A Severed Head (original 1961; edition 1961)

A sly little dark psychodrama dealing with a self-satisfied husband receiving a brutal education in just how little he knows of his own life and relationships. Often clunky and only occasionally ham-fisted (the bedroom farce doesn't always mix so well with its darker elements) it's an engaging enough read with some grotesque entertainments. ( )

That this piece of fluff was ever considered a significant novel is a simultaneous damnation of the state of English-language fiction and of public taste. ( )

I seem to be in a pattern of reading spoofs of a rare breed, really smart ones. In this, the bedroom farce is pushed to the limit..... partners shift with lightning speed as in a Virginia Reel and it is always 'the real thing this time' until one sits back and lets it all happen....Stylistically, the book, which is short at 200 pages, almost reads like a play. Most of the action takes place in various drawing rooms or places that feel like 'sets'. Do I care who ends up with whom? Not really. The enjoyment here for the reader is more intellectual than emotional, as in feeling involved or invested in any of the characters, rather the pleasure is in feeling one's own allegiances and empathies (such as they are) shift from character to character as the latest permutation emerges. Here and there a frisson, can it get any worse? Most of the now recognizable Murdoch elements are here: pride goeth..... the fall is hard and gets harder. Possessions get moved about and disrupted, flats are rented but then left half-empty. Here the mysterious and beautiful house, Rembers, is more of a suggestion or a memory (as suggested by its name, in fact) off stage rather than front and center, and there is no swimming as it is winter. There are secrets, and even a slight suggestion of the supernatural, although less than in the other two, this time entwined around an actual character who seems to act as a catalyst. Anyhow, everyone ends up with someone at the end, there is no sense at all that this IS the end for any of them. ****

"There is no substitute for the comfort of the utterly taken-for-granted relationship...." Murdoch means this with the usual double-edged irony, but it is a characteristic remark in this novel.....

"You're sort of a vacuum into which interference rushes...." says his mistress, Georgie, to Martin, the very passive first-person narrator. ( )

Martin is quite pleased with his situation: a beautiful wife, Antonia, whom he adores and a much younger mistress, Georgie, to keep things that much more interesting and make him feel like a "real" man. But when his wife announces that she's leaving him for her psychoanalyst who also happens to be Martin's friend, Palmer Anderson, his perfect world suddenly collapses; only things are about to get messier and messier. Because both Antonia and Palmer fully intend to keep Martin in their lives, whether he likes it or not, and it soon becomes quite clear that Martin is probably the least deviant individual in what turns out to be a very amusing comedy of the absurd. Will definitely be reading more of Murdoch's work, something I look forward to with relish. Oh yes, the cherry on the sundae was that this audiobook was narrated by the brilliant Derek Jacobi. What more could you ask for? ( )

I loved Iris Murdoch when I first read her, twenty years ago when I was about twenty years old. I loved all the clever characters and their academic musings on life, and everything (not so much the universe if my recall is correct). Now, not so much. This is pretty much a bedroom farce, it starts off silly and gets completely ludicrous towards the end. I ought to draw a diagram to work out which characters didn't end up in bed together, if any. It has lots of angst and clever veneer on top of the bed hopping of course but I found it more of a chore to read than a delight. Having read it as an ebook I'm surprised to see it's actually only around 200 pages, my perception is that it was much longer which might be why I'm so down on it.

I think I ought to reread one of the Murdoch's I loved when I first read it to see whether they still have the same magic, but on the other hand I don't want to find out if the answer is no. ( )