The Good Terrorist

The Good Terrorist
First US edition
Author(s)	Doris Lessing
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher	Jonathan Cape (UK) Knopf (US)
Publication date	1985
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN	0-224-02323-3

The Good Terrorist is a 1985 novel by Doris Lessing. The story examines the events in the life of a well-intentioned squatter, Alice, who is drawn into organizing acts of violence.

Main characters

• Alice Mellings - 37 years old. Curly hair, freckled. Wears an army jacket. Daughter of upper-middle-class parents from Hampstead. Voice dated from the days of her girls' school in North London; basic B.B.C. English. Fourteen years of experience in squats and communes. College graduate with a degree in politics and economics. Knows how to confront officials. Feels unwanted and abused. Sees herself as a committed revolutionary. Holds Marx and Lenin in high regard even though she hasn't read their works.

• Jasper Willis - Gingery hair and small deft feet. Pale and slender. Dependent on Alice. Son of a solicitor in a Midlands town. Hateful of his father. A middle-class voice roughened by his working-class comrades. Trotskyist tendencies. Tends to have negative experiences confronting officials. Shares a room with Alice in the squat. Used to be Alice's boyfriend but became interested in homosexuality. Alice feels Jasper is a real revolutionary.

• Mary Williams - A young woman who is an official at the Council building on Belstrode Road that Alice appeals to. Later moves into the squat with her partner, Reggie. While staying at the squat both Mary and Reggie are isolated from the rest as a couple. Middle class.

• Pat - Wears dark military clothes, black strong boots. With the delicate modeling of her face and hands she was more like the idealized picture of a soldier on a recruiting poster. Quick voice of standard middle-class. Avid reader.

• Bert Barnes - Military-looking figure. Pat's partner and Philip's friend. Alice questions whether Bert is a real revolutionary. Deep ho, ho, ho laugh.

• Roberta - A bulky woman with short black curls, a strong face, direct glance and reserved judgment. Made-up voice. Has "radiating love and longing" towards Faye as her partner. Alice is convinced Roberta is not a real revolutionary because she doesn't like her. "Just one of these big maternal lezzies, all sympathy and big boobs; she wants to seem butch and tough, but bad luck for her, she's a mum."

• Faye - Soft-faced fair girl, with her hair in a ponytail, and little curls and tendrils all around her face. Little white teeth, pink lips and shining brown brows. Gives the impression of trembling slightly all over. Rather unbalanced and spontaneous due to her ghastly childhood. Dependent as Roberta's partner yet wants to be free from her. Alice is convinced Faye is not a real revolutionary because she doesn't like her. Scars on her left wrist from cutting.

• Andrew - Russian man who frequently visits No. 45 next door. Broad and not taller than Alice. Blunt face and little grey shrewd eyes. Short hair. Expensive and neat appearance. Detached and cold. Alice compares him to Lenin. American voice. Alcoholic. Alice is first interested but later finds him unimpressive.

• Monica Winters - A girl with a small child in a pushchair. Worn down with everything yet determined to find housing. Large grey beautiful eyes. Dropping head. Lives with her husband Bobby in a one-room unit at the Shaftwood Hotel. Rejected by the squat. Child has blue eyes and a "fat plastic parcel with a pale podgy spotty face."

• Cedric Mellings - Alice's dad. Solid, tending-to-fat man, pale skin, lightly freckled, short reddish hair. Youngest of several children of a family from Newcastle. Scottish connections. Owns a printing firm called 'C. Mellings, Printers and Stationers.' Bourgeois Socialist. "The ugly duckling of the family turned swan."

• Philip - A slight pale, young man with blue eyes and long elegant white hands. Layman who had been given the sack six months ago from a building firm. He fixes up the squat to livable condition. A little brave orphan. Easy-paced contemplative manner. Wears white trousers.

• Jim Mackenzie - Soft open, boyish face. Discriminated against due to his skin color. Has the voice of a genuine cockney. A printer who gets a job with Cedric Mellings but gets fired after he assumed that he stole his cash. His grandfather is from Trinidad.

Other characters

• Dorothy Mellings - Alice's mother. Lives alone after divorcing Cedric.

• The Spanish woman - Dorthy's maid. Supposedly supporting her family in Valencia by helping Dorthy out with household chores.

• Theresa - Alice's favorite auntie with soft dark hair. Wears dark glasses.

• Bob Hood - Mary's colleague at the Council. The "nasty little bureaucrat" who comes to check the condition of the squat.

• Joan Robbins - The women next door who complains about the squat's poor condition. Defensive but forgiving when she allows Alice and her friends in No. 43 to dig a hole for all the waste they have been collecting in pails.

• Anthony - Theresa's partner. Big dark bulky man with a full, measured, sexy voice. Hearty but false.

• Felicity - Philip's girlfriend.

• Council workmen - The workmen who had poured concrete in the squat's laboratory bowls.

• Fred - Owns a cafe called Caff in the London Underground where Alice and the others go for breakfast.

• Fred's wife - Serves at Fred's Caff.

• Sarah - A refugee from Austria who has served at Fred's Caff for years. Alice had previously helped her find a flat. Had a similar situation to Monica.

• Zoe Devlin - Dorothy's good friend. Another one of Alice's 'aunties'.

• Alan - A large man with blue dungarees and black leather gloves who comes to clear the garden of the squat.

• Mrs. Whitfield - An official at the Council who gives in to Alice's request for electricity.

• Old Bill - The police. First come to the squat on a call from the neighbors because they were digging a hole for their waste.

• Jane Mellings - Alice's father's new wife. Has two pretty infants as children with

• The dustmen - Three men who come with their rubbish-van to pick up sacks full of glass bottles.

• Reggie - Mary's boyfriend. Tall, knobbly looking man, with very white skin, small black eyes under strong black brows, and dense, very fine black hair. Middle class. An industrial chemist recently fired by a big firm. Shares an "air of common sense of what is due" with Mary. While staying at the squat both Mary and Reggie are isolated from the rest as a couple.

• Humphery Mellings - Alice's brother. Despised by Alice for having a "nice safe little job" as an aircraft controller. Supposedly has a child.

• Mrs Jackson - An old women who lives near the squat.

• John, Clarissa and Charlie - Three friends that got arrested along with Jasper at a picket.

• The policewoman - A young policewoman who Alice addresses when she comes to the Police Station to report their squat as short-term housing. Tidy and trim in her dark uniform. Tight little smile.

• Jack - A contact to the I.R.A. who Jasper meets in jail. Leaves to Dublin with Jasper and Bert after Alice provides money for his fare.

• Muriel - Young woman who lives in No. 45. Tall, slender; baggy, voluminous. Wears khaki and green battledress. Face with protruding nose and gobbly lips. Goose-girl; wanting to please Andrew's sexual desires.

• Molly and Helen - Two women Alice had had arguments with over feminism and their contempt for men. From the Liverpool Branch of the C.C.U.

• Jill - Cedric's secretary. Innocent and dumb.

• Fate - Cedric's older brother who had been in the war.

• Deborah - Cedric's and Jane's little daughter that nearly was hit by Alice's stone.

• The two men - Two men from the I.R.A. that meet with Jasper and Bert to determine if they want to recruit them.

• Caroline - A short, plump girl in her early twenties who lives in No. 45. Dark and attractive. she after Pat was the sexual pourpose of Bert.

• Jocelin, Paul and Edward - Members of the C.C.U. but unable to join the Congress. Came to the party on Saturday night.

• Mrs Forrester - Lives next door to Alice's mom.

• Anne - Alice's best friend during most of her childhood.

• The Greek - Philip's employer.

• Mrs Thatcher - United Kingdom's Prime Minister who speaks in Milchester, a speech Alice and her companions go to demonstrate at. Referred to by Alice and her companions as "Queen Bitch Thatcher" with her pink-and-white, assured, complacent Tory face.

Conflicts

• Individual philosophy vs. group ideology
• Political idealism vs. reality
• The capitalist system and socialist theory
• The bourgeois and the revolutionary

References

• The Council - The town council of Birmingham municipality.
• C.C.U. - The Communist Centre Union of which Alice and her companions are members. A manifest of Alice's political idealism.
• I.R.A. - Provisional IRA. Bert and Jasper try to join but are turned down. Activity centered in Melstead.
• Liberty Hall - The target of the C.C.U.'s bombing.
• 43 Old Mill Road - The address of the squat located in London that Alice and her companions live in. Also referred to as "No. 43" and "the squat".
• 45 Old Mill Road - The address of the squat next door. Also referred to as "No. 45".
• Fred's Caff - A cafe in the Underground where Alice and her companions go for breakfast.
• Underground - The London Underground. The metro system that Alice often uses to go to her mother's and father's place.
• Militant Tendency - A political group of which Mary Williams was a part of but left because she disliked their methods.
• Greenpeace - A environmental action group that Mary and Reggie are involved in.
• Labour Party - A political party that Mary and Reggie have thought of joining.
• Women's Commune - A commune near Stockwell that Faye and Roberta are a part of.
• Enfield Police Station - Where Jasper spends a night after being arrested.
• Greenham Common - Often the topic of Alices' and Jaspers' graffiti slogans.
• Women's Movement - Refers to the movement for women's rights as seen from London. Faye, Roberta, Molly and Helen are committed to the movement.
• The Savoy - A cafe where Alice and her companions go for tea.
• Harrods - A store where Pat go eye shopping with Alice to fulfill their middle class material desires.
• Regent's Park - A park where Alice and her companions often go walking.

Bibliographic information

The title is currently in print (2008-03-17), published by HarperPerennial on 18 Jun 2007 ISBN 000-724721-4.

It was first published in the United Kingdom by Jonathan Cape Ltd in 1985, ISBN 0-224-02323-3 and in the USA by Alfred A. Knopf ISBN 0-394-54339-, also in 1985.

Recognition

The novel was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and received The W.H. Smith Literary Award (1985) and the Italian Mondello Prize (1985).

External links

• "The Good Terrorist" at author's website (includes summary of the plot)
• "Alice, the radical home-maker": Review by Denis Donoghue, Published in the New York Times: September 22, 1985 (Accessed 18 March 2008)
• "Mopping Up the Good Terrorist": Review by Paul Gray in Time magazine, 7 October 1985. (Accessed 18 March 2008).