"To Room Nineteen," by Doris Lessing

Doris Lessing (1919-2013) at the
 2006 Cologne Literature Festival  

When Doris Lessing was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007, the Nobel committee cited her as an "epicist of the female experience."    

On Monday evening our selection is Lessing's "To Room Nineteen," in which she writes: "A high price must be paid for the happy marriage with the four healthy children in the large white gardened house."

Lessing's craft is fully on display in the story . Her every sentence leads us on the path that takes main character Susan Rawlings to Room 19.