2002 Year End Staff Picks

The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five, Doris Lessing
Recommended by Doug

Lessing wrote a number of books classified as science fiction, but in which the SF theme is minor. "Marriages.." reads more like an allegory or fable. For me, the book is about the dynamic tension between our polar opposites, as individuals and as societies. And about the danger of banishing one force in favour of the other.

The story centers around the king of a warlike and aggressive country, who is forced to marry the queen of a peaceful, utopian state. The warlike nation is rapidly killing off its neighbours and its own citizens through battle and starvation. The other country, which on the surface looks like paradise, has lost its vitality: cattle are not breeding, people are bored and have lost their creative energy. Stagnation is taking over.

The stormy and passionate struggle between the two rulers, as they attempt to coexist, is delightful--and aims right at the heart of the tensions and "warfare" in any deep personal relationship. And it reveals how each side is sterile and half-complete without the other. You cannot have a pure utopia. Good without evil eventually dies of boredom. And warfare threatens to kill us all without compassion.

There are three 'zones' in Lessing's title. The reader is welcome to discover what the third zone is!

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