Under the Net

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 …

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 feeling.

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.