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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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

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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Reliability of the narrator

Enjoyed this fifth audio Murdoch novel for Murdoch's usual scathing insight into the human condition and philosophical enquiry. However, I found my enjoyment marred by the audio narration by Anthony Howell. He narrated as if he was a coach tour guide giving information about the interesting sights. Perhaps his tone of voice was not to my personal taste, but his deep burr felt out of keeping with the story. His rendering of the dialogue was a lot better and I was able to imagine the characters. But I was somewhat glad to reach the end of this audio book and that is an exceptional experience for me using audio books.

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3 people found this helpful

Murdoch’s Lolita

A middle-aged man falls obsessively in love with a girl on the threshold of womanhood, after a tangle of desires and repulsions involving the other characters has already been established. Nobody quite knows what they want, and any certainty is revealed as delusion. The plot is farcical and by turns comedic and tragic. The main narrator and the other minor ones all seem to be unreliable. The story follows the classic arc of tragedy and ends in nemesis but not necessarily self knowledge. I enjoyed listening to this audio book immensely, having forgotten everything from my first reading of the book about forty years ago

Anthony Howell’s reading is competent and not jarring, with the exception of a number of mispronunciations that ought to have been corrected, as for instance the use of the French ‘hommage’ for the English ‘homage’. That is a recent affectation and detracts from the sense of period.

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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