By Slow Decay
The Memoirs of a Survivor
By Doris Lessing
25 Jan, 2026
Because My Tears Are Delicious To You
Doris Lessing ‘s 1974 The Memoirs of a Survivor is a novel about an oncoming apocalypse.
Surviving the slow, inexorable collapse of civilization is vexing enough. It would be even more so if a stranger were to dump a young girl on one’s doorstep, thus forcing one to become the little girl’s guardian.
As happens to the unnamed, middle-aged, middle-class narrator.