onegoodmove

Under The Net by Iris Murdoch. She was both a writer and a philosopher and it shows. What a delightful story. The story is of Jake Donaghue, writer, vagabond, an intellectual of sorts. His friends, his quest for truth all written in near perfect prose. The story begins "When I saw Finn waiting for me at the corner of the street I knew at once that something had gone wrong. Finn usually waits for me in bed, or leaning up against the side of the door with his eyes closed." and you're instantly hooked. Sadie, Anna, Hugo, Dave, Finn wonderful characters well developed and all help move the story along at a perfect pace. Lock picking, stolen dogs, political intrigue, simple adventures that hold you in their grasp. My only criticism is that it ends a mere 252 pages later.
It was my son Chris who convinced me to read the book. I asked him what it was about and this is what he said, " hmm, er. she wrote the book in the fifties, and it has a sort of conservative characteristic to it like Simenon or Hitchcock. I mean, the drama is not huge. The main guy has been characterized as a Sartrian hero. Its in the first person perspective about a single guy. that means that he goes around making his own decisions in a sort of unstable like world, much like coming of age novels its also very quick to read. I hated finishing, in fact I read the last few chapters two pages at a time and took about a week.
Then its all over and then what? after a good book, you look around in bookstores and there is nothing appealing, nothing compares." He has since read several other titles by her and recommends them all highly. Are you entralled, you should be. If not that is my fault not the book. Read it. I recommend it highly.