El mar, el mar (1978)

Bleurgh. This is both good and awful at one and the same time. Charles Arrowby has retired from the stage to a coastal house (in my head Cornwall, but it's not made explicit). He intends to write his memoires in some form, and starts with writing a diary. We hear a reasonable amount about the women in his life, from his first love Mary (called Hartley to distinguish her from the many other Marys in the class) through Clement, Rosina, Lizzie and others. In this sense he is a thoroughly bad hat. Just when you think that you're going to read his memoirs, the diary format gets derailed by his coming across Hartley, a now married woman who has also retired to the same locality. At this point he conceives the idea that he still loves her and the rest of the book is a set of ridiculous attempts to win her back (he fails, as he dammed well deserves to). He is pretty thoroughly unlikeable. He takes it into his head that Hartley's marriage in unhappy and that she is a fantasist, I think the pot is calling the kettle black there. In my estimation, Hartley is the only woman who left him, he seems to have tired and moved on from all the others, and this is at the root of his scheme.
He ends up alone, and deservedly so.
Having said all that, the writing and description is really impressive. The descriptions are vivid and she really gets inside Charles' head - it's just not a very nice place to be. He was a chore to read, the prose less so. A compromise 3 stars. ( )

Review at 74%:

Astaga. I've had this book on my curiosity list for awhile and read some reviews. I've expected it to be great but I've never anticipated the madness after madness I'd be presented with. Ini salah satu, kalau bukan fiksi paling racun dan psycho yang pernah aku baca. Hampir semua tokohnya miring dan ganjil dengan caranya masing-masing (kecuali barangkali Titus). Frustrasi parah bacanya. Sebagai pembaca biasa aku cenderung mengharapkan bahwa protagonis memiliki kualitas-kualitas redeeming. Perasaan mendukung protagonis untuk meraih tujuannya biasanya adalah salah satu pendorong utama aku untuk terus mengikuti cerita sampai akhir. Jarang-jarang aku baca cerita dengan anti hero sebagai tokoh utama. Tokoh yang sintingpun sering kali masih cukup menarik simpati untuk didukung. Tapi bagaimanakah Iris Murdoch bisa menawan pembaca dengan tokoh utama Charles Arrowby yang begitu egois, narsis, kurang ajar, delusional, manipulatif, tukang bohong, jumawa, senang membendakan wanita, dan hobi memaksakan kehendak? Awalnya aku tersentuh dengan kedalaman cinta Charles untuk salah satu tokoh, tapi itupun dimanifestasikan dengan beracun. Jujur, sepanjang membaca aku senantiasa mencibiri pilihan-pilihan Charles dan terheran-heran dengan kelakuan SEmua orang, tapi aku selalu penasaran kebejatan apa dan siapa lagi yang akan terjadi. Buku ini hampir hampir alien dan jarang relatable, sekaligus sangat realistis, karena seberapapun aku ingin menyangkal, pada kenyataannya semua orang sedeng dengan cara yang berbeda-beda.

Review at 100%:

GILA. Satu hal, aku merasa sangat terpikat sekaligus ga nyaman sama ceritanya karena hubungan antara tiap-tiap tokoh adalah mimpi buruk aku tentang kehidupan sosial. Sering banget di tengah aku baca aku membatin 'takut banget ( )

Can't believe I'd never read an Iris Murdoch novel before this one. It was better than I could have imagined. It is very funny, the descriptions of Charles's mad meals and various farcical situations he gets into. The characters are colourful and unpredictable and the whole thing thing just plays out wonderfully.

I re-read this after 5 years and it was still marvellous. Charles is such a monstrous character, so self-centred. But then all his friends are fairly awful too, but all oh so entertaining. This is a new copy after my tatty second hand one fell lost its cover and fell apart. ( )

Charles Arrowby, a retired theatre director, decides to buy a house by the sea as an idyllic, solitary retreat to write his memoir. At first, all is well. Charles happily writes about his meals (best part of the book) with painstaking detail, and swims in the sea. His happy retreat is soon thwarted after he briefly glimpses his childhood love, Hartley - and abruptly descends into comical desperation when his friends quickly appear at his house, uninvited, and stay. He soon hatches a mad plan to get Hartley away from her husband, and in doing so gradually descends into chaos, blurring the boundaries between truth and fiction, desire and madness.

The general theme of Main Character (Usually Male) Trying to Lead his Own Life While Friends/Lover/Jealous Ex-Lover Continue to Pester Him (often with unexpectedly hilarious consequences) seem to feature in her books so frequently (The Black Prince has a similar theme) that I suspect that it must be some sort of running gag for her and her fans. ( )

What a fascinating read. A famous director retires to a house in an English village on the sea. The book is structured as his memoir and tells of his obsession with his first love who coincidentally lives in the same village, of his muddled relationships with other women, of his confused relationship with his male friends, and more. His narcissistic arrogance becomes his downfall. Tragedies ensue, love is thwarted, death is confronted, and life is contemplated. Ultimately, he finds peace in old age. A thread of Buddhism runs through the story, as well as the power of the ocean as friend and foe. The writing is crisp, witty, poignant, and maintains a sense of mystery throughout. Ah, we humans are such interesting fools, aren't we? ( )