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3.93 AVERAGE
3.93 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
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
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is a book to be discussed in group. It was very readable, and brought me interesting insights.
mysterious
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:
Complicated
reflective
medium-paced
Dora Greenfield left her husband because she was afraid of him. She decided six months later to return to him for the same reason. The absent Paul, haunting her with letters and telephone bells and imagined footsteps on the stairs had begun to be the greater torment. Dora suffered from guilt, and with guilt came fear. She decided at last that the persecution of his presence was to be preferred to the persecution of his absence.
Probably one of my favorite openings of the books I've read this year. I picked it up because I recognized it as an episode of the LIT Century podcast and then stumbled upon it in a bookstore.
Nothing really happens in this book, its about a group of people who are gathered in a lay community outside an abbey, subjected to Iris Murdoch's intense observational scrutiny. Things do unfold, but it has such a slow, lifelike pace to it that you almost don't really notice, and by the time you do everything is all over and you can't take anything back.
Dora Greenfield is one of the more endearing characters I've come across in literary fiction. She is so flawed and so silly and yet so present. I don't know if this is what I mean exactly but I often feel the invisible tension of judgment when writers write women, but Dora seemed to me completely free of this from Murdoch. No aspect of her seemed to be particularly sculpted or changed to either avoid or embody criticism. I recognize that's a ridiculous statement with no possible justification or evidence, but that was my emotional experience reading her, to feel that she got to be who she is, wholly.
Fluidly readable from line to line, psychologically adept, oddly placid. I enjoyed this book.
challenging
mysterious
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
reflective
medium-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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Suicide, Toxic relationship
Moderate: Emotional abuse
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
