Under the Net
by:
Iris Murdoch (author)
Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780099429074 (0099429071)
Publish date: May 28th 2002
Publisher: Vintage Books
Pages no: 286
Edition language: English
To anyone out there who has picked this up as an introduction to Iris Murdoch, I say prevail...this is only her first novel. Having finished Under the Net and now had a couple of days to think about it, I am glad this is not the first of Iris Murdoch's books I've read - I probably would not h...
Have to dig and drill deeper into this one.One of the characters is the closest model to Beckett's "Lucky" I've ever found in a novel. The beginning set in grim Newhaven - a place I somewhat know and definitely despise - got me, but the rest of the story didn't so far.
Despite the consistently excellent writing style, Iris Murdoch's protagonist in Under The Net is an unsympathetic character that I found tedious. This is the same issue I had with the recently read A Confederacy of Dunces. The only interesting point I derived from a comparison of these two books is ...
Her first published novel, set in "contemporary" 50s London. Aimless youth gets philosophical. He oughtn't to be a sympathetic character and nothing much happens, but it's strangely compelling.