and content, and exhibiting a subtle self-awareness. You might need to keep a notebook yourself. However, the sections aren't random, and can be followed easily enough providing you keep your brain in gear...
And that's the reality of reading this novel. It's a novel that demands the reader's full attention, and it's most certainly a novel that demands more than one reading. This isn't popular throwaway fiction, it's a literary tour de force, and as a reader you are required to bring along thought and effort. This is a novel that takes time to make an impact; a novel that only starts working long after other novels have been forgotten; a beautiful and carefully written novel that gets its hooks into you in a singularly complex and quietly absorbing way.
Oh So Disappointing..... - Rated 
I was really looking forward to reading The Golden Notebook but it was Oh So Disappointing! It is a very complex book - but although the individual parts are not difficult to comprehend (and some could actually be stand-alone books) they do not add up to a coherent whole. Within the book there are lots of interesting bits. The despair of the members of the Communist Party in the 1950s and the differing ways of coping was certainly worth exploring. Anna also mentions meeting desperate women living in council estates while she is out canvassing for the elections. But then we hear no more of them. The narrative set in Rhodesia had some interesting aspects on colonialism, racism and the relationship of communists with African nationalists. But this episode did not seem to mesh with the rest of the book. And the inclusion of a novel within the novel about a woman like Anna was just plain irritating.
I read this book while in India. This made it hard to empathise with the problems of the middle-class women in The Golden Notebook when faced with real poverty. The old woman stretching out her bony hand for a few rupees would probably love to change places with the educated moneyed whining women in the book!
Anna wonders if Tommy's attempted suicide was as a result of reading her notebooks. I know how he felt!
not for the casual reader - Rated
I could hardly put it down, but I'm under no illusion...
Don't read this book unless you are interested in: feminist literature, mental breakdown, social and personal entropy, freudian philosophy, the creative process, the aristic crisis, the communist experience in the west, the artist as ethnographer, the need to love and be loved and human ability to repeat the same mistakes (again and again and again).
Don't read this book if you aren't able (or willing) to examine art within it's cultural and historical context.
And whatever you do don't read this book if you want a nice story with a straight forward message.
Otherwise its a very rewarding and engaging read that makes you wonder if you too could help push a boulder.
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