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knkoch's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Agony. I am left thinking of the contradictions of agony. We attempt to avoid pain and suffering, of course, but we also construct it for ourselves. Maybe we find it delicious, self-indulgent; maybe to luxuriate in pain gives greater relief to pleasure. Or maybe we believe (through religious instruction) that good suffering can purify us, wash away sin and mistakes, or act as penance.
Does suffering ever lead to good, for us or those in our lives? Certainly Hilary’s misery, the center of this story, spirals out and impacts his closest associates, even as he treasures his guilt as a thoroughly private pain. And the two people he suffers for, Gunnar and Kitty, are so remote and inscrutable.
I suffered a little in reading this, honestly. Hilary is a deeply unpleasant main character to contemplate, and this story was not as funny or energetic as others by Murdoch I’ve read so far. Yet just as I found with The Sea, The Sea, it was in describing the plot to other people that I felt that deep hook in me, that marveling process begin. This is a novel of ideas far more than images (though Murdoch gives out plenty of images of yellow London smog, yuck). I did find it instructive, especially in the way that guilt sometimes leads us to feel so indebted to those we’ve wronged that we deserve to be used as instruments at their hands. Absolution is a weighty idea I’m still so far from grasping, but this is a great exploration of one approach to it.
Also, I enjoyed some classic Murdoch character tropes here, especially that of the middle-aged woman who laughingly refuses to listen to or take seriously the mopey, tortured male characters usually present. Godspeed to you, Laura Impiatt.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism
I did not love the exoticism around Biscuit’s character, and the way her race (South Asian) seemed to feed into her strange role and treatment in the story. Weird and not great!
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