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3.78 AVERAGE
3.78 AVERAGE
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
medium-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
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is the first Iris Murdoch book I have read and I know it will not be the last. One word sums up The Sandcastle to me, and that word is WOW!! Loved it, loved it, loved it!
Set around a boy's school and its staff, we meet Mor, his rather forceful wife, Nan, and their two teenage offspring, Don and Felicity. This seems to be quite a dysfunctional family in a way, especially Felicity who believes she has a special "gift". Then enters into the story some of the school staff, Revvy Evvy, Demoyte, Hensman and the stuttering art master, Bledyard. Finally there is Rain, the artist who has been commissioned to paint the portrait of Demoyte, and who stirs things up amid St Bride's school at the same time.
I didn't find this book particulary sombre, but a real page-turner. I loved the characters, loved some of the comic moments of the story, loved the plot and loved the suspense. And who really was that gypsy tramp?
Would highly recommend, especially if, like me, this is your first encounter with Iris Murdoch.
Set around a boy's school and its staff, we meet Mor, his rather forceful wife, Nan, and their two teenage offspring, Don and Felicity. This seems to be quite a dysfunctional family in a way, especially Felicity who believes she has a special "gift". Then enters into the story some of the school staff, Revvy Evvy, Demoyte, Hensman and the stuttering art master, Bledyard. Finally there is Rain, the artist who has been commissioned to paint the portrait of Demoyte, and who stirs things up amid St Bride's school at the same time.
I didn't find this book particulary sombre, but a real page-turner. I loved the characters, loved some of the comic moments of the story, loved the plot and loved the suspense. And who really was that gypsy tramp?
Would highly recommend, especially if, like me, this is your first encounter with Iris Murdoch.
My views may have been coloured by A.S. Byatt's introduction to Murdoch's wonderful (next) novel, 'The Bell', in which she declared 'The Sandcastle' was not altogether a success. Even so I will concede that the latter has much to recommend it, not least the effortless creation of place. Like Taylor's 'A View from the Harbour', which I have also recently read, 'The Sandcastle' focuses on a painter, with prose that itself has an oil-paint vividness.
I have enjoyed all the seven Murdoch novels I have read to date, but the less successful often falter because ideas eclipse realism of action, utterance and human interaction. Especially when Murdoch's characters agonise over their romantic moral dilemmas - as they so often do - I too often find myself snapped out of the action, and instead wondering about Murdoch as moral philosopher. In these moments - and the overheard tennis court scene offers just one example - it veered dangerously close to staginess or even farce.
Much of the novel is fluent, especially on how people so often use convenient self-deceptions, which we use to hide from ourselves and our own motivations, and blind us from the inconvenient motivations of others. Nevertheless, there were enough moments where it got wooden to take me out of the fantasy. The closing scenes that involve multiple ladders and a Dorian Grey-style evolution in the emblematic painting do much to redeem the novel's weaker moments. Moreover, the introduction suggests the depth of thought in this work, that my perhaps more superficial leisurely reading won't have spotted: even Murdoch's weaker novels run to surprising depths, it seems.
If 'The Sea, The Sea', were to wash away this sandcastle, it would not be the end of the world for this reader, much though it was a good book with some memorable moments. The wonder for me is that Murdoch then went on to produce 'The Bell', in all it's fully-formed wonder.
I have enjoyed all the seven Murdoch novels I have read to date, but the less successful often falter because ideas eclipse realism of action, utterance and human interaction. Especially when Murdoch's characters agonise over their romantic moral dilemmas - as they so often do - I too often find myself snapped out of the action, and instead wondering about Murdoch as moral philosopher. In these moments - and the overheard tennis court scene offers just one example - it veered dangerously close to staginess or even farce.
Much of the novel is fluent, especially on how people so often use convenient self-deceptions, which we use to hide from ourselves and our own motivations, and blind us from the inconvenient motivations of others. Nevertheless, there were enough moments where it got wooden to take me out of the fantasy. The closing scenes that involve multiple ladders and a Dorian Grey-style evolution in the emblematic painting do much to redeem the novel's weaker moments. Moreover, the introduction suggests the depth of thought in this work, that my perhaps more superficial leisurely reading won't have spotted: even Murdoch's weaker novels run to surprising depths, it seems.
If 'The Sea, The Sea', were to wash away this sandcastle, it would not be the end of the world for this reader, much though it was a good book with some memorable moments. The wonder for me is that Murdoch then went on to produce 'The Bell', in all it's fully-formed wonder.
Another "tour de force" by one of my favorite authors.
4* Living on Paper: Letters from Iris Murdoch, 1934-1995
5* Iris: A Memoir of Iris Murdoch
5* Iris Murdoch: Dream Girl
4* A Severed Head
4* The Sea, the Sea
4* The Black Prince
4* The Bell
3* Under the Net
3* The Italian Girl
4* The Sandcastle
TR The Sacred and Profane Love Machine
TR A Fairly Honourable Defeat
TR The Nice and the Good
TR The Philosopher's Pupil
TR The Good Apprentice
TR The Red and the Green
4* Living on Paper: Letters from Iris Murdoch, 1934-1995
5* Iris: A Memoir of Iris Murdoch
5* Iris Murdoch: Dream Girl
4* A Severed Head
4* The Sea, the Sea
4* The Black Prince
4* The Bell
3* Under the Net
3* The Italian Girl
4* The Sandcastle
TR The Sacred and Profane Love Machine
TR A Fairly Honourable Defeat
TR The Nice and the Good
TR The Philosopher's Pupil
TR The Good Apprentice
TR The Red and the Green
This one read like a cross between The Bell and The Severed Head -- a family/marital drama like Severed Head, more fun than The Bell, but closer to The Bell in tone. I remain unclear on the attraction that Mor held for Rain, and the book's position, that she was looking for a replacement father-figure, only goes so far. Loved the witchcraft and and the transformative time spent in the greenwood and the mysterious recurring figure of the woodsman.
When I picked up The Sandcastle in a tiny cafe-and-bookshop in Little Walsingham, it made me laugh within the first hundred words, and I felt that was a pretty good reason to buy and read my first work of Iris Murdoch's. I had no expectations going in, and my first impression was that the descriptions were lovely, but I had no idea what the book was going to be about. At first, I enjoyed the gentle happiness of the main character's good mood, though I wasn't sure I liked Mor - or any of the characters. Whether or not the cast of characters are likeable, they certainly develop as the story goes along, and the book continued to be funny, in a dry sort of way, in describing their adventures.
The Sandcastle is a very well-plotted book, with things that seem only to be humorous asides returning in bigger roles, giving the book a very coherent feeling which I was impressed with. The tone throughout much of the novel does create a distance between the reader and the events, and the characters. That might be as much down to the time and style Iris Murdoch was working in as anything else. There was one chapter, describing Donald's misadventures at St Bride's which was genuinely exciting, and really stood out amid the rest of the narrative. The prose is quite elegant, and there were many admirable turns of phrase.
Possibly the cleverest thing about The Sandcastle is in the early chapters, where it's obvious to the reader that Mor is lying to himself, as well as to everyone else in his life, without it ever being explicitly stated. Mor himself doesn't realise what is happening, and yet as a reader I never doubted my own impressions. I'd love to know how exactly Iris Murdoch accomplished that.
I'd recommend this to anyone who enjoyed The Tortoise and the Hare by Elizabeth Jenkins, as well as to anyone who enjoys elegant prose and descriptions of houses and places.
The Sandcastle is a very well-plotted book, with things that seem only to be humorous asides returning in bigger roles, giving the book a very coherent feeling which I was impressed with. The tone throughout much of the novel does create a distance between the reader and the events, and the characters. That might be as much down to the time and style Iris Murdoch was working in as anything else. There was one chapter, describing Donald's misadventures at St Bride's which was genuinely exciting, and really stood out amid the rest of the narrative. The prose is quite elegant, and there were many admirable turns of phrase.
Possibly the cleverest thing about The Sandcastle is in the early chapters, where it's obvious to the reader that Mor is lying to himself, as well as to everyone else in his life, without it ever being explicitly stated. Mor himself doesn't realise what is happening, and yet as a reader I never doubted my own impressions. I'd love to know how exactly Iris Murdoch accomplished that.
I'd recommend this to anyone who enjoyed The Tortoise and the Hare by Elizabeth Jenkins, as well as to anyone who enjoys elegant prose and descriptions of houses and places.