Books: Oh, to Be in England

IN PURSUIT OF THE ENGLISH (240 pp.) —Doris Lessing—Simon & Schuster ($3.75).

This book is low comedy as well as reporting of a very high order. Like most true comedy, it is also edged with sadness, but every page bears the mark of truth and is as unfailingly readable as first-rate fiction. Author Doris Lessing was born in Persia of British parents, grew up in Southern Rhodesia; in 1949, when she was 30, with a two-year-old son and a near-empty purse, she set out to discover the land of her fathers. Already a very...