The Nice and the Good

This book has it all. John Ducane, a man both nice and good, navigates through a languid swirl of blackmail, love, black magic, and lust, in the course of his investigation of an apparent suicide in a government office. As he goes about this quest, the mundane is juxtaposed against the uncanny, and the reader is delightfully held in thrall. Murdoch describes a natural world that shimmers with something quite beyond the natural: "The front door was wide open, framing distant cuckoo calls, while beyond the weedy gravel drive, beyond the clipped descending lawn and the erect hedge of raspberry-and-creamy spiraea, rose up the sea, a silvery blue, too thin and transparent to be called metallic, a texture as of skin-deep silver paper, rising up and merging at some indeterminate point with the pallid glittering blue of the midsummer sky. There was something of evening already in the powdery goldness of the sun and the ethereal thinness of the sea". Meanwhile an intricate relational dance involving characters at once common and exotic plays itself out as the investigation unfolds. Everyone is captivated by desire, everyone is in need of salvation, and so the dance continues. In the end redemption comes, perhaps a tad too tidily, with a happy ending in some ways too good to be true. But in every other aspect this is an excellent book, and one that can be enjoyed on many different levels.

Murdoch explores how people's actions are driven by their self-images and personal mythologies. The vanities, fears or ambitions that dominate the way our lives unfold vary all over the place - from the need of the protagonist to "think well of himself," to the craving for love, the desire to serve humbly, or the need to forget something awful. Murdoch lets these motivations play out through her plots, which are really extravagant thought experiments. She focuses in particular on our secrets, the various reasons we have for hiding them, and the ways in which we slip into self indulgence and self-justification. Some may find this approach a bit artificial and intellectual, but I felt that although the situations might be somewhat contrived, the characters' responses and actions rang true. I found the book very readable, and it met my main criterion for a novel - it taught me something new about why people act the way they do.

I will do by best to convey in words how wonderful is this novel. This is the first work by Iris Murdoch that I have read, and I am fascinated. Her style of writing flows simply and beautifully, like a slow, undulating melody that one never wants to end. I became completely absorbed in the characters and the plot, with its unexpected twists and complex layerings of character relationships. Her character descriptions sometimes border on psychological analyses, but they are not boring nor are they misplaced. In short, I REALLY liked it.

This was my first Iris Murdoch novel. I picked it up after hearing countless NPR folks refer to her as one of their favorite novelists, especially for a summer reading list, and I know she is one of Harold Bloom's beloved authors, so it was with great anticipation that I started this book. I was hooked instantly. I couldn't put it down, in fact I finished it in less than 48 hours. If you read broadly, imagine Robertson Davies' quirky characters and plotlines crossed with Cormac McCarthy's discourses on good, evil, and the nature of God and man, and all of this bracketed by the mechanics of a suspicious suicide investigation.I think what really held me was that I honestly and truly could not predict what was going to happen. Who would end up with whom in this musical chair style relationship dance? What is up with the blackmailing business? What on earth was that dead guy involved with, and why do those twins keep going on about flying saucers, anyway?I'm not a murder/mystery reader, usually, but if that is Murdoch's genre then I'm changing my ways.

A suicide in a government office that may (we almost hope) turn out to be a murder... An attractive government official, who likes to think well of himself, precariously juggling an old love and a new... An ebullient married woman who kisses (out of wedlock) and always tells her husband... These are just a few of the elements in this novel too delicious to spoil by giving you more of the plot. You may expect to revel in deep truths about good and evil, while savoring some of the most succinctly-written love scenes in the history of the novel. You will meet eccentric children, engaging villains and strong women. To crown all, the author has been kind enough to give us a happy ending (with a twist, of course).