Iris Murdoch: The Sea, The Sea (EBook, 2008, Random House Publishing Group)
eBook
English language
Published Oct. 29, 2008 by Random House Publishing Group.
Couldn't get into it. Main, and so far almost only, character did not engage me. Yawn.
A brilliant, clever and winding book, disintegrating the freedom of the 1960s in wave after wave of intelligent criticisms. At times this is a very strange read, but the fantasy fits the narrative.
I can't usually stomach books with no likable characters in them. I think it's a testament to Iris Murdoch's skill as a writer that this one kept reeling me in.
I'm not sure quite how to summarise a book like this. The plot is fairly simple--and could be covered by a book a tenth as long--but Murdoch uses it more to develop the protagonist's character and frame her own meditations about eternal subjects like aging, how men treat women, and privilege. In the hands of a lesser writer this would make for a clumsy and tedious book, but The Sea, The Sea is a wonderful, satisfying read.
