Monday, January 26, 2009

deal with it

under the net
-iris murdoch

an irresponsible writer wanders his way through london and an assortment of ridiculous situations. reckless, suspicious, and lazy about most important elements of his life, the protagonist is self-centered and scheming but remains endearing. having read 'the sea the sea,' i was amused by the fact that both novels are built around the misadventures of wordy, egotistical, male narrators. i like jake from 'under the net' a lot better, and it's interesting to note that the narrative excess that burdens the first several chapters of 'the sea the sea' is never a problem here. murdoch's dry humor and fascinating characters make this a thoroughly enjoyable read. it is in print, but this is not a book you can walk into a chain bookstore and pick up, unless you're lucky. i struck out three times before tracking a copy down with the help of the internets.

1 comment:

seth said...

found the wikipedia entry for the book interesting; apparently i forgot to mention the whole philosophical angle of the book. someday i will learn to write real reviews. i'm thinking there's no point in correcting minor errors in the wikipedia plot summary, as they are so tiny as to matter only if one never reads the book and attempts to ace an examination on it. note that i did not say 'pass.' it doesn't have that many errors, tiny or not.