 Donoghue wrote in The New York Times that he did not care much about what happened to Alice and her comrades . He felt that Lessing presents Alice as " an <unk> <unk> of reactions and prejudices " , which leaves no room for any further interest . Donoghue complained that Lessing has not made up her mind on whether her characters are " the salt of the earth or its <unk> " . In a review in the Chicago Tribune , Kuehn felt that the work has little impact and is not memorable . He said Lessing 's real interest is character development , but complained that the characters are " trivial or two @-@ dimensional or crippled by self @-@ <unk> " . 
