Reviews

Murmur by Will Eaves

andrew61's review

4.0

When I heard the short story from which this novel emerged when it was shortlisted for the BBC National short story award I was struck by the brilliantly drawn first person description of the effects of chemical castration upon Alan Turing and the events that had led to conviction for indecency. As society has changed over the decades the rehabilitation of this genius only compounds the horror and misery inflicted upon individuals by the state because of their sexuality and any resident of Manchester will see wall murals , street names and statues celebrating him which again seems somewhat ironic given how he was treated and his sad end.
This book is therefore a fascinating delve into a troubled mind as it expands on the short story to view the world through the characters mind and it is at time hallucinatory in format through the use of dreams and mirrors to explore a childhood friendship, the relationship with an adult lover, a scene at home with his mother and brother , through the use of letters the relationship with a woman to whom he was engaged.
This is not an easy read and listening to the author speak I feel that I have missed much on a first read which a better knowledge of Turing's theory would help, certainly mirrors and dreams as well as AI suggest the book uses philosophical ideas as well. Definitely an interesting read , deserving of a reread which left me intrigued but with a headache and at time scratching my head. Still I'd recommend it and doff my dunces cap to the writer.

georgie_mb's review against another edition

2.0

*gifted to me from Canongate*

I’m so gutted I didn’t enjoy this more, but I just couldn’t get into it. I’m completely fascinated by Alan Turing‘s life, especially as my grandma worked at Bletchley Park, but even for someone who knows a bit about his life, I really struggled and nearly gave up with it!

The book is split into sections of his journal, dreams and letters. I felt like I now have to go and look this up properly online somewhere as it’s not clear how much of this book is fiction. The first and last section of the book, the journal parts are actually beautifully written, but quite short compared to the middle section of dreams and letters and that’s where the book lets itself down for me.

I completely understand why Eaves has included these weird and bizarre dreams to show Turing’s suppression, but they are written in such a way that I couldn’t get the flow of them. I feel like with some of them I just glazed over them as I had no clue what was going on! I think that this book is really excluding itself to readers who have no previous knowledge of Turing’s life, as it gives no further explanation of insight into certain parts of his life.

I’m glad this is a short book as I think if it was any longer than 200 pages it would have been a DNF for me!

3thingsaboutthisbook's review against another edition

4.0

📕It’s these kinda books make you understand, even if they are works of fiction, what people have been through and how horribly they were treated. What someone like Alan Turing, who singlehandedly ended a war with his intellect and vision, had been through
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📗This is a story of another man like a Turing who was stigmatized for his sexual preference leading the days to Turing’s suicide. This man is very much like a portal into Turing’s last days. You can see how he loves, how he thinks and how he suffers
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📘After reading “Machines like Me”, where Turing was alive and well in an alternative universe, this book came like a refresher of all truth, hatred and bigotry out there. It’s a small but mighty read

ruthie_the_librarian's review

1.0

I initially enjoyed the first part of this book, but then began to feel more & more stupid as I went along! The dream sequences left me confused, and so for the latter half of the book I just felt confused and annoyed...It felt like weird, literary showing off. I'm sure some readers think it's marvellous, but it just wasn't for me. I persevered, and made it to the end, but it's taken me almost half a year and by the end I resented every single page.
Not my favourite.

mann's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

astroneatly's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.75

michblue52's review

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Intelligent and devastating. 

zombiezami's review

Got bored

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia and Medical content

Forced sterilization

madalcna's review

5.0

Murmur is a feat of a novel, so huge in scope and meaning, there was something to unveil in every chapter, a need to ponder every word and understand why it was there; because of it, it’s likely one of those books that “deserves” the “difficult read” stamp but, that, in my humble opinion, those are usually the books that bare fruit in the end. And oh, Murmur is an apple tree with ripe apples ready for plucking.

In it we follow Alec Pryor, a cryptanalyst working for british intelligence during the second world war, who has just been convicted of “gross indecency” and sentenced to undertake hormonal treatment and jungian therapy (instead of serving time in jail, since homosexuality was considered a criminal offense in the 50s). If any of this sounds familiar, it is because Will Eaves took great inspiration from the life of british mathematician Alan Turing -- basically, Eaves has created an “avatar” of Turing in Alec, while still retaining some creative license by changing a few names and events (it is also incredibly meaningful to the story that Alec isn’t really Turing). (I found knowing a bit about Turing’s life and work helped me understand certain aspects of the story but I only went so far as to read the Wikipedia on him, so I would say extensive knowledge and research isn’t needed in order to understand and appreciate the extension of the story).

Divided into three parts, the first one is filled with straight-forward journal entries in which Alec muses on a number of different subjects such as the human condition, god & religion, the *** of power in relationships and society’s need for conformism and rules.

“Here is a double strife: the sleeping death of duty—expectation, manners—and the waking inner life.”

There’s a lot to unpack right away and many of the subjects introduced in this first part will weave through the rest of the novel but it is in the second part that things start to get a bit more… experimental (weird, even), with the description of dreams; and as is the nature of dreams to be nonsensical and distorted, everything is not as straightforward as the first part but, I thought Eaves is kind to its readers by trying to give them some direction with letters that Alec exchanges with his friend June, where they discuss and try to uncover the meaning behind these dreams.

Taking from the life of Alan Turing, it would be impossible not to mention artificial intelligence and robotics, and that theme is often approached by the narrator, precisely when thinking about human intelligence and the possible existence of it in other beings other than humans, and how that can lead to the erasure of “originality” (something the human race is very much obsessed with).

“The fear of robots, I take it, is like the fear of prophecy, the essence of which is repetition: if you can be repeated, you can be replaced.”

There are constant symbols throughout the novel, such as the apple and the mirror, both nods to folk and fairy tales, of which Turing was a big fan of, and that, just like in those old stories, uncover something much deeper than is first let on -- they uncover the key themes of nature of identity and the fracturing of the self, as we learn that while Alec undergoes his treatment, he is faced with deep physical changes that lead him to question who he really is, raising the very old question of “am I still the same inside if I look so different on the outside?”.

“One is turned back on oneself and in the process one sees a second person, a new person whom one does not fully recognize.”

It is an heartbreaking imagining of what might have gone through an historical figure’s head during dehumanizing moments but it is also a deeply thoughtful meditation of human nature and society’s cruelty and compliance with heinous crimes and sentiments that often only ring true to a restricted number of people.

“When I was changed—treated—I found out two odd things. One was a source of mild comfort. I found that I could still be me, somewhere inside my head, when I was physically changing. The other was quite horrible and no comfort at all: when I began to look better, like my old self, after the changing treatment stopped, I seemed to disappear from the inside. I felt as if I’d been replaced. I heard myself saying to everyone how well I felt, how everything was on the up… (...) I felt I still knew, in some way, what had been done to me, but there was now another me, speaking for me, out of my altered or remodeled shape, who mindlessly agreed with everything the doctors said. I’d always thought that, in my line of work, a thing that acts like something, must be it, someone who behaves plausibly is plausibly the product of their behaviors. But I was wrong. You can be changed—tortured, in fact—so that the person other people go on talking to just isn’t you. You’ve gone away. Your body’s holding wide the door, but you are in a very different dark chamber.”

Please read it because, I can’t do it justice. This goes straight to the ‘best books ever’ pile.

jenni8fer's review

5.0

A beautifully written and intelligent work. This is a brave reimagining of the inner consciousness of Alan Turing following his conviction for gross indecency in 1952 and his choice of sentencing in lieu of prison to a course of weekly hormonal injections intended to reduce his libido, or chemical castration, over the course of a year. In 1954, Turing was found dead of cyanide poisoning by his housekeeper with a half-eaten apple by his side. It was speculated that the apple was laced with cyanide, while the apple wasn't tested for the poison, due to his enchantment with Snow White.

Part One of Murmur, Journal, was shortlisted for the 2017 BBC National Short Story Award which sets out the fictionalized circumstances of the at that time illegal tryst with a young man in his home. Alec Pryor (Turing) was discovered for his wrongdoing by reporting a burglary to the police brought on by the young man when the police came to fingerprint his home. This chapter also delves into his childhood friendship with Christopher (Morcom), his "first love", at boarding school and their misadventure of a nighttime trespassing into a private orchard and garden house, swimming across a lake. Christopher was already sick having contracted bovine tuberculosis some years before, and the lake crossing only made him sicker, causing his parents to remove him from school and place him in a sanatorium where he soon after passed away. This was a devastating blow to Turing, losing his greatest friend and math and science influencer.

Part Two, Letters and Dreams, imagines Alec Pryor's fantastical dreams and his fictional correspondence with June Wilson whom he worked with at Bletchley years before. In these letters, she is seeking to help him through his fear and pain to make sense of his strange dreams while he is undergoing the weekly treatment at the Naval Infirmary. Alec also regularly visits his appointed psychoanalyst, Dr. Stallbrook, during his sessions. His dreams consistently recall the childhood trespassing incident with his friend Christopher with Dr. Stallbrook as his headmaster. He views people as cartoons and conceptualizes Snow White images of scrying mirrors, dwarves, and evil witches around his mother and brother. He dreams of smart computers and the population's fear of thinking machines taking over. He worries over his changing body due to the hormones.

Lastly, Part Three returns to his Journal, following the conclusion of his treatment and his attempt to return to everyday life.

I found this to be emotional and psychologically impactful. A very interesting read.