"Starting a novel is opening a door on a misty landscape; you can still
see very little but you can smell the earth and feel the wind blowing.
from: Under the Net
by: Iris Murdoch
I relish reading books that arent just about the plot and some intrigue and titillating nonsense....
I prefer reading for the beauty and mastery of their words...the descriptions... the metaphors.
Once again I have stumbled upon another little known gem of a book...Under the Net. Published in 1954 as her debut novel...and now her most famous. I think it was to be a political and philosophical tome...but it never bogged down as such.
This is a story of a young man living in London, who translates books from French to English and who is barely getting buy...who is swept along from one incident to another at an alarmingly swift rate, trying to keep afloat. Its laugh out-loud funny which I didnt at all expect to find this in its pages.
In the end its a story of a man who learns through a series of life's lessons to forget himself (at least a little) and to think of others and how they too see the world.
This was a delightful read!! Wholly unexpected!!
**** 3/4 Stars
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