You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A long, and weird book filled with people I didn’t actually like except one who really figured into the last quarter of the book. Lots of stars, sea, details about anchovy toast , and drama. But I kind of loved the weirdness .
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I found this both terrifying and hilarious
I've had The Sea, The Sea on my radar for a looong time, years and years, mainly because the title stuck in my head and wouldn't budge. Somehow I ended up with a lot of preconceptions about this book but other than really beautiful descriptions of water, none of them were accurate. I think I was expecting something vaguely dreamy and ethereal, but The Sea, The Sea is grounded firmly in reality.
Murdoch does character studies wonderfully. She records almost every detail of the minutiae of life until it feels like we're following along in real time, but whilst in unskilled hands this would be a huge slog, Murdoch turns the mundane ins and outs of everyday living into something fascinating.
These are the notes I jotted down as I was reading:
egotist
misogynist
fantasist
bully
unreliable
weirdly focused on food
rose coloured glasses of first love
Hartley clearly has mental issues
justification of others' actions in his favour
obsessive
writing a memoir/autobiography
self declared Prospero
self absorbed
manipulative
ignorant of his own motivations
Despite all that, Murdoch managed to make me empathise with and feel sorry for this character by the end of the book. Her writing is addictive and I did not want to stop reading, though I found myself often questioning exactly why that was. I am head over heels, and really looking forward to reading more.
Murdoch does character studies wonderfully. She records almost every detail of the minutiae of life until it feels like we're following along in real time, but whilst in unskilled hands this would be a huge slog, Murdoch turns the mundane ins and outs of everyday living into something fascinating.
These are the notes I jotted down as I was reading:
egotist
misogynist
fantasist
bully
unreliable
weirdly focused on food
rose coloured glasses of first love
Hartley clearly has mental issues
justification of others' actions in his favour
obsessive
writing a memoir/autobiography
self declared Prospero
self absorbed
manipulative
ignorant of his own motivations
Despite all that, Murdoch managed to make me empathise with and feel sorry for this character by the end of the book. Her writing is addictive and I did not want to stop reading, though I found myself often questioning exactly why that was. I am head over heels, and really looking forward to reading more.
Meandered a bit too much for me in places, though I understand why the author did it. I am always amazed by Iris Murdoch's ability to nail a male perspective, and explore the creepy, dark, manipulative and nasty thoughts and how a person justifies them self as a good person while acting extremely selfishly.
I have very mixed feelings about this book, so let me try to capture them as follows:
The good: The writing style is engaging and beautiful in most parts. The characters also enter and exit the plot at convenient, if not sharp, moments during the story. Very elaborate and beautiful descriptions of the sea, the state of human nature, the fragility of human feelings, the sky, morality and all possible meals that the characters have consumed.
The bad:
1. The protagonist (and narrator) is downright insufferable. Charles Arrowby is sensitive to the point where even the slightest of events (the possibility that someone has left a letter behind) triggers the "unfolding of vast emotional vistas" (i.e. it must be intentional and what could it mean and so on). Yet, he despises any expression of these feelings as vulgar, chaotic, disgusting and abuses the word "horrible" in describing anything that pertains to the things he seems to innately desire. I skipped several portions of his emotional raving and ranting, because it is one thing to express these in private (and indeed the novel is his diary), but to take out emotional tantrums on others to the point where it seems to come from a place of malice (intentionally wrecking joy and marriages) is not expected of a grown adult person. If anything, this novel left me with very little sympathy for the character and so all of his lessons have been wasted on me.
2. The book is about everything and nothing at the same time. Essentially it is about human relationships, but also it is about everything ranging from homosexuality, disturbed childhoods, sibling rivalry, jealousy, "possessive" love, battered domesticity, Buddhism, singing, the sea and its inhabitants, parenthood, celebrity lifestyles, boundaries between superstition and religion, loving through hate and so on. There are a great many philosophical discussions the book tries to have, primarily via the character of James, but given the otherwise emotional maturity of an infant of the protagonist, it seems a forced and particularly stupid undertaking on James' behalf to reason with his cousin. Also, "oriental mysticism".
3.The whole central plot with the narrator, Hartley and Ben is a textbook example of a battered self-flagellating woman who is trapped between two keepers, one who has trained her for years and the other who is hell-bent on disrupting everything for a childhood ideal of "one true love". Also, the author's treatment of Hartley as a poor frightened child, and not as a woman who, while possibly abused, was still capable of acting according to her intentions, made everything worse for me. If someone asks to be sent back home after 4 days, they do not want to stay with you. It is literally just that simple, but no here we are enduring obscenely long chapters about "finding a thin stream of communication" even though she purportedly loves him. Can we also please talk about why the narrator has to mention her breasts almost every time he encounters her? Particularly if his love for her is so pure and holy and all-consuming? While I know that this is taken care of towards the end, and Charles finally realizes he had an unhealthy obsession, he dragged us through that "horrible/terrible" journey with him and I do not think his "suffering" does not take away the fact that he still got away with very few consequences.
4. The women of this book are all tedious. I probably only like Rosina a little bit, and if only because she had the gumption to go after and destroy what wrecked her marriage and her unborn baby. I imagine that is how the protagonist feels of them, but only once after he has obsessed about them, made them his muse, suffered his requisite artistic angst and then found another one. Liz, Gilbert and Peregrine make no sense to me particularly. WHY in the world are all of these people so loving of this reprehensible self-important sack of emotional tantrums? Even if we assume that Liz and Gilbert are happy in their polyamorous arrangement, why in the world should it be with this hideous Charles Arrowby?
The good: The writing style is engaging and beautiful in most parts. The characters also enter and exit the plot at convenient, if not sharp, moments during the story. Very elaborate and beautiful descriptions of the sea, the state of human nature, the fragility of human feelings, the sky, morality and all possible meals that the characters have consumed.
The bad:
1. The protagonist (and narrator) is downright insufferable. Charles Arrowby is sensitive to the point where even the slightest of events (the possibility that someone has left a letter behind) triggers the "unfolding of vast emotional vistas" (i.e. it must be intentional and what could it mean and so on). Yet, he despises any expression of these feelings as vulgar, chaotic, disgusting and abuses the word "horrible" in describing anything that pertains to the things he seems to innately desire. I skipped several portions of his emotional raving and ranting, because it is one thing to express these in private (and indeed the novel is his diary), but to take out emotional tantrums on others to the point where it seems to come from a place of malice (intentionally wrecking joy and marriages) is not expected of a grown adult person. If anything, this novel left me with very little sympathy for the character and so all of his lessons have been wasted on me.
2. The book is about everything and nothing at the same time. Essentially it is about human relationships, but also it is about everything ranging from homosexuality, disturbed childhoods, sibling rivalry, jealousy, "possessive" love, battered domesticity, Buddhism, singing, the sea and its inhabitants, parenthood, celebrity lifestyles, boundaries between superstition and religion, loving through hate and so on. There are a great many philosophical discussions the book tries to have, primarily via the character of James, but given the otherwise emotional maturity of an infant of the protagonist, it seems a forced and particularly stupid undertaking on James' behalf to reason with his cousin. Also, "oriental mysticism".
3.The whole central plot with the narrator, Hartley and Ben is a textbook example of a battered self-flagellating woman who is trapped between two keepers, one who has trained her for years and the other who is hell-bent on disrupting everything for a childhood ideal of "one true love". Also, the author's treatment of Hartley as a poor frightened child, and not as a woman who, while possibly abused, was still capable of acting according to her intentions, made everything worse for me. If someone asks to be sent back home after 4 days, they do not want to stay with you. It is literally just that simple, but no here we are enduring obscenely long chapters about "finding a thin stream of communication" even though she purportedly loves him. Can we also please talk about why the narrator has to mention her breasts almost every time he encounters her? Particularly if his love for her is so pure and holy and all-consuming? While I know that this is taken care of towards the end, and Charles finally realizes he had an unhealthy obsession, he dragged us through that "horrible/terrible" journey with him and I do not think his "suffering" does not take away the fact that he still got away with very few consequences.
4. The women of this book are all tedious. I probably only like Rosina a little bit, and if only because she had the gumption to go after and destroy what wrecked her marriage and her unborn baby. I imagine that is how the protagonist feels of them, but only once after he has obsessed about them, made them his muse, suffered his requisite artistic angst and then found another one. Liz, Gilbert and Peregrine make no sense to me particularly. WHY in the world are all of these people so loving of this reprehensible self-important sack of emotional tantrums? Even if we assume that Liz and Gilbert are happy in their polyamorous arrangement, why in the world should it be with this hideous Charles Arrowby?
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
funny
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes