Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
Witty, camp, beautifully written and a great story, 16 Mar 2002
By A Customer
...and you can't ask for more than that..Okay, so it takes a while to get into, but that said, I am a very impatient reader, frequently prone to discarding my latest purchases before I hit Chapter Two, yet the lyrical style and spooky hallucinations were enough to get me hooked. Agreed, the Rosinas and the Peregrines and the Gilberts are pretentious and theatrical, but that's the very point - they are ironically observed. Moreover, it takes a truly talented writer to create characters full of vanity and self absorption and still make them likeable - and Charles Arrowby (the novel's 'I') is the worst - yet most entertaining - egotist of them all. This was the first Iris Murdoch I have read, and I am as quick to dismiss overly literary novels as the next person, but I thought this had what many of the genre lack - a great, page-turning story. And above all, it's very, very funny. Give it a go!
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
Do not read this if you haven't read the book yet!, 5 Feb 2003
Is this a book about a deluded man's obsession with a woman who rejected him? A sentimental satire of a memoir? Or something else- something quite mystical?
The answers lie between the lines in this meandering, detail grounded novel. The sea is a well-recognised metaphor for the unconscious and is what the narrator, Charles Arrowby, and his ill-fated not-quite foster son Titus are drawn towards. Arrowby is a pompous but quite endearing middle aged theatre director who has decided to live in solitude by the sea in retirement. There he meets again the love of his life, Hartley, who rejected him in their youth. From here on in the novel turns to Arrowby's attempts to reclaim Hartley even, perhaps, kidnapping her and keeping her at his house. Hartley's mental state is never made clear- is she confused or slightly insane? Nor are her real feelings towards Arrowby or her abusive husband, Ben. Arrowby believes Hartley and Ben's marriage is a sham- and Ben's violence and domination are not to be endured by Hartley- but does he treat her any better?
These ambiguities are important in Murdoch's work- the complex emotions that tie this married couple do not just apply to these fictional characters but many real people. The departure of these characters to Australia to start a new life cannot be seen as either a positive or negative plot device as we are unsure of whether this is a happy or unhappy couple.
Another ambiguity in The Sea, The Sea is the part that Titus plays. Perhaps a young Charles Arrowby himself he seems perpetually linked to the real Arrowby- even told as a child he may be his son. His sensitivity though is all his own and is Murdoch displaying the characteristics of 70's youth in this character as opposed to many of the older characters bluntness and formality (especially his parents- Hartley and Ben). Titus's death from drowning could be his succumbing to his unconscious- a danger spelt out to those he represents.
From Arrowby's point of view life goes on after this episode and finally the mystical, almost supernatural elements only hinted at before come into play. Arrowby's cousin, James, rescues him from drowning by walking on water. Soon afterwards after a chilling tale of how he uses "tricks" with help from "demons" James dies leaving his possessions with Arrowby. At the very end of the book a casket containing a "demon" is broken in James's flat and the reader is left to guess at what this means. Murdoch effectively tricks us by ending the novel just where we expect something climatic to happen. Does this means something bad will happen to Arrowby? If it doesn't will it finally close the lid on the whole story by the sea?
As confusing as The Sea, The Sea is it is also very compelling, funny in parts, very sad in others and chilling at intervals. It is difficult to make out what exactly is happening between the lines but you come away with the feeling that it all makes sense really. Though, in what sense, is anyone’s interpretation?
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
Do not read this if you haven't read the book yet!, 5 Feb 2003
Is this a book about a deluded man's obsession with a woman who rejected him? A sentimental satire of a memoir? Or something else- something quite mystical?
The answers lie between the lines in this meandering, detail grounded novel. The sea is a well-recognised metaphor for the unconscious and is what the narrator, Charles Arrowby, and his ill-fated not-quite foster son Titus are drawn towards. Arrowby is a pompous but quite endearing middle aged theatre director who has decided to live in solitude by the sea in retirement. There he meets again the love of his life, Hartley, who rejected him in their youth. From here on in the novel turns to Arrowby's attempts to reclaim Hartley even, perhaps, kidnapping her and keeping her at his house. Hartley's mental state is never made clear- is she confused or slightly insane? Nor are her real feelings towards Arrowby or her abusive husband, Ben. Arrowby believes Hartley and Ben's marriage is a sham- and Ben's violence and domination are not to be endured by Hartley- but does he treat her any better?
These ambiguities are important in Murdoch's work- the complex emotions that tie this married couple do not just apply to these fictional characters but many real people. The departure of these characters to Australia to start a new life cannot be seen as either a positive or negative plot device as we are unsure of whether this is a happy or unhappy couple.
Another ambiguity in The Sea, The Sea is the part that Titus plays. Perhaps a young Charles Arrowby himself he seems perpetually linked to the real Arrowby- even told as a child he may be his son. His sensitivity though is all his own and is Murdoch displaying the characteristics of 70's youth in this character as opposed to many of the older characters bluntness and formality (especially his parents- Hartley and Ben). Titus's death from drowning could be his succumbing to his unconscious- a danger spelt out to those he represents.
From Arrowby's point of view life goes on after this episode and finally the mystical, almost supernatural elements only hinted at before come into play. Arrowby's cousin, James, rescues him from drowning by walking on water. Soon afterwards after a chilling tale of how he uses "tricks" with help from "demons" James dies leaving his possessions with Arrowby. At the very end of the book a casket containing a "demon" is broken in James's flat and the reader is left to guess at what this means. Murdoch effectively tricks us by ending the novel just where we expect something climatic to happen. Does this means something bad will happen to Arrowby? If it doesn't will it finally close the lid on the whole story by the sea?
As confusing as The Sea, The Sea is it is also very compelling, funny in parts, very sad in others and chilling at intervals. It is difficult to make out what exactly is happening between the lines but you come away with the feeling that it all makes sense really. Though, in what sense, is anyone’s interpretation?
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