Description

The Good Terrorist is the story of a loose-knit group of political vagabonds who move about London, living off the dole and existing as squatters in abandoned or condemned houses. Alice Mellings, the central figure in this tale, acts as a housemother to her fellow comrades, bringing curtains (stolen from her own mother), cooking soup, carrying out trash, and finagling hot water and electricity for their comfort. Her efforts go largely unappreciated, however, for the others are more interested in radical political actions, such as bombing and being recruited by the IRA. Even though Alice never truly articulates her own political convictions, she becomes a willing partner in a terrorist act that seals her fate as a dysfunctional, drifting adult. Lessing portrays terrorism as psychopathological rather than political and thereby creates a chilling, strangely compelling storyAone that will haunt listeners for quite some time.