Under the net (original 1954; edition 1971)

Evocative and well-written. Murdoch does a remarkably convincing male point of view. One for the blokes. ( )

What I’ve enjoyed most about reading the books on The Modern Library’s 100 Best list is the regular surprise with books and authors that I’ve never heard of or have never dared to read. Before picking up the list, I’d never heard of Iris Murdoch. But after only a few pages of [Under the Net] while riding on an airplane, my neighbor asked what book was causing the outbursts of laughter.

Jake Donahue returns to England to learn that he and his best friend, Finn, are being evicted from the apartment where they live with Jake’s girlfriend, Madge. It turns out that Madge has found a new man. Jake and Finn hit the streets looking for a place to stay and something to drink. The rest of the book sees Jake on essentially the same journey, but it’s how he does it that provides so much fun.

Bottom Line: Surprising and audibly funny book.

4 bones !!!! ( )

Jake Donaghue, translator and aspiring writer, finds that he is pretty comprehensively wrong in his ideas about his relationships with various people in his life.

Having read one Iris Murdoch novel at school and come away with the idea that she was a difficult and philosophically demanding author, I approached this book with some trepidation, but found it for the most part very readable and enjoyable. ( )

An amusing and interesting novel of ldeas, but not a work that I connected with on an emotional level. The book came out in 1954, and is set in London and Paris, As several reviewers have noted, it doesn't seem dated, which is rather odd, given how difficult life was in Britain in that period. It is narrated by Jake Donaghue, an impecunious translator of French novels into English, and follows his wanderings trhough London (and eventually to Paris) in search of various people he knows. There are long philosophical discussions, few of which lead anywhere in particuarar: I suppose this is post-was existentialism in action.

As to the story, there are very funny bits, and terrific set peices, but I kept wishing that Jake would settle down and follow one goal (or person), rather than constantly shifting targets. Also, at the end of the novel all the relationships that Jake thinks he understands turn out to be something else all toegher. That changeability makes several of the characters difficult to care about very much. I did end up being rather fond of Jake, but the dog is still the most sympathetic character in the novel. All very clever, like beutifully decorated desserts, but not necessarily satisfying. I ( )

Under the Net, written by Iris Murdoch, is a philosophical journey between London and Paris, their main inhabitants are Jake Donaghue, Dave Gellman and Magdalene Casement (Madge).

The themes touched, described in a picaresque way are ‘Existentialism’ v ‘Metaphysics’

The purpose of this novel is to show the life of a penniless writer named Jake Donaghue his close friend Finn and Dave Gellman a professional philosopher fan of Wittgenstein, sparing of words and thoughtful the antithesis of Hugo a supporter of a brief and intense felicity.

This novel is written in first person this imply that the reader will be immediately a part of his/her favorite character.

The plot engaging your senses will be captured by the strength and weakness of Jake an immature and lazy boy, his job is translating novels from French into English.

Under the net is also a prison where we are trapped, being unable to convoy our sentiments through our words.

Under the net is also a retrospective and intimate journey, using the "philosophical's silence" against a chaotic London i.e. our souls, we will rediscover the true meaning of friendship and an uninterested love.

"There are some parts of London which are necessary and others which are contingent. Everywhere west of Earls Court is contingent, except for a few places along the river. I hate contingency. I want everything in my life to have a sufficient reason. Dave lived west of Earls Court, and this was another thing I had against him"

I love this phrase it implies that we can resolve our problems through the dialogue; are we able to do that?

"I hate solitude, but I am afraid of intimacy. The substance of my life is aprivate conversation with myself which to turn into a dialogue would be equivalent to self-destruction"

This is the best example of our contraddiction between an intimate reasoning against the use of our words for resolving a problem.

"But love is concerned with possession,’ I said. ‘If you knew anything about unsatisfied love, you’d know this.’ ‘No,’ said Anna strangely. ‘Unsatisfied love is concerned with understanding. Only if it is all, all understanding, can it remain love while being unsatisfied"

What is love? or better what is the differences between love and infatuation? if love means possession I prefer an unsatisfied love because I will research continuously the meaning of love.

"There’s something fishy about describing people’s feelings,’ said Hugo. ‘All these descriptions are so dramatic.’ ‘What’s wrong with that?’ I said. ‘Only,’said Hugo, ‘that it means that things are falsified from the start. If I say afterwards that I felt such and such, say that I felt “apprehensive” — well,this just isn’t true.’ ‘What do you mean?’ I asked. ‘I didn’t feel this,’ saidHugo. ‘I didn’t feel anything of that kind at the time at all. This is justsomething I say afterwards."

This is our inability to describing a feeling (which is extremely personal) through our own words.

"What would happen if one were to speak the truth?’ I asked. ‘Would it be possible?’ ‘I know myself,’ said Hugo, ‘that when I really speak the truth the words fall from my mouth absolutely dead, and I see complete blankness in theface of the other person.’ ‘So we never really communicate?’ ‘Well,’ he said,‘I suppose actions don’t lie."

This is a philosophical puzzle what is it the truth? is it established a priory? or is it strictly relative to our personal interpretation? if so it will be fair or unfair?

"What is urgent is not urgent for ever but only ephemerally. All work and all love, the search for wealth and fame, the search for truth, like itself, are made up of moments which pass and become nothing. Yet through this shaft of nothings we drive onward with that miraculous vitality that creates our precarious habitations in the past and the future. So we live; a spirit that broods and hovers over the continual death of time, the lost meaning, the unrecaptured moment, the unremembered face, until the final chop that ends allour moments and plunges that spirit back into the void from which it came. So I reflected; and was reluctant to get off the bus"

In my opinion this is the most vivid definition of philosophy for instance our infinite research of truth and love. ( )