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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
Loved this reading experience. The (male) main character is one of the flattest, most annoying characters I've ever seen and he's surrounded by amazing female characters. Having their lives described from his toxic view was a very interesting perspective.
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-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
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Absolutely fantastic. For me, this is second only to Lolita in my favourite works of literature of all time. But so much of its splendour depends on Murdoch's immaculate command of surprise, irony, and plotting that it is difficult to properly praise it without spoilers. Nonetheless, I can say that it portrays the catastrophic effects of infatuation better than anyone else, even Nabokov, because Humbert Humbert's monstrosity prevents him from achieving the self-abnegating and ludicrously endearing idiocy of Bradley Pearson. It's stupendous.
This book is simultaneously an intricate piece of clockwork as well as an electrifying, hilarious, tragic portrait of a hopeless, age-gap relationship. I cannot recommend it enough.
This book is simultaneously an intricate piece of clockwork as well as an electrifying, hilarious, tragic portrait of a hopeless, age-gap relationship. I cannot recommend it enough.
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
on my re-read I had to demote this one star. I couldn't even finish it the second time around because the narrator is so loathsome. I don't know why he didn't bother me so much the first time.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A masterpiece, obviously
I was in the library looking for more Murakami after having read Kafka by the Sea and Windup Bird and I saw they had some Iris Murdoch and so I checked out Black Prince and, of course, I loved it because I love Iris Murdoch. This book starts slowly (a little like Murakami). It is about a man who is unable to express or feel emotion or connections to other people. He is a complete egoist. The other people have dramatic (almost hysterical) interactions with each other and him, but he just wants to retreat from the world. There is some gender bending and some confused sexuality. If it hadn't been a library book I would have pulled out a highlighter because there were so many passages I loved and wished I could memorize. The book is alternately laugh out loud funny and horrible and violent and sad. It ends with a sort of Rashomon effect that pulls you completely out of the story in a very jarring way. There were references to Hamlet and to Shakespeare in general, but they were odd. The Black Prince is Hamlet, but I think in the end it was a reference to the artistic urge. Much of the book was about what is art and why do artists feel a need to create and what is worthy and what is not.
Where do I start with this book? First, let’s get the obvious point out of the way, the prose is superb.
The setup is rather interesting, very sit-com like, in my mind, I imagine a living room and every time Bradley opens the door to leave someone walks in. In that sense it is comical…
Other than that, it has the most unlikeable characters I’ve encountered in a while. Their actions are vain, petty, immature and in some cases downright stupid. Perhaps the book was more appropriate within the context of the time in which it was written. But for me it was a drag….
The setup is rather interesting, very sit-com like, in my mind, I imagine a living room and every time Bradley opens the door to leave someone walks in. In that sense it is comical…
Other than that, it has the most unlikeable characters I’ve encountered in a while. Their actions are vain, petty, immature and in some cases downright stupid. Perhaps the book was more appropriate within the context of the time in which it was written. But for me it was a drag….
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This book is just not for me at all.
I didn’t know much about Iris Murdoch prior to reading this book other than the fact that she’s won the Booker Prize before. Nonetheless, I was hoping for this to be the gateway to the rest of her bibliography. However, if The Black Prince is a good measure of how she writes, the journey has ended for me before it’s even started proper.
The Black Prince is a tough read. It’s tough because it is the self-important ramblings of an old, jaded, neurotic writer who’s bitching and moaning about everything in his life. There’s a masterpiece he claims to have the intentions of writing, but people keep getting in the way — people, such as his ex-wife, his brother-in-law, his sister, his writer friend, his writer friend’s wife (whom he has an affair with) and his writer friend’s daughter (whom he also has an affair with). I gave up halfway, but everything up to that point is him whinging about these people interfering with his ‘brilliance’.
Just imagine The Catcher in the Rye’s Holden Caulfield as a 58-year-old, speaking with the same voice on the page, going on tangents about the nature of art, then coming back to bitch some more about how useless his sister is, how much he hates his ex-wife, how much he loathes his writer friend, how he loves his writer friend’s wife, how he also secretly loves his writer friend’s daughter, and how these ‘people’ are really coming in the way of his passion — for 400 pages.
I didn’t stay for that long, of course. I couldn’t be bothered. It’s tiresome and I am moving on.
This book is just not for me at all.
I didn’t know much about Iris Murdoch prior to reading this book other than the fact that she’s won the Booker Prize before. Nonetheless, I was hoping for this to be the gateway to the rest of her bibliography. However, if The Black Prince is a good measure of how she writes, the journey has ended for me before it’s even started proper.
The Black Prince is a tough read. It’s tough because it is the self-important ramblings of an old, jaded, neurotic writer who’s bitching and moaning about everything in his life. There’s a masterpiece he claims to have the intentions of writing, but people keep getting in the way — people, such as his ex-wife, his brother-in-law, his sister, his writer friend, his writer friend’s wife (whom he has an affair with) and his writer friend’s daughter (whom he also has an affair with). I gave up halfway, but everything up to that point is him whinging about these people interfering with his ‘brilliance’.
Just imagine The Catcher in the Rye’s Holden Caulfield as a 58-year-old, speaking with the same voice on the page, going on tangents about the nature of art, then coming back to bitch some more about how useless his sister is, how much he hates his ex-wife, how much he loathes his writer friend, how he loves his writer friend’s wife, how he also secretly loves his writer friend’s daughter, and how these ‘people’ are really coming in the way of his passion — for 400 pages.
I didn’t stay for that long, of course. I couldn’t be bothered. It’s tiresome and I am moving on.