Something Special

My next Murdoch. I should be getting to this one sometime tomorrow.

That one just arrived on my doorstep today! Very very short. My last one was short, so this month (March) I think I need to pick a longer one.

In this short novella Yvonne lives with her mother and her uncle, she and her mum sharing one room and her uncle having the other. She isn't a young thing and her family is constantly at her about marrying. There is a young man who wishes to marry her but she is not drawn to him. However there is not much to do and so she regularly goes out walking with him. Rather a downtrodden tale, I still found it very interesting and unable to put down until I had completed it. It's very short so it took no time at all. I, still a babe in the woods when it comes to Murdoch, go down the garden path with her thinking that I know where I am going and again, BAM!, you aren't there anymore and possibly never were. She fascinates me. I recommend this novella and rated it 3 1/2 stars.

You said it, BAM!

She is something special. I wish that I could actually 'study' her and I guess I still can on my own and through this group. I am looking forward to reading Iris Murdoch: A Life this month. I am sure it will help with some of the nuances.

>5 rainpebble:. The biography by Conradi looks like a good one (my March IM, but I haven't started it yet). He also wrote The Saint and the Artist: A Study of Iris Murdoch's Works which I'm sure would also be helpful. Have you tried the Iris Murdoch for Beginners book by Bran Nicol? It's one of those graphic-type books--it's not a memoir, because it's not written by her, so I guess I would call it a graphic study of IM. I've found it very useful to dip into when I've been curious about some aspect of her writing.

No to all of the above but I will check them out. I've seen the Murdoch for Beginners one on Amazon I think, but not the other. Thanks.

The Saint and the Artist is very good but does repeat some of what he says in IM: A Life (or the other way round). I do recommend the A.S. Byatt book, too, although it doesn't go right up to the end. And this one itself is covered in Priscilla Martin and Anne Rowe's Iris Murdoch: A Literary Life - it's an expensive Palgrave hardback (I got it for half price at the last IM Society conference) but if you live near a University library and you have borrowing rights you might be able to get hold of it.

Many thanks for the helpful recs.