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worstwitch's review
3.0
Maybe only a 3 because I’ve been quite gluttonous with Murdoch this year but this book made my heart ache. The passage between Ann & Felix ! An English comedy of manners that delves ever so deeply into the human psyche in the most subtle yet piercing of ways. Well done Murdoch.
stefhyena's review
5.0
I never thought the day would come when I would give 5 stars to a book of the "romance" genre, but this book claims to be "in the great tradition of the English romantic novel" and yet it was well written and complex.
I didn't necessarily enjoy every page of it. The characters were for the most part unlikeable. Selfish Hugh, narcissistic Randall and sociopathic Miranda are three generations of toxicity getting worse each generation possibly from the neglect of the former. I had a sneaking liking for control-freak Emma Sands but know I wasn't supposed to and I was appalled at her more abusive excesses (eg toward Lindsay and intentionally toward Jocelyn). I felt irritated by Felix and definitely by Douglas and felt a lot of compassion both for Ann and Clara but also felt impatient with their tendency (like all female characters in the book) to centre their lives so firmly on a man or men. Miranda in that sense I suppose could be seen as having a reason to be so self-absorbed because women in the book failed to relate to each other (I was disappointed when the veil was pulled from what looked like a relationship between Emma and Lindsay and they both turned out to be backstabbing each other.
It's a dystopian book about relationships then but it problematises hetero-patriarchy and the institution of marriage (and respectability).
Now I have to go and have a gin and blood orange with my son but anyway the book was complex and worth struggling with.
I didn't necessarily enjoy every page of it. The characters were for the most part unlikeable. Selfish Hugh, narcissistic Randall and sociopathic Miranda are three generations of toxicity getting worse each generation possibly from the neglect of the former. I had a sneaking liking for control-freak Emma Sands but know I wasn't supposed to and I was appalled at her more abusive excesses (eg toward Lindsay and intentionally toward Jocelyn). I felt irritated by Felix and definitely by Douglas and felt a lot of compassion both for Ann and Clara but also felt impatient with their tendency (like all female characters in the book) to centre their lives so firmly on a man or men. Miranda in that sense I suppose could be seen as having a reason to be so self-absorbed because women in the book failed to relate to each other (I was disappointed when the veil was pulled from what looked like a relationship between Emma and Lindsay and they both turned out to be backstabbing each other.
It's a dystopian book about relationships then but it problematises hetero-patriarchy and the institution of marriage (and respectability).
Now I have to go and have a gin and blood orange with my son but anyway the book was complex and worth struggling with.
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