![]() There’s our narrator who is also writing the novel we are reading, his ex-wife, her brother, his frenemy–a much more prolific and successful writer, his frenemy’s wife, their daughter, and the narrator’s sister. ![]() In this novel, we are presented with several characters within a social scene. She’s also quite interested in queer figures, the Jewish faith, and the nature of art, being, and death. These figures are usually cartoonish in their power and appeal, but the damage they are capable of inflicting is almost always quite real. These talents may be writing, or painting, or theater, or philosophy or something similar. For her novels, this figure is someone (usually male) who has a strange power over others because of his real, but ambiguous talents. You also often find what we can reasonably call an “Enchanter” figure. ![]() For example, when you pick up one of her novels, you will generally find sexual obsession, a lot of letter writing, someone being deeply manipulative of others’ feelings, sometimes on purpose…sometimes through their pure selfishness. She is also concerned with some strange ideas and topics in her novels. ![]() Iris Murdoch was a trained philosopher who didn’t start writing until her 30s. A few years after her last novel, she died of Alzheimer’s, the story of which you can see in the movie Iris. She wrote 26 or so novels from 1956-1995. So you know how you were saying you wanted to read soap operas written by philosophers? Ok, but still, you should. ![]()
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