shell 'n harp

it has been so long since I posted, that I couldn’t remember how to insert an image. I have recently finished this IM book. I hadn’t read it before. It had some truly wonderful Murdochian moments, one of them pictured on the cover of this book. There was a close drowning. The word ‘indubitably’ was not used once but the word ‘descry’ was used many times. I had to look it up. It means to catch sight of.

One of my favorite scenes took place in a drawing room, when one of the more mature male characters makes a lunge across the coffee table at a young female character, ripping her silk blouse off in the process. After a quick wrangle on the couch, the sound of footsteps in the hallway causes him to hide her in a closet where she stays until the visitor has left. The reader (this one, at any rate) is on the edge of one’s seat wondering of she was going to be discovered. This is not the first time IM has shut a woman up in a closet. Hmmm.

There is a gaggle of rich old ladies that appear throughout the novel, a couple of mysterious Polish brothers and a collection of precious jewels.

However, I was left a little cold by the characters. None of them were endearing. This is not unusual in her books, but I usually am at least fascinated and drawn to the main character, even if they are really awful like Charles Arrowby in “The Sea, The Sea”.  I didn’t care either way for any of the characters here. I think Rainborough had the most potential, but he was kind of off to one side in the plot and was conveniently shunted off to the south of France when the $+!* hit the fan.  I can’t remember the name of the main female character but she was such a selfish person and didn’t seem to care for any-one, not even her poor tortured brother.

I loved the description of the house in Italy (or Spain?) towards the end, it was an oasis of calm after the chaos of London.

The story was neatly tied up in a bow at the end, which was quite annoying because every-one had been in such a mess. We never found out what happened to the jewels.

One thumb sideways.