Under the Net

by Iris Murdoch, Iris Murdoch

Hardcover, 379 pages

English language

Published Nov. 4, 1990 by ISIS Large Print Books.

ISBN:: 978-1-85089-359-2
OCLC Number:: 21229393

(9 reviews)

Iris Murdoch's first novel.Iris Murdoch's first novel is a gem - solid and sparkling. Set in a part of London, where struggling writers rub shoulders with successful bookies, and film starlets with frantic philosophers. Its hero, Jake Donaghue, is a drifting, clever, likeable young man who makes a living out of translation work and sponging on his friends. Meeting again, after some years, an old flame, Anna, he is led into a series of fantastic adventures. Iris Murdoch has wit, great power of invention and a knack for producing absurd incidents with a serious undertone and tender episodes with an edge of satire. Robust, full of flavour and panache, here is one of those rare novels which equally make one laugh and make one think.

15 editions

Timothy reviewed Under the net by Iris Murdoch

superb

5 stars

dreamlike, poignant & hilarious

moving to outside.ofa.dog reviewed Under The Net by Iris Murdoch

A fun caper that ultimately felt a bit aimless

5 stars

Content warning ending spoiler

I enjoyed almost every scene of this book. A horrible man who thinks he loves women but does so in thoroughly misogynistic ways (Murdoch was so good at writing this type) gets himself into ever more absurd self-inflicted trouble. His combination of self-absorbedness and refusing to ever really question himself make him insufferable, but his adventures are a good laugh.

But from chapter to chapter I kept asking myself why I was still reading. Somehow the whole of this book is less than the sum of its parts. Given that, the circularity of Jake ending in almost exactly the same way he started felt frustrating, when I think if the arc had felt more compelling along the way it would have been a satisfying end.

gimley reviewed Under the net by Iris Murdoch

Review of 'Under the net' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

The net is theory and under it is what actually happens. Jake believes in theory but manages to get everything consistently wrong though superficially logically reasonable. This is not because he is stupid, but because he is driven by his emotions, as are all the other characters except perhaps Dave and Lefty. Dave is exempt because he is a philosopher and a Jew. Lefty's emotions are in sync with his political leftist theory.

Hugo tells Jake that his problem is that he's always trying to make sense of things when truth lies in blundering on. Even a novel, especially one written in the 1950s, needs some sort of narrative organization to allow us to digest the blundering on of the characters. At the end, Jake believes he's ready to begin a writing career and all the loose ends have been tied up. Still, I'm left with a pleasant blundering on …

essteeyou reviewed UNDER THE NET. by Iris Murdoch

Review of 'UNDER THE NET.' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This book completely took me by surprise. I had never heard of it before starting to read it, but enjoyed it very much from the start.

Living in London gave this book a bit of a special advantage, I think. It was nice to read about places I know quite well, especially as experienced by a character like Jake.