He discovers miraculously, that his first love lives in the tiny village. Of course, we can’t trust this unreliable narrator even he tells us his letters are “partly disingenuous, partly sincere.” He spends his time writing a memoir that is a kind of diary and autobiography mixed in with copies of letters he sent or received basically that is this book. Whatever will he DO there? All his friends ask him: How is someone like him, so used to the chaotic social scene of London’s theater world, seriously going to live in isolation in a small seaside village? Now he has left the London scene to live by himself at a beach house in a tiny town, the first house he ever owned.

A good friend, a male, tells him “the trouble with you, Charles, is that basically you despise women.” He’s a misogynist who has used and abused women all his life. The press has called him a tyrant and power-crazed monster. In the last endeavor he achieved fame and made his money. He was a so-so actor, a better playwright, but a masterful director. The main character is a recently retired actor/playwright/theater director. I’m giving it a rating of 5 and adding it to my favorites. Finally, I did, and I wish I had read it earlier. I had seen it forever at library sales and for years I thought I should read it. This book earned the author the Booker Prize in 1978. The Sea that with one swoosh can take away all that we hold dear and understanding that we never held it in the first place.Ībsolutely amazing. Most of all it is about the depth and changeability of the Sea. stagnation, repetition and momentary joy murderous rages and spiritual awakenings sullen villagers and grandiose urbanites heterosexual passions and homosexual cravings petty cruelties, belittlement and acts of supreme generosity isolation, connection, misunderstandings, avoidance I decided to sit down and come up with a laundry list of what it is about:

This book is a psycho-spiritual masterpiece of the highest caliber. I took a moment, sighed and exclaimed, 'Everything' She tilted her head in her adorable way and said 'Whatsitabout?' She said, 'How is the Murdoch book?' I looked up and without pausing or thinking and said 'Simply wondrous'. Over the weekend I was sitting with a friend, having a tea and we were reading.

2015 Gold Award - Tie (First Favorite Read)

The sea the sea iris murdoch review