Intriguing and thought-provoking

I loved the way the story kept me interested to know what happened next, whilst at the same time I was struggling to keep myself from throwing my listening device at the wall out of frustration with the characters who at times, in fact most of the time, portrayed self centred and egocentric misery. Perhaps this was because I recognise these traits in my own shadow side? But this is the type of work it is and what makes me say that although this is my first experience of Iris Murdoch's work, it will certainly not be the last.

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Fantastic ending.

Excellent narrator. Quality of writing mostly great but a little overblown and heavy at times

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worked surprisingly well in audio

I’m not sure why the narrator has attracted flack in other reviews, I’ve also heard Grant’s The Sea, The Sea which is wonderful, but I thought this one was great - the narration I think is spot on for the book’s narrator’s voice… this is a story (like TSTS) of a man too wrapped up in his own self-narration to understand what he is doing, and I thought the audiobook narrator played this the way Murdoch would have wanted, although I can see how that could in places come across as an annoying style in other contexts… I’m no Murdoch expert but I feel like if you need to get along well with your narrators (audio or fictional) then she’s probably not for you. Anyway, this is one of her best and really nicely delivered.

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1 person found this helpful

Great

Thanks Excellent narration and a great book With a unique structure. I strongly recommend it.

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4 people found this helpful

well read, in every sense, thanks to the narrator.

the reading conveys a wonderful sense of the characters, by a versatile and sympathetic actor

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Story in Story the truth is not clear but probably

i loved hearing it its a Pagen turner while also poetic and analysing art

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Challenging, fascinating and disturbing

This book is like a time capsule from early 1970's middle-class literally life which is interesting. It's structure is unusual (to me at least) and contains a really complex dislikable central character who has difficulty and sometimes hard to believe relationships with everyone in this life, particularly females. I found it very tough to get through to times as its hard to root or empathise with any characters. My conclusion is that Murdoch is a bit too highbrow for me, its clever but too close to smug and pretentious in the same way Martin Amis can be. Just tell us a good story...

Brilliant narration btw

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2 people found this helpful

What a superb story

I loved this ..magnificently read with real characters who’s every word I believed and with who’s every action I sympathised with
It’s my best discovery almost ever
Listen now!

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Hard work in places, but very rewarding

The reading is full of inaccuracies, some of them quite serious. Too often Anthony Howell simply doesn't read what the author wrote. Just two examples: "There is no doubt that she had the misfortune to represent to him also the shop, that stale interior, symbolic of the rejected womb of a socially inferior mother." In place of 'symbolic' he reads 'shambolic', which makes no sense! He makes nonsense of the quotation from 'Othello': Othello says of his love for Desdemona, "If I love her not, chaos is come again". The Audible reading gives us, "If I love her, not chaos is come again". Oh please! Is this really the best Audible can do for Dame Iris Murdoch?

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6 people found this helpful

To be or not to be, ad infinitum.

It seems the way we read, and the way fiction is written, have changed a lot since 1973. Perhaps back then we were more tolerant of a self-centred middle-aged man droning on and on about his obsessions, but it makes for tedious listening now. This is not to belittle the liveliness of the characters' exchanges or the cleverness of the plotting. The author knows what she's doing, but for me certainly, what she's doing is dated and irritating in the extreme. The ponderous literary style, characteristic of the protagonist, is nonetheless so pompous and elaborated that I laughed out loud sometimes - when I wasn't telling him get on with it, we've got the point. Who refers to birds as 'feathered songsters', for heaven's sake? Dame Iris's philosophical alter ego is also much in evidence, and we are treated to long disquisitions on art and love which, while emphasising the self-reflexivity of the novel, also contribute to the protagonist 's verbosity and (pace this is an audio book) love of the sound of his own voice. I understand that the treatment of women as perpetually crying with gaping wet mouths while pink flesh puckers through holes in their tights is a POV thing, revealing the protagonist's misogyny and distaste for the physicality of femininity. This is what I mean by reading having changed since the book's publication - as a contemporary reader I found these descriptions offensive, and I hated that two of the main women characters wail about losing their individuality to their husbands and seem to have absolutely nothing else to do. A third is a wealthy schemer and the fourth a middle aged man's fantasy of a nubile young lover. Yes, yes, I know that's how they're supposed to come across, but pleasurable? Not to me. And just when you get to the end and think you can breathe a sigh of relief, there are FOUR postscripts and then one more for good measure. Honestly, I think this novel could be retired!

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