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{{infobox book
| name = The Good Terrorist
| image = Image:GoodTerrorist.jpg
| caption = Cover of first UK edition
| alt = Front cover of the first UK edition of The Good Terrorist showing the author's name and book title, and a heavily pixelated picture of a woman's face
| author = [[Doris Lessing]]
| country = United Kingdom
| language = English
| genre = [[Political fiction|Political novel]]
| publisher = [[Jonathan Cape]], UK; [[Alfred A. Knopf|Knopf]], US
| media_type = Print
| published = 1985
| awards = [[WH Smith Literary Award]]<br/>[[:it:Premio Mondello|Mondello Prize]]
| isbn = 0-224-02323-3
| oclc = 466286852
| pages = 370
| preceded_by =
| followed_by =
}}
'''''The Good Terrorist''''' is a [[1985 in literature|1985]] [[political fiction|political novel]] written by British novelist [[Doris Lessing]]. It was first published in September 1985 in the United Kingdom by [[Jonathan Cape]], and in the United States by [[Alfred A. Knopf]]. The story examines events in the life of Alice, a naïve and well-intentioned [[squatting|squatter]], who moves in with a group of radicals in London and is drawn into their [[terrorism|terrorist]] activities.
Lessing was inspired to write ''The Good Terrorist'' by the [[Provisional Irish Republican Army|Irish Republican Army]] (IRA) [[Harrods bombings|bombing]] of the [[Harrods]] department store in London in 1983. She had been a member of the [[Communist Party of Great Britain|British Communist Party]] in the early 1950s, but later grew disillusioned with communism. Three reviewers labelled ''The Good Terrorist'' as a [[satire]], while Lessing called it humorous. Some critics called the novel's title an [[oxymoron]], stating that it highlights Alice's ambivalent nature, and that she is neither a good person nor a good revolutionary.
''The Good Terrorist'' divided reviewers, with some being impressed by the book's insight and characterisation, and others complaining about the novel's style and the characters' lack of depth. One critic complimented Lessing's "strong descriptive prose and her precise and realistic characterisations",<ref name=Gross/> but another called the book's text "surprisingly bland",<ref name=Kuehn/> and described the characters as "trivial or two-dimensional or crippled by self-delusions".<ref name=Kuehn/> ''The Good Terrorist'' was shortlisted for the [[Man Booker Prize|Booker Prize]], and won the [[:it:Premio Mondello|Mondello Prize]] and the [[WH Smith Literary Award]].
==Plot summary==
''The Good Terrorist'' is written in [[Narration#Third-person|subjective third person]] from the point of view of Alice, an unemployed politics and economics graduate in her mid-thirties who drifts from commune to commune. She considers herself a revolutionary, fighting against "fascist imperialism",{{sfn|Lessing|2013|p=58}} but is still dependent on her parents, whom she treats with contempt. In the early-1980s, Alice joins a [[squatting|squat]] of like-minded "comrades"{{sfn|Lessing|2013|p=8}} in a derelict house in London. Accompanying her is Jasper, a graduate she took in at a student commune she lived in fifteen years previously. Jasper became dependent on Alice and followed her from squat to squat. Alice fell in love with him, only to become frustrated later by his aloofness and bourgeoning homosexuality. Other members of the squat include Bert, their ineffective leader, and a lesbian couple, the maternal Roberta and her unstable and fragile partner Faye.{{sfn|Scanlan|1990|p=190}}
The abandoned house is in a state of disrepair and is earmarked by the [[Greater London Council|City Council]] for demolition. To the indifference of the other comrades, Alice takes it upon herself to clean up and renovate the house, and convinces the Council that it is worth saving. She also persuades the authorities to restore the electricity and water supplies. Alice becomes the house's "mother", cooking for everyone, and dealing with the local police, who are trying to evict them. The members of the squat belong to the Communist Centre Union (CCU), and attend demonstrations and pickets. Alice involves herself in some of these activities, but spends most of her time working on the house.
To be more useful to the struggle, Jasper and Bert travel to Ireland to persuade the [[Provisional Irish Republican Army|Irish Republican Army]] (IRA) to let the CCU join them, but they are rejected. They also take a trip to the [[Soviet Union]] to offer their services, but are turned down. The IRA and [[KGB]] have begun taking notice of them and start using the house as a conduit for propaganda material and guns.{{sfn|Lessing|2013|p=304}} Packages start arriving in the middle of the night, and Alice, to avoid attracting the attention of the police, raises objections. This results in visits to the house by strangers who question the squat's decision making.<ref name=Rogers/> After this, the comrades decide to ignore orders, to act on their own, and to consider themselves "Freeborn British Communists".{{sfn|Lessing|2013|p=376}}
Going it alone now, they start experimenting with explosives and build a car bomb. Alice does not fully support this action, but accepts the majority decision. They target an upmarket hotel in [[Knightsbridge]], but their inexperience results in the premature detonation of the bomb, which kills Faye and several passers-by. The remaining comrades, shaken by what they have done, decide to leave the squat and go their own way. Alice, disillusioned by Jasper, chooses not to follow him and remains behind because she cannot bear to abandon the house into which she has put so much effort. Despite her initial reservations about the bombing, Alice feels a need to justify their actions to others, but realises it would be fruitless because "[o]rdinary people simply didn't understand".{{sfn|Lessing|2013|p=392}} She acknowledges that she is a terrorist now, though she cannot remember when the change happened.{{sfn|Lessing|2013|p=393}}
==Background==
[[File:Doris Lessing 3.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Doris Lessing speaking at a [[Cologne]] literature festival in Germany, 2006|alt=A head-and-shoulders photograph of an elderly woman]]
[[Doris Lessing]]'s interest in politics began in the 1940s while she was living in [[Southern Rhodesia]] (now [[Zimbabwe]]). She was attracted to a group of "quasi-Communist[s]"<ref name=Chronology/> and joined their [[Left Book Club]] in Salisbury (now [[Harare]]).<ref name=Chronology/> Later, prompted by the conflicts arising from [[Racial segregation#Rhodesia|racial segregation]] prominent in Rhodesia at the time, she also joined the [[Rhodesia Labour Party|Southern Rhodesian Labour Party]].<ref name=NobelPrize-bio/> Lessing moved to London in 1949 and began her writing career there. She became a member of the [[Communist Party of Great Britain|British Communist Party]] in the early 1950s, and was an active campaigner [[Anti-nuclear movement|against the use of nuclear weapons]].<ref name=NobelPrize-bio/>
By 1964, Lessing had published six novels, but grew disillusioned with Communism and, after reading ''[[The Sufis]]'' by [[Idries Shah]], turned her attention to [[Sufism]], an Islamic belief system.<ref name=Hazelton/><ref name=Telegraph/> This prompted her to write her five-volume "space fiction" series,<ref name=Hazelton/> ''[[Canopus in Argos|Canopus in Argos: Archives]]'', which drew on Sufi concepts. The series was not well received by some of her readers,<ref name=Hazelton/> who felt she had abandoned her "rational worldview".<ref name=Galin/>
''The Good Terrorist'' was Lessing's first book to be published after the ''Canopus in Argos'' series, which prompted several retorts from reviewers, including, "Lessing has returned to Earth",<ref name=Donoghue/> and "Lessing returns to reality".<ref name=Kirkus/> Several commentators have labelled ''The Good Terrorist'' as a satire,{{sfn|Greene|1997|p=208}}<ref name=RidoutWatkins2011/>{{sfn|Yelin|1998|p=94}} while Lessing called it humorous. She said:
<blockquote>[I]t's not a book with a political statement. It's ... about a certain kind of political person, a kind of self-styled revolutionary that can only be produced by affluent societies. There's a great deal of playacting that I don't think you'd find in extreme left revolutionaries in societies where they have an immediate challenge.<ref name=Donoghue/></blockquote>
Lessing said she was inspired to write ''The Good Terrorist'' by the [[Harrods bombings|IRA bombing of the Harrods department store]] in London in 1983.<ref name=Frick/> She recalled, "the media reported it to sound as if it was the work of amateurs. I started to think, what kind of amateurs could they be?"<ref name=Donoghue/> and realised "how easy it would be for a kid, not really knowing what he or she was doing, to drift into a terrorist group."<ref name=Donoghue/> Lessing already had Alice in mind as the central character: "I know several people like Alice—this mixture of ... maternal caring, ... and who can contemplate killing large numbers of people without a moment's bother."<ref name=Frick/> She described Alice as "quietly comic[al]"<ref name=Donoghue/> because she is so full of contradictions.<ref name=Donoghue/> She said she was surprised how some of the characters (other than Jasper, Alice's love interest) developed, such as the pill-popping and fragile Faye,{{sfn|Scanlan|1990|p=190}} who turned out to be a "destroyed person".<ref name=Frick/>
==Genre==
''The Good Terrorist'' has been labelled a "political novel"<ref name=HarperCollins/> by the publishers and some reviewers, including [[Alison Lurie]] in ''[[The New York Review of Books]]''.<ref name=Lurie/> Lurie stated that as [[political fiction]], it is "one of the best novels ... about the terrorist mentality"<ref name=Lurie/> since [[Joseph Conrad]]'s ''[[The Secret Agent]]'' (1907),<ref name=Lurie/> although this was questioned by William H. Pritchard in ''[[The Hudson Review]]'', who wrote that compared to Conrad, ''The Good Terrorist'' is "shapeless".<ref name=Pritchard/> Several commentators have pointed out that it is more a novel about politics than political fiction.<ref name=Janik2002/> In ''From the Margins of Empire: Christina Stead, Doris Lessing, Nadine Gordimer'', Louise Yelin called the work a novel about politics, rather than a political novel ''per se''.{{sfn|Yelin|1998|p=92}}
''The Good Terrorist'' has also been called a satire. In her book ''Doris Lessing: The Poetics of Change'', Gayle Greene called it a "satire of a group of revolutionaries",{{sfn|Greene|1997|p=208}} and Susan Watkins, writing in ''Doris Lessing: Border Crossings'', described it as a "dry and satirical examination of a woman's involvement with a left-wing splinter group".<ref name=RidoutWatkins2011/> A biography of Lessing for the [[Swedish Academy]] on the occasion of her being awarded the 2007 [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] described the book as "a satirical picture of the need of the contemporary left for total control and the female protagonist's misdirected martyrdom and subjugation".<ref name=NobelPrize-bio/> Yelin said the novel "oscillat[ed] between satire and nostalgia".{{sfn|Yelin|1998|p=94}} Academic Robert E. Kuehn felt that it is not satire at all. He stated while the book could have been a "satire of the blackest and most hilarious kind",<ref name=Kuehn/> in his opinion Lessing "has no sense of humor, and instead of lashing [the characters] with the satirist's whip, she treats them with unremitting and belittling irony".<ref name=Kuehn/>
Virginia Scott called the novel a fantasy. Drawing on [[Lewis Carroll]]'s ''[[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]'' in ''The International Fiction Review'', she wrote that "[Lessing's] Alice with her group of political revolutionaries can be seen as a serious fantasy which has striking parallels to ... Carroll's [[Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)|Alice]]".<ref name=Scott/> Both Alices enter a house and are confronted by seemingly impossible challenges: Carroll's Alice has to navigate passages too small to fit through, while Lessing's Alice finds herself in a barely inhabitable house that is earmarked for demolition.<ref name=Scott/> Both Alices are able to change their appearances: in ''Wonderland'', Alice adjusts her size to suit her needs; in ''The Good Terrorist'', Alice changes her demeanour to get what she wants from others.<ref name=Scott/> Scott noted that at one point in ''The Good Terrorist'', Faye refers to Alice as "Alice the Wonder, the wondrous Alice",{{sfn|Lessing|2013|p=87}} alluding to Carroll's Alice.<ref name=Scott/>
==Themes==
[[File:Harrods, London - June 2009.jpg|thumb|upright|The [[Harrods bombings|1983 IRA bombing]] of the [[Harrods]] department store (shown here in 2009) inspired Lessing to write ''The Good Terrorist''.|alt=A photograph of a multi-storey department store]]
The American novelist [[Judith Freeman (novelist)|Judith Freeman]] wrote that one of the common themes in ''The Good Terrorist'' is that of keeping one's identity in a [[collective]], of preserving "individual conscience".<ref name=Freeman/> This theme suggests that problems occur when we are coerced into conforming. Freeman said that Alice is a "quintessential good woman ... the little ''Hausefrau'' revolutionary",<ref name=Freeman/> but turns bad under peer pressure.<ref name=Freeman/>
Another theme present is the symbolic nature of the house. Margaret Scanlan stated that as in books like ''[[Mansfield Park]]'' and ''[[Jane Eyre]]'', ''The Good Terrorist'' "defines a woman in terms of her house".{{sfn|Scanlan|1990|p=193}} Writing in the journal ''Studies in the Novel'', Katherine Fishburn said that Lessing often uses a house to symbolise "psychological or [[ontology|ontological]] change",{{sfn|Fishburn|1988|p=199}} and that here, "the house ... symbolizes Alice's function in the story".{{sfn|Fishburn|1988|p=199}} Yelin described ''The Good Terrorist'' as "an urban, dystopian updating of the house-as-England genre, [where] ... England is represented by a house in London".{{sfn|Yelin|1998|p=92}} Writing in "Politics of Feminine Abuse: Political Oppression and Masculine Obstinacy in Doris Lessing's ''The Good Terrorist''{{-"}}, Lalbakhsh and Yahya suggest that the house, and the "oppressive relations" in it,{{sfn|Lalbakhsh|Yahya|2012|p=54}} reflect the similarly oppressive relationships in the society it resides in.{{sfn|Lalbakhsh|Yahya|2012|p=54}}
Several critics have focused on the theme of motherhood. In "Mothers and Daughters/Aging and Dying", Claire Sprague wrote that Lessing often dwells on the theme of mothers passing their behaviours onto their daughters, and how the cycle of daughters fighting their mothers permeates each generation.<ref name=Sprague/> The British novelist [[Jane Rogers]] said that ''The Good Terrorist'' "is as unsparing and incisive about motherhood as it is about the extreme left".<ref name=Rogers/> She stated that motherhood here "is terrible":<ref name=Rogers/> Alice's mother is reduced to despair continually yielding to her selfish daughter's demands; Alice mothers Jasper, and has a similar despairing relationship with him. Rogers added that motherhood is depicted here as a compulsion to protect the weak, despite their propensity to retaliate and hurt you.<ref name=Rogers/>
[[Feminism|Feminist]] themes and the subjugation of women have also been associated with ''The Good Terrorist''. Scanlan indicated that while many of the comrades in the book are women, they find that political activity does not elevate their position, and that they are "trapped in the patriarchy they despise".{{sfn|Scanlan|1990|p=193}} Yelin suggested that although Lessing ridicules the male members of the CCU and their role playing, she is also critical of the female members "who collude in male-dominant political organizations and thus in their own oppression".{{sfn|Yelin|1998|p=96}} But with the book's allusions to Jasper's homosexuality, Yelin added that Lessing's "critique of women's infatuation with patriarchal [[misogyny]] and their emotional dependence on misogynist men"{{sfn|Yelin|1998|p=96}} is muted by [[homophobia]] and the "misogyny pervasive in patriarchal constructions of (male) heterosexuality".{{sfn|Yelin|1998|p=96}} Lalbakhsh and Yahya noted that Lessing depicts Alice as a "typical housewife"{{sfn|Lalbakhsh|Yahya|2012|pp=55–56}} who cares for her family, in this case, the squat, but is "ignored and neglected".{{sfn|Lalbakhsh|Yahya|2012|pp=55–56}} They concluded that Alice's fate is sealed because, according to the British [[Socialist feminism|socialist feminist]] [[Juliet Mitchell]], women are "fundamental to the human condition",{{sfn|Lalbakhsh|Yahya|2012|pp=56–57}} yet "their economic, social, and political roles ... are marginal".{{sfn|Lalbakhsh|Yahya|2012|pp=56–57}}
==Critical analysis==
Several critics have called ''The Good Terrorist''{{-'}}s title an [[oxymoron]]. Robert Boschman suggested it is indicative of Alice's "contradictory personality"{{sfn|Boschman|2003|p=95}} that she renovates the squat's house, yet is bent on destroying society.{{sfn|Boschman|2003|p=95}} In ''The Hudson Review'', George Kearns wrote that the title "hovers above the novel with ... irony".{{sfn|Kearns|1986|p=122}} The reader assumes that Alice is the "good terrorist", but that while she may be a good person, she is "rotten at being a terrorist".{{sfn|Kearns|1986|p=122}} Writing in ''[[World Literature Today]]'', Mona Knapp concluded that Lessing's heroine, the "good terrorist", is neither a good person, nor a good revolutionary.<ref name=Knapp/> She knows how to renovate houses and manipulate people to her advantage, but she is unemployed and steals money from her parents.<ref name=Knapp/> When real revolutionaries start using the squat to ship arms, she panics<ref name=Knapp/> and, going behind her comrades' backs, makes a telephone call to the authorities to warn them.{{sfn|Fishburn|1988|p=199}} Knapp called Alice "a bad terrorist and a stunted human being".<ref name=Knapp/> Fishburn suggested that it is Lessing herself who is the "good terrorist", symbolised here by Alice, but that hers is "political terrorism of a literary kind",{{sfn|Fishburn|1988|p=199}} where she frequently disguises her ideas in "very domestic-looking fiction",{{sfn|Fishburn|1988|p=199}} and "direct[ly] challenge[s] ... our sense of reality".{{sfn|Fishburn|1988|p=199}}
Kuehn described Alice as "well-intentioned, canny and sometimes lovable",<ref name=Kuehn/> but as someone who, at 36, never grew up, and is still dependent on her parents.<ref name=Kuehn/> Yelin said Alice is "in a state of perpetual adolescence",{{sfn|Yelin|1998|p=92}} and her need to "mother everyone" is "an extreme case of psychological regression or failure to thrive".{{sfn|Yelin|1998|p=97}} Greene wrote that Alice's "humanitarianism is ludicrous in her world",{{sfn|Greene|1997|p=211}} and described her as "so furiously at odds with herself" because she is too immature to comprehend what is happening and her actions vary from being helpful to dangerous.{{sfn|Greene|1997|p=205}}
Boschman called Lessing's narrative "[[irony|ironic]]"{{sfn|Boschman|2003|p=101}} because it highlights the divide between who Alice is and who she thinks she is, and her efforts to pretend there is no discrepancy.{{sfn|Boschman|2003|p=101}} Alice refuses to acknowledge that her "maternal activities"{{sfn|Boschman|2003|pp=102–103}} stem from her desire to win her mother's approval and, believing that her mother has "betrayed and abandoned" her,{{sfn|Boschman|2003|pp=102–103}} turns to Jasper as a way to "continue to sustain her beliefs about herself and the world".{{sfn|Boschman|2003|pp=102–103}} Even though Jasper takes advantage of her adoration of him by mistreating her, Alice still clings to him because her self-image "vigorously qualifies her perception of [him], and thus proliferates the denial and self-deception".{{sfn|Boschman|2003|p=103}} The fact that Jasper has turned to homosexuality, which Alice dismisses as "his emotional life",{{sfn|Lessing|2013|p=34}} "suits her own repressed desires".{{sfn|Boschman|2003|p=104}} Kuehn called Alice's obsession with the "hapless" and "repellent" Jasper "just comprehensible",<ref name=Kuehn/> adding that she feels safe with his gayness, even though she has to endure his abuse.<ref name=Kuehn/>
Knapp stated that while Lessing exposes self-styled insurrectionists as "spoiled and immature products of the middle class",<ref name=Knapp/> she also derides their ineptness at affecting any meaningful change.<ref name=Knapp/> Lessing is critical of the state which "feeds the very hand that terrorizes it",<ref name=Knapp/> yet she also condemns those institutions that exploits the working class and ignores the homeless.<ref name=Knapp/> Knapp remarks that Lessing does not resolve these ambiguities, but instead highlights the failings of the state and those seeking to overthrow it.<ref name=Knapp/> Scanlan compared Lessing's comrades to [[Richard E. Rubenstein]]'s terrorists in his book ''Alchemists of Revolution: Terrorism in the Modern World''.{{sfn|Scanlan|1990|p=185}} Rubenstein wrote that when "ambitious idealists" have no "creative ruling class to follow or a rebellious lower class to lead [they] have often taken upon themselves the burden of representative action",<ref name=Rubenstein/> which he said "is a formula for disaster".<ref name=Rubenstein/>
==Reception==
Critics have been divided on ''The Good Terrorist''. Elizabeth Lowry highlighted this in the ''[[London Review of Books]]'': "[Lessing] has been sharply criticised for the pedestrian quality of her prose, and as vigorously defended".<ref name=Lowry/> The Irish literary critic [[Denis Donoghue (academic)|Denis Donoghue]] complained that the style of the novel is "insistently drab",<ref name=Donoghue/> and Kuehn referred to Lessing's text as "surprisingly bland".<ref name=Kuehn/> Lowry noted that the English academic Clare Hanson defended the book by saying that it is "a grey and textureless novel because it ... speaks a grey and textureless language".<ref name=Lowry/>
Freeman on the other hand called the book a "graceful and accomplished story",<ref name=Freeman/> and a "brilliant account of the types of individuals who commit terrorist acts".<ref name=Freeman/> Writing in the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', Freeman described Lessing as "one of our most valuable writers" who "has an uncanny grasp of human relationships".<ref name=Freeman/> In a review in the ''[[Sun-Sentinel]]'', Bonnie Gross described the novel as "rewarding reading" and Lessing's "most accessible" book to date.<ref name=Gross/> She said it is the author's "strong descriptive prose and her precise and realistic characterizations" that makes this book "remarkable".<ref name=Gross/> Gross felt that while some of the male characters are not that strong, the female characters are much better developed, particularly Alice, whom she found memorable.<ref name=Gross/>
Amanda Sebestyen wrote in ''The Women's Review of Books'' that at first glance the ideas in ''The Good Terrorist'' appear deceptively simple, and the plot predictable.<ref name=Sebestyen/> But she added that Lessing's strength is her "stoic narrat[ion] of the daily effort of living",<ref name=Sebestyen/> which excels in the way she describes day-to-day life in a squat.<ref name=Sebestyen/> Sebestyen also liked the book's depiction of Alice, who "speak[s] to me most disquietingly about myself and my generation".<ref name=Sebestyen/> In a review in ''[[off our backs]]'', an American feminist publication, Vickie Leonard called ''The Good Terrorist'' a "fascinating book" that is "extremely well written" with characters that are "exciting" and "realistic".<ref name=Leonard/> Leonard added that even though Alice is not a feminist, the book illustrates the author's "strong admiration for women and their accomplishments".<ref name=Leonard/>
Writing in ''[[The Guardian]]'', Rogers described ''The Good Terrorist'' as "a novel in unsparing close-up" that examines society through the eyes of individuals.<ref name=Rogers/> She said it is "witty and ... angry at human stupidity and destructiveness",<ref name=Rogers/> and within the context of recent terrorist attacks in London, it is an example of "fiction going where factual writing cannot".<ref name=Rogers/> A critic in ''Kirkus Reviews'' wrote that Alice's story is "an extraordinary tour de force—a psychological portrait that's realistic with a vengeance".<ref name=Kirkus/> The reviewer added that although Alice is "self-deluding" and not always likeable,<ref name=Kirkus/> the novel's strength are the characters and its depiction of political motivation.<ref name=Kirkus/>
Donoghue wrote in ''[[The New York Times]]'' that he did not care much about what happened to Alice and her comrades. He felt that Lessing presents Alice as "an unquestioned rigmarole of reactions and prejudices",<ref name=Donoghue/> which leaves no room for any further interest.<ref name=Donoghue/> Donoghue complained that Lessing has not made up her mind on whether her characters are "the salt of the earth or its scum".<ref name=Donoghue/> In a review in the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'', Kuehn felt that the work has little impact and is not memorable. He said Lessing's real interest is character development, but complained that the characters are "trivial or two-dimensional or crippled by self-delusions".<ref name=Kuehn/>
''The Good Terrorist'' was shortlisted for the 1985 [[Man Booker Prize|Booker Prize]],<ref name=BookerPrize-1985/> and in 1986 won the [[:it:Premio Mondello|Mondello Prize]] and the [[WH Smith Literary Award]].<ref name=Bloom/> In 2007 Lessing was awarded the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] for being "part of both the history of literature and living literature".<ref name=Nobel-presentation-speech/> In the award ceremony speech by Swedish writer [[Per Wästberg]], ''The Good Terrorist'' was cited as "an in-depth account of the extreme leftwing squatting culture that sponges off female self-sacrifice".<ref name=NobelPrize-bio/> Following Lessing's death in 2013, ''The Guardian'' put ''The Good Terrorist'' in their list of the top five Lessing books.<ref name=Guardian-top5/> Indian writer [[Neel Mukherjee (writer)|Neel Mukherjee]] included the novel in his 2015 "top 10 books about revolutionaries", also published in ''The Guardian''.<ref name=Mukherjee/>
==Publication history==
''The Good Terrorist'' was first published in September 1985 in hardcover in the United Kingdom by [[Jonathan Cape]], and in the United States by [[Alfred A. Knopf]]. The first paperback edition was published in the United Kingdom in September 1986 by [[Grafton (publisher)|Grafton]]. An unabridged 13-hour [[audiobook|audio cassette edition]], narrated by Nadia May, was released in the United States in April 1999 by [[Blackstone Audio]].<ref name=FantasticFiction/> The novel has been translated into several other languages since its first publication in English in 1985, including Catalan, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Swedish.<ref name=NobelPrize-bio/><ref name=WorldCat/><ref name=La-brava-terrorista/>
==References==
{{reflist|30em|refs=
<ref name=FantasticFiction>{{cite web |url=http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/l/doris-lessing/good-terrorist.htm |title=The Good Terrorist |publisher=FantasticFiction |accessdate=7 February 2016}}</ref>
<ref name=WorldCat>{{cite web |url=http://www.worldcat.org/title/good-terrorist/oclc/764531471/editions?sd=desc&referer=di&se=yr&qt=facet_all_ln%3A&editionsView=true&fq= |title=All editions for The Good Terrorist |publisher=[[WorldCat]] |accessdate=1 February 2016}}</ref>
<ref name=BookerPrize-1985>{{cite web |url=http://themanbookerprize.com/booker-prize-1985 |title=The Booker Prize 1985 |publisher=[[Man Booker Prize]] |accessdate=17 February 2016}}</ref>
<ref name=Chronology>{{cite book|last1=Lessing|first1=Doris May|authorlink1=Doris Lessing|last2=Pickering|first2=Jean|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5twsK0hVK2MC&pg=PA27|chapter=Doris Lessing: A Brief Chronology|year=2003|title=A Home for the Highland Cattle and The Antheap|publisher=[[Broadview Press]]|page=27|isbn=1-55111-363-5}}</ref>
<ref name=Nobel-presentation-speech>{{cite web |last=Wästberg |first=Per |authorlink=Per Wästberg |url=http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2007/presentation-speech.html |title=Doris Lessing: Award Ceremony Speech |publisher=NobelPrize.org |date=10 December 2007 |accessdate=2 February 2016}}</ref>
<ref name=NobelPrize-bio>{{cite web |url=http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2007/bio-bibl.html |title=Doris Lessing: Biobibliographical Notes |publisher=NobelPrize.org |accessdate=17 February 2016}}</ref>
<ref name=Telegraph>{{cite web | last = Lessing | first = Doris | authorlink = Doris Lessing | title = Idries Shah | work = [[The Daily Telegraph]] | date = 7 December 1996 | url = http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=001301712421770&rtmo=qMuJX999&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/96/12/7/ebshah07.html | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/19990915162237/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=001301712421770&rtmo=qMuJX999&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/96/12/7/ebshah07.html | archivedate = 15 September 1999 | accessdate = 7 November 2014}}</ref>
<ref name=Hazelton>{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/99/01/10/specials/lessing-space.html?_r=1 |title=Doris Lessing on Feminism, Communism and 'Space Fiction' |work=[[The New York Times]] |first=Lesley |last=Hazelton |authorlink=Lesley Hazleton |date=25 July 1982 |accessdate=7 November 2014}}</ref>
<ref name=Galin>{{cite book | last = Galin | first = Müge | title = Between East and West: Sufism in the Novels of Doris Lessing | publisher = [[State University of New York Press]] | year = 1997 | location = [[Albany, New York]] | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=EbHys4CzN0YC&lpg=PP1&pg=PP1 | page = 21 | isbn = 0-7914-3383-8}}</ref>
<ref name=Donoghue>{{cite web | last = Donoghue | first = Denis | authorlink = Denis Donoghue (academic) | title = Alice, The Radical Homemaker | work = [[The New York Times]] | date = 22 September 1985 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/books/99/01/10/specials/lessing-terrorist.html | accessdate = 7 November 2014}}</ref>
<ref name=Kirkus>{{cite web | title = The Good Terrorist | work = [[Kirkus Reviews]] | date = 15 August 1985 | url = https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/doris-lessing/good-terrorist/ | accessdate = 7 November 2014}}</ref>
<ref name=Frick>{{cite web | last = Frick | first = Thomas | title = Interview: Doris Lessing, The Art of Fiction No. 102 | work = [[The Paris Review]] | year = 1988 | url = http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2537/the-art-of-fiction-no-102-doris-lessing | accessdate = 7 November 2014}}</ref>
<ref name=Rogers>{{cite web | last = Rogers | first = Jane | authorlink = Jane Rogers | title = Dark times | work = [[The Guardian]] | date = 3 December 2005 | url = https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/dec/03/fiction.dorislessing | accessdate = 7 November 2014}}</ref>
<ref name=Kuehn>{{cite web | last = Kuehn | first = Robert E. | title = Doris Lessing 'Terrorist' Fails in the Execution | work = [[Chicago Tribune]] | date = 29 September 1985 | url = http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1985-09-29/entertainment/8503060085_1_alice-mellings-doris-lessing-commune-members | accessdate = 7 November 2014}}</ref>
<ref name=Gross>{{cite web | last = Gross | first = Bonnie | title = 'Terrorist' Broadens Lessing's Appeal | work = [[Sun-Sentinel]] | date = 29 September 1985 | url = http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1985-09-29/features/8502110039_1_alice-mellings-doris-lessing-book | accessdate = 7 November 2014}}</ref>
<ref name=Freeman>{{cite web | last = Freeman | first = Judith | authorlink = Judith Freeman (novelist) | title = The Good Terrorist by Doris Lessing | work = [[Los Angeles Times]] | date = 13 October 1985 | url = http://articles.latimes.com/1985-10-13/books/bk-15762_1_doris-lessing | accessdate = 7 November 2014}}</ref>
<ref name=Sebestyen>{{cite journal | last = Sebestyen | first = Amanda | year = 1986 | title = Mixed Lessing | journal = The Women's Review of Books | volume = 3 | issue = 5 | pages = 14–15 | publisher = Old City Publishing, Inc. | jstor = 4019871 | doi = 10.2307/4019871 }} {{subscription required}}</ref>
<ref name=Leonard>{{cite journal | last = Leonard | first = Vickie | year = 1987 | title = ''The Good Terrorist'' by Doris Lessing | journal = [[off our backs]] | volume = 17 | issue = 3 | page = 20 | publisher = off our backs, inc. | jstor = 25795599 }} {{subscription required}}</ref>
<ref name=La-brava-terrorista>{{cite book|last1=Lessing |first1=Doris |last2=Castagnone |first2=Maria Giulia |authorlink1=Doris Lessing |title=La brava terrorista|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gc5OBAAAQBAJ&pg=PP1|year=1987|publisher=Feltrinelli Editore|isbn=978-88-588-1838-1}}</ref>
<ref name=Bloom>{{cite book|author=Bloom, Harold |title=Doris Lessing|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DLyKm3M-0VsC&pg=PA258|date=January 2003|publisher=[[Infobase Publishing]]|isbn=978-0-7910-7441-1|page=258}}</ref>
<ref name=Knapp>{{cite journal | last = Knapp | first = Mona | year = 1986 | title = ''The Good Terrorist'' by Doris Lessing | journal = [[World Literature Today]] | volume = 60 | issue = 3 | pages = 470–471 | publisher = University of Oklahoma | jstor = 40142299 | doi = 10.2307/40142299 }} {{subscription required}}</ref>
<ref name=Rubenstein>{{cite book |last=Rubenstein |first=Richard E. |authorlink=Richard E. Rubenstein|title=Alchemists of Revolution: Terrorism in the Modern World |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uYvmAAAAIAAJ |year=1987 |publisher=[[Basic Books]] |page=79 |isbn=978-0-465-00095-1 |ref=harv}}</ref>
<ref name=RidoutWatkins2011>{{cite book|author=Watkins, Susan|editor1=Ridout, Alice|editor2=Watkins, Susan|chapter=The 'Jane Somers' Hoax: Aging, Gender and the Literary Marketplace|title=Doris Lessing: Border Crossings|chapterurl=https://books.google.com/books?id=yPcsTaPysocC&pg=PT160|date=20 October 2011|publisher=[[A & C Black]]|location=London|isbn=978-1-4411-9264-6|page=160}}</ref>
<ref name=Lowry>{{cite journal | last = Lowry | first = Elizabeth | date = 22 March 2001 | title = Yeti | journal = [[London Review of Books]] | volume = 23 | issue = 6 | pages = 29–30}}</ref>
<ref name=HarperCollins>{{cite web | title = The Good Terrorist by Doris Lessing | work = [[HarperCollins]] | url = http://www.harpercollins.com.au/9780007498789/the-good-terrorist | accessdate = 18 March 2015}}</ref>
<ref name=Lurie>{{cite web |last=Lurie |first=Alison | authorlink=Alison Lurie | title = Bad Housekeeping | work = [[The New York Review of Books]] | url = http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1985/12/19/bad-housekeeping/ | date=19 December 1985 |accessdate = 17 February 2016}} {{subscription required}}</ref>
<ref name=Janik2002>{{cite book|author=Janik, Del Ivan|editor1=Janik, Vicki K. |editor2=Janik, Del Ivan |editor3=Nelson, Emmanuel Sampath|chapter=Doris Lessing 1919–|title=Modern British Women Writers: An A-to-Z Guide|chapterurl=https://books.google.com/books?id=RKkxuhw7kowC&pg=PA202|date=1 January 2002|publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]]|location=[[Santa Barbara, California]]|isbn=978-0-313-31030-0|page=202}}</ref>
<ref name=Pritchard >{{cite journal | last = Pritchard | first = William H. | year = 1985 | title = Looking Back at Lessing | journal = [[The Hudson Review]] | volume = 48 | issue = 2 | page = 323 | publisher = The Hudson Review, Inc | jstor = 3851830}} {{subscription required}}</ref>
<ref name=Scott >{{cite journal | last = Scott | first = Virginia | year = 1989 | url=https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/IFR/article/view/13995 | title = Doris Lessing's Modern Alice in Wonderland: The Good Terrorist as Fantasy | journal = The International Fiction Review | volume = 16 | issue = 2}}</ref>
<ref name=Sprague>{{cite book|first=Claire|last=Sprague|editor-first=Harold|editor-last=Bloom|title=Doris Lessing|chapter=Mothers and Daughters/Aging and Dying|chapterurl=https://books.google.com/books?id=DLyKm3M-0VsC&pg=PA173|date=January 2003|publisher=[[Infobase Publishing]]|isbn=978-0-7910-7441-1|page=173}}</ref>
<ref name=Guardian-top5>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/nov/18/doris-lessing-five-best-novels |title=Doris Lessing: Her five best books |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=18 November 2013 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6ezhfOagH |archivedate=2 February 2016 |deadurl=no |accessdate=2 February 2016}}</ref>
<ref name=Mukherjee>{{cite web |last=Mukherjee |first=Neel |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/14/neel-mukherjee-top-10-books-about-revolutionaries |title=Neel Mukherjee's top 10 books about revolutionaries |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=14 January 2015 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6ezhcQ83o |archivedate=2 February 2016 |deadurl=no |accessdate=2 February 2016}}</ref>
}}
==Works cited==
{{Refbegin}}
*{{cite book|first=Robert|last=Boschman|editor-first=Harold|editor-last=Bloom|title=Doris Lessing|chapter=Excrement and 'Kitsch' in Doris Lessing's 'The Good Terrorist'|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DLyKm3M-0VsC&pg=PA87|date=January 2003|publisher=[[Infobase Publishing]]|location=New York City|isbn=978-0-7910-7441-1|pages=87–106|ref=harv}}
*{{cite journal | last = Fishburn | first = Katherine | year = 1988 | title = Wor(l)ds Within Words: Doris Lessing as Meta-fictionist and Meta-physician | journal = Studies in the Novel | volume = 20 | issue = 2 | pages = 186–205 | publisher = University of North Texas | jstor = 29532567 |ref=harv}} {{subscription required}}
*{{cite book|last=Greene|first= Gayle|title=Doris Lessing: The Poetics of Change|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=glrpi8bRqVQC&printsec=frontcover|year=1997|publisher=[[University of Michigan Press]]|location=[[Ann Arbor, Michigan]]|isbn=0-472-08433-X|ref=harv}}
*{{cite journal | last = Kearns | first = George | year = 1986 | title = Revolutionary Women and Others | journal = [[The Hudson Review]] | volume = 39 | issue = 1 | pages = 121–134 | publisher = The Hudson Review, Inc | jstor = 3851633 | doi = 10.2307/3851633 |ref=harv}} {{subscription required}}
*{{cite journal | last1 = Lalbakhsh | first1 = Pedram | last2 = Yahya | first2 = Wan Roselezam Wan | year = 2012 | url = http://www.journals.aiac.org.au/index.php/IJALEL/article/view/727 | title = Politics of Feminine Abuse: Political Oppression and Masculine Obstinacy in Doris Lessing's The Good Terrorist | journal = International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature | volume = 1 | issue = 3 | pages = 54–57|ref=harv}}
*{{cite book | last = Lessing | first = Doris | authorlink = Doris Lessing | title = The Good Terrorist | origyear = 1985 | year = 2013 | publisher = [[Fourth Estate (imprint)|Fourth Estate]] | location = London | isbn = 978-0-00-749878-9|ref=harv}}
*{{cite journal | last = Scanlan | first = Margaret | year = 1990 | title = Language and the Politics of Despair in Doris Lessing's ''The Good Terrorist'' | journal = [[Novel: A Forum on Fiction]] | volume = 23 | issue = 2 | pages = 182–198 | publisher = [[Duke University Press]] | jstor = 1345737 | doi = 10.2307/1345737 |ref=harv}} {{subscription required}}
*{{cite book |last=Yelin |first=Louise |title=From the Margins of Empire: Christina Stead, Doris Lessing, Nadine Gordimer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KvFfOQFIeO8C&pg=PA91 |year=1998 |publisher=[[Cornell University Press]] |location=[[Ithaca, New York]] |isbn=978-0-8014-8505-3|ref=harv}} [https://www.questia.com/read/103712632/from-the-margins-of-empire-christina-stead-doris Questia access] {{subscription required}}
{{Refend}}
==External links==
*[http://www.dorislessing.org/theterrorist.html ''The Good Terrorist''] at dorislessing.org
*{{isfdb title|184901}}
{{Doris Lessing}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Good Terrorist, The}}
[[Category:1985 British novels]]
[[Category:Novels by Doris Lessing]]
[[Category:British political novels]]
[[Category:Novels about terrorism]]
[[Category:Novels about revolutionaries]]
[[Category:Novels set in London]]
[[Category:Alfred A. Knopf books]]
[[Category:Jonathan Cape books]]' |
