The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch

So the Man Booker prize hoohah is over for another year. The bookies’ favourite didn’t win – again. There was grumbling on the sidelines about the long list – again. There was divided opinion about the short list – again. Still, it does at least push modern fiction into the headlines briefly, and give an unexpected sales fillip to half a dozen short-listed novels which would otherwise have sold a few thousand copies at best. Would you actually want to read any of the Booker winners? They vary. Of those I’ve read I found “The Life of Pi” (Yann Martel 2002) well written but flawed, and “Possession” (A S Byatt 1990) excellent, as is all her stuff. On the ...  Read the complete review

The Sea, The Sea. ******************** Iris Murdoch wrote her Booker Prize-winning novel, The Sea, The Sea, in 1978 and it is hailed as her best novel. It was her 19th book and she had been short-listed for the Booker Prize several times before. Having watched the film and read the book, which tell the life story of Iris Murdoch in the past few years, I have been interested in reading some of her writing for some time. The Sea, The Sea is the first of her novels that I have had the pleasure to read. NB: Dooyoo have added this book title as simply The Sea. Whereas the title of this book is The Sea, The Sea. I will e-mail them to point out this ...  Read the complete review