Infuriating and overrated.
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I must say that `A Severed Head' is one of the most frustrating books I've ever read. I found the characters to be starchy, unrealistically dramatic (especially given their annoying penchant for bursting into foreign exclamations and ruminating about Tolstoy) and difficult to feel sympathy for.
Their actions were often deranged and pathetic and the situations in which the characters found themselves were so utterly of their own making and their reactions to them so prancingly precious that it was hard to care what happened to them at all. In fact the only time I was driven to feel something it was a sense of annoyance at the weak and acquiescent manner of the narrator, whose almost total failure to stop his attempts at some kind of spirit petering out into nothingness were as infuriating as the ludicrously flitting nature of his wife. I'm sure you are supposed to dislike these people but that didn't make the book a worthwhile investment of time, let alone something to fawn over.
The shock of discovering incest, infidelity and betrayal after the admittedly rather successful build should have hit one like a sledgehammer but because the characters were so two dimensional and the frequency with which such matters appeared far too numerous I was left feeling rather empty after reading it. Despite jamesdeturberville's rather lofty, sneering and unpleasantly snide assessment of `the chardonnay generation' in a previous review (shame on you) I can honestly say that, despite regarding `chick lit' as ephemeral fluff, `A Severed Head' would actually be improved by the appearance of a bumbling woman in big pants. It would certainly stop the book from coming across as simply a mechanism to wrap horridly self involved and lusty characters in psycho-babble.
`A Severed Head' is the first Iris Murdoch title I have read and I will certainly take a chance on her other novels (I understand this is the `weird' one) as I found her writing style to be most pleasing (if somewhat of it's time) but I really couldn't recommend this book unless I was aiming to disappoint someone.
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Iris Murdoch A Severed Head
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This book was given to me to read by my best friend from school. It was the first Iris Murdoch book I have ever read. Well.... what a delight just when you think you have a grip on what is happening it all changes. Since reading it I had to start reading more of her books. This book is wonderful and surprising. A true delight!
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Adultery, incest & Samurai swords...
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This is an odd, quirky book which isn't your usual Iris Murdoch: no near-drownings, nature mysticism or accidents involving machines, and only six characters: three men and three women, who change partners regularly in the manner of a Restoration comedy, or a Noel Coward play, until they've pretty much exhausted all the possible combinations. It's a witty book, but I wouldn't agree with the cover blurb which describes it as a "comic novel". Although the bed-hopping is entertaining for the reader, from the point of view of the characters themselves the whole thing is deadly serious. Indeed, I think this is one of the messages Murdoch is trying to get across: life can be painful and farcical at the same time... Wine merchant Martin Lynch-Gibbon is initially shocked to discover his wife Antonia is sleeping with her psychiatrist, Palmer Anderson. However, he himself is having an affair with a young student, and decides to do the civilised thing and give his tacit approval to his wife's relationship with Palmer, for the sake of an easy life all round. This cozy arrangement is rudely interrupted when Palmer's half-sister, Honor Klein, arrives on the scene: she accuses Martin of cowardice, infuriating him and resulting in a full-blown punch-up between Honor & Martin (in which Honor gives as good as she gets...) Things get even more complicated when Martin's brother Alexander reveals that he has also had an affair with Antonia; and when Martin suddenly realises that he is in love with Honor. But the course of true love never did run smooth, and Martin (and the reader) have a huge shock in store. Amongst other things, the book is "about" honesty: no-one is being honest to themselves or each other at the outset, and it is only when the aptly-named Honor forcefully points this out to Martin that things can move on. But, of course, Honor herself has significant unresolved issues. Judging by other reviews, it seems to be very much a love-it-or-hate-it book. I enjoyed it, but was sometimes left wondering just what Murdoch was getting at. Even as dyed-in-the-wool a Murdoch enthusiast as A.S. Byatt didn't seem to be able to make up her mind whether she liked it or not in her book about Murdoch's early novels, "Degrees of Freedom". The novel contains a certain amount of Freudian and Jungian psychobabble which was very trendy in the 1960s when it was written, but seems fairly dated now: I suspect this is why some reviewers have found it pretentious. All the same, there is some great writing here, including some marvellous set pieces: Martin driving Honor through London in a thick fog which is a metaphor for the way he has lost the plot in his life; and a memorable scene involving a woman and a Samurai sword, forty years before Quentin Tarantino. Definitely worth a look.
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A Severed Head
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do yourself a favour, and don't read James whatshisname at the start of this list of reviews. What a pretensious twerp!
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A bit strong for the Chardonnay Generation?
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Hmm... well this is Murdoch's fifth novel, not her first, and I can only assume that it may be a bit strong for you Bridget Jones afficianados. Written in Murdoch's characteristically precise yet densely descriptive and evocative prose, this is a fantastic romp through 1960's manners and sexual mores. A rollercoaster plot that takes in infidelity, violence and incest, this is a hilarious satire of over-mannered and over-privileged individuals at the behest of their darkest carnal and unconscious desires. Please take note of possibly Britain's brightest literary light, and for goodness sakes, try not to imagine any of the characters as Rene Zellweger or Hugh Grant. This is just one of Murdoch's multitude of masterpieces, and I would suggest that you take your pick of just about any of her books as a next stop: possibly "An Accidental Man" for its savage humour if nothing else.
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