Lessing's novel "The Golden Notebook" is considered a feminist classic by some scholars, but notably not by the author herself, who later wrote that its theme of mental breakdowns as a means of healing and freeing one's self from illusions had been overlooked by critics. She also regretted that critics failed to appreciate the exceptional structure of the novel. She explained in "Walking in the Shade" that she modelled Molly partly on her good friend Joan Rodker, the daughter of the modernist poet and publisher John Rodker.