The Sea, The Sea

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Now Clement, who he actually talks the least about of all his lovers seems to be the woman that made him into the successful man he is today. I could delve into the profundity of Iris Murdoch on damaged love's lassitudes, but such agony I cannot abide. The awful crying of souls in guilt and pain, loathing each other, tied to each other! The inferno of marriage.”

One thing I know, though: the timing has to be right for this one. I wasn’t even thirty when I first read it. I could see then the brilliance of the writing but couldn’t relate to the hero's frame of mind, one that sets in later in life. Or the comedy of it all. That emphatic ‘of course’ makes me think he has his doubts. He’s too intelligent not to. Up to the readers to decide for themselves. Iris Murdoch is generous enough to allow us at least this sliver of direction in our reading experience.Near the end of the book, Charles's older cousin James tells him about "bardo", a kind of limbo or holding place for souls who are in between their journeys on the wheel of life. James seems to be telling Charles that the part of his life after he left London, and before he rediscovered his lost love, was an earthly parallel to "bardo". He was displaced, his life was without meaning. Events were painful for him - especially one tragic event. Yet he would eventually be released from that place, that mental state. It is not only Charles who experiences this state in the novel either. Throughout many of the minor characters such as Lizzie, are falling in and out of love, and agonising over their tangled emotional relationships. James's summing-up, before his possibly voluntary demise, can be seen as a commentary on the entire sequence of events. But Murdoch's writing is too good to ignore and here she conjures up a philosophical tour de force with a heterogeneous cast contrived to cover all bases. And she even throws in a few unexpected surprises for good measure!

guzzling large quantities of expensive, pretentious, often mediocre food in public places was not only immoral, unhealthy and unaesthetic, but also unpleasurable. Later my guests were offered simple chez moi. What is more delicious than fresh hot buttered toast, with or without the addition of bloater paste? Or plain boiled onions with a little corned beef if desired?" Anchovy paste on hot buttered toast, then baked beans and kidney beans with chopped celery, tomatoes, lemon juice and olive oil… Then bananas and cream with white sugar. (Bananas should be cut, never mashed, and the cream should be thin.) Then hard water-biscuits with New Zealand butter and Wensleydale cheese. Of course I never touch foreign cheeses.” 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. Of course, we can’t trust this unreliable narrator; even he tells us his letters are “partly disingenuous, partly sincere.” The best parts in the first half of the book have to be the wonderful descriptions of the sea, which increasingly seems to have an organic, perhaps omniscient presence, These magical tendencies are also evident in the character of Charles' cousin James, who has Buddhist leanings and appears to be able to keep himself warm using his mind alone. James is also terrifically boring, and that in spite of the fact that he is – a spy! And possibly also gay! Worse still, although he delivers several long sermons to Charles, we get no more impression that he has a personality than if he were filled with sand. Indeed, none of the characters other than Charles have any convincing inner life. To an extent this can be attributed to Charles' own egotism and failure to conceive of a world outside his own head, but that doesn't make them any more fun to be around. Nor does it excuse the many scenes of absurd melodrama that they all engage in – and which make the book as exhausting as it is exhilarating.Like many of Murdoch’s characters Arrowby is not very likeable and seems completely oblivious to the mayhem he creates among his nearest and dearest. I also found myself increasingly irritated by what he did with food (nothing kinky here!); if Murdoch meant him to be annoying, she wrote him very well. There is moral complexity and ambiguity as Arrowby tries to recapture his first love (literally). The cast of secondary characters are strong and are not there for mere ornament. Cousin James is an interesting counterpoint to Arrowby.

Once more I find I have been economical with the truth, but this time I shall tell all. I promise. Hartley was my childhood love. We were inseparable. A working class Romeo and Juliet. And then she left me when I went to drama school. No reason, no explanation. She left me heart-broken. Perhaps it was because of her I became the thespian I am, but that's another story. Here she was again. Mysteriously turning up again after 50 years, living in the very same village as me. These events serve two purposes, because they also show another side to Charles. At one point, an ex-girlfriend remarks acidly, "you know you can't keep your hands off women", yet throughout so far Charles has claimed he has a scrupulously fair and respectful attitude to females, even using the word "unsexed" to describe his fastidious, ascetic attitude. Yet now we learn that he has broken up the marriage of Rosina, seemingly just because he can. He will jettison the ever-faithful Lizzie without a thought, at the drop of a hat, as he has done several times before. The reader now begins to wonder about the idolised Hartley. Could the relationship have possibly been as innocent, pure and altogether romantic as Charles has claimed? Charles Arrowby, leading light of England’s theatrical set, retires from glittering London to an isolated home by the sea. He plans to write a memoir about his great love affair with Clement Makin, his mentor, both professionally and personally, and amuse himself with Lizzie, an actress he has strung along for many years. None of his plans work out, and his memoir evolves into a riveting chronicle of the strange events and unexpected visitors-some real, some spectral-that disrupt his world and shake his oversized ego to its very core.A further complication arrives in the form of Titus, Ben and Mary's adopted son -- who Ben believes is actually Arrowby's son. He has bought a place by the sea -- Shruff End, "upon a small promontory" --, hoping to abandon his old world and life. The book is his memoir-cum-diary-cum-novel of a few eventful months at Shruff End. He bumps into his childhood sweetheart, Mary Hartley, who had disappeared in their teens. Cue quests, plots, reminiscences, and theatrical friends and ex lovers, plus mysterious cousin James, dropping in at crucial moments. There’s also incarceration, attempted murder, near death experiences, actual death, missing - and found - persons, possible supernatural events, a sea monster, and some strange meals. Most of all it is about the depth and changeability of the Sea. 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. This gives us the measure of the man; faddish and particular to the point of eccentricity. And given subsequent events in the novel, it is probably important for the author to get the reader on Charles's side, to enjoy his little foibles and forgive him what appears to be fanciful and conceited notions about himself.