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jeannemixon 's review for:
The Sea, the Sea
by Iris Murdoch
A brilliant compelling book. Charles is the dark yin to James's bright yang. Charles is a sociopath, using people, completely egotistical and narcissistic. James is all self sacrificing and delightfully Dr. Strange mystical. I found myself wishing the book had been told from James's point of view but oh well. At one point James says to Charles that good actions can awaken evil results: "White magic is black magic. And a less than perfect meddling in the spiritual world can breed monsters for other people. Demons used for good can hang around and make mischief afterwards." All of the characters in this book are caught in a mandala of good and evil. They flip back and forth between good actions and bad actions and harmony and disharmony with each other and their environment. Most of the time, most of the characters are in disharmony and miserable. I can think of only set of characters who achieved perfect harmony -- Gilbert and Lizzie -- and only because they gave up seeking love and fleshly delights and lived together in perfect peace. James is in a perfect state of grace and Charles is in a perfect state of disgrace.