In Pursuit of the English: a Documentary / Doris Lessing 239 p.

Nonfiction by recently deceased novelist and Nobelist Lessing tells of her arrival in England in the 50s after growing up in Southern Africa.  Specifically, she takes us inside the multi-family London house where she and her toddler son rent a room.  Her housemates are a colorful bunch, but, as always with Lessing, it's her almost scientific insight into their characters that sets her writing apart.  Her closest friend, Rose, for example, dresses, talks and behaves in a certain way which is emblematic of the London street where she grew up, her experiences during the Blitz, and the types of boyfriends her mother had when Rose was a child.

While the prose here is less than elegant, I nevertheless enjoyed this window into postwar London, its disappointments and privations, its con men and prostitutes, and its imminent changes.