Bruno's Dream

BRUNO'S DREAM is a remarkable novel. It features an ensemble of eight characters, none of them very noble, and the action essentially consists in the kaleidoscopic shifts in the relationships between and among these eight characters. The reader observes everything somewhat like a voyeur, with an attendant sense of embarrassment over their clumsy grapplings with their egos and their ids, their dreams and their desires. The setting is an admixture of the starkly realistic (middle- and working-class London in the 1960s) and the bizarre and almost fantastic (Bruno's tomb-like bedroom and a cataclysmic flood). Nonetheless, the story somehow manages to stay within the realm of possibility, and it is always captivating. In the course of its unfolding, Murdoch raises and explores, almost as asides and without belaboring, a number of philosophical or metaphysical concepts (love and death, the existence of God, the thralldom of memory, life as a dream). This is my introduction to Iris Murdoch, so I don't know if BRUNO'S DREAM is typical of her work with its blend of philosophy, humor, probing of human relationships and the individual psyche, and sheer narrative intelligence. I hope so, because then I have much reading pleasure ahead of me. Written in 1969 but not dated in the least, the novel appears to be out of print. If, however, you enjoy intelligent and slyly witty fiction, it should be worth the effort of tracking down a copy, for it is better than most novels currently being presented and reviewed in our leading newspapers as the best of today's fiction.

Iris Murdoch has written one helluva' dream for her protagonist, but here's hoping ol' Bruno changed the sheets once he woke up.

Of all the whimsical, fictional worlds created by Iris Murdoch, this one is the most haunting and compelling. Her gift for "reading" the human condition is a given; her ability to find consistently some light in the darkest human soul is a gift. The novel's humor notwithstanding, this is a story of desperate people who, unbeknownst to them, live under the watchful, sheltering love of a strange, gentle man (Nigel), who is everywhere and nowhere, and who, along with his unwitting protege, Diana, represents the purest example I've seen in Murdoch's fiction of her concept of selfless love, the ability to be "good for nothing." The final scene between tortured, dying Bruno and spiritually exhausted Diana is as moving as any in literature. I've read all of Murdoch's novels, and each has its beauties. This one stays in my heart, like the memory of innocence.

Bruno's Dream is a wonderful novel and it's a shame it's out of print. I was so pleased to discover a copy in a used book store, and even more pleased upon reading it. The story revolves around Bruno, a dying old man, and the people in his life--both living and not. Murdoch once again demonstrates her incredible talent to explore the realities of human relationships, to get you thinking on the nature of friendship and love. The novel is at times humorous, serious, philisophical and bittersweet. A truly enjoyable read.

Bruno's dream is one of Irish Murdoch's best books. It is at times hilariously funny, always moving and very, very condensed. An experience that will keep you thinking for months, if it ever leaves you.