The Sea, The Sea

I found myself amazed at how long it took (about 70 pages in print, apparently) for this story to actually begin, but once the characters begin to appear, they all pile into the small, isolated seaside house, and come and go as energetically as in a drawing room comedy with slamming doors and quick entrances upon others\’ quick exits. The vast middle of the book details the exhaustive, ill-formed plan of the protagonist, followed by its execution, failure, and examination from every angle by every character involved, whether in conversation or as our man Charles imagines them to be thinking. Yet: I found myself captured and held by the narrator much as I disliked him and found him wrong-headednot unlike his \”victim\” seems to regard him. My biggest gripe is the various better endings Murdoch wrote us through only to pick up the story again, even including a resumption of the ill-formed plan. Still, it\’s amazingly well-written (it won the Booker Prize, of course), and this bizarre interpersonal plot and extensive narrator reflections is hard to turn away from, even if only to see how badly the retired actor will act toward his friends. Skip the turgid introduction (not by Murdoch) with this audiobook, or wait until you\’ve finished the book to listen to it if only to compare Mary Kinzie\’s academic aridity with Iris Murdoch\’s fluency. As a masters thesis it may have worked, but it gives sway every major plot development and character\’s role and, as Murdoch already overlays her first-person narrator\’s voice with a great deal of Jungian analysis, it seems a pointless discourse on the symbolism of symbolic symbols which the novel itself also explores.

This languidly beautiful first person narrative was completely engaging. The story was insightful and filled with reflections and thoughts on everyday life, looking both forward and looking backwards at retirement. Murdoch\’s skill at writing made simple daily tribulations interesting and even enticing. The characters were well developed and easily recognizable. I loved Murdoch\’s use of the recurring theme of the ocean which created a solid framework or backbone for the book. The detailed description of the sea, its changing color, light and movement never became tiresome or too much. Instead it grounded the story, filled it with beauty, danger, monsters and destruction. The narration was excellent. I wasn\’t sure about Vance at first but I was quickly won over by his reading style. The only negative I have about this edition of the book was that I really disliked the introduction. So if it bogs you down I\’d suggest just skipping it. That part felt heavy handed. Don\’t let it turn you away from a wonderful book. A classic, the 1978 Booker Prize winner and not to be missed. Excellent.

What a miraculous book. I have only just now finished it, and I already know that I will begin the re-listening of it tonight. I cannot wait. Without a doubt, it is on that shelf of one of the very best. You are wondering what it is about? Heavy sigh. It is about everything, of course, as the greatest books are. But, Murdoch focuses with frightening clarity on marriages, relationships, lost love, delusions, the darkness we hide from, and the darkness we hide away. It is a stormy, psychological journey into the hearts of many different characters whose paths are all intertwined. It begins with a famous actor/director (Charles Arrowby) retiring to a little run-down house by the sea where he swims, cooks wonderful meals, collects rocks, thinks, and writes about his life. Lord, it sounded like heaven to me. Of course, it was not. There are tiny little shadows cast upon the reader from the start, and we slowly grow uneasy with the knowledge that so much is hooded, masked, and cloaked in falseness and danger, but we cannot quite put our finger on what it is. The zig-zagging trajectory of the tangled lives cannot be forecasted by the reader. Although we long for a predictable outcome to so many of the extraordinary events, this is not what we get. Murdoch is a realist. She puts a little dash of beast in everyone and the effect is a gentle bludgeoning which (sickeningly) we do understand, and from which (appallingly) we cannot tear our ears away. I felt slightly shackled to this story. Even when I took a break from the listening, her words followed me. Everywhere. It is haunting. It is very powerful. Murdoch was an amazing talent. How many authors can conjure the perfect words to describe \”eyes that are determined to lose hope\”? She does this and other breathtaking word-feats. Aren\’t you curious?

Lost in Iris Murdoch\’s story and language from the beginning. So much here that after I pull up the boat, make camp, and get a good night\’s sleep, I will do it again.

Richly written and fully engaging, there is no wonder The Sea, The Sea was awarded the Booker prize.

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