The Good Terrorist

Oh, Alice, what would everyone else do without you? There wouldn’t be hot water – or even water of any kind – electricity, or money. Alice Mellings is definitely the central character of this novel, of this little group of vagabonds who have ties to the terrorists in Northern Ireland and Soviets. Alice, who is in her 30s, becomes the de facto organiser of the group, partly because the rest of them couldn’t be bothered to do otherwise.

This is a book in which nothing very much happens. And as a result, it could easily put off quite a few readers. It did set me back for a while – it was the first book in my recent Library Loot haul that I started reading but other books caught my attention and The Good Terrorist lagged behind. But the other day I picked it up again and found myself intrigued by this Alice, this woman, the engine behind the vagabond-terrorist train, as she powers her way to…. to essentially converting an abandoned old dump of a house to a liveable, comfortable dwelling. For the better good of their cause, she reckons. Her thoughts tend towards: “Where was she going to get money. Where. She had to have it. Had to have money. Had to.” She steals from her parents, takes handouts from her friends. There is something so naive and young about her, this 30-something woman who denies her middle-class roots, who lets her boyfriend (or whatever Jasper is – I can’t quite figure it out) step all over her while she gazes adoringly at him with puppy dog eyes. I think part of the reason for pursuing this book to its final pages is that need to figure out Alice. Why is Alice the doormat/organiser/oddity that she is?

As Faye describes Alice: “I’ve met people like you before, Alice. In the course of my long career. You cannot let things be. You’re always keeping things up and making things work. If there’s a bit of dust in a corner you panic.”

It’s been such a long time since reading Lessing. I remember buying The Golden Notebook from the Harvard Bookstore when travelling with my friend through parts of eastern US. I remember purchasing the book and reading it, but haven’t the faintest idea today what it’s about. But after The Good Terrorist, I’m looking forward to seeing what else Lessing has been up to. She has such an eye for creating characters. Self-absorbed, yes, but fascinatingly so.

Lessing has written so many books, both fiction and non-fiction, so I’d welcome any recommendations for future reads!