The Black Prince in Reading 1001

Feb 28, 2014 Rachel rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: art, fiction, classics, philosophy, 1001-books-to-read-before-you-die

I really wanted to add Iris Murdoch to my list of amazing women authors, but it just didn't happen. Is this a 70's thing? I can't think of anything published in the 70's that I liked, but maybe I'm just really really disenchanted with this book.

It felt like it was written much earlier, the language was stuffy and so so British in the worst way. And the unreliability of the narrator just served to exacerbate the read.

I think that my main problem with this novel was the fact that it mixed a stor I really wanted to add Iris Murdoch to my list of amazing women authors, but it just didn't happen. Is this a 70's thing? I can't think of anything published in the 70's that I liked, but maybe I'm just really really disenchanted with this book.

It felt like it was written much earlier, the language was stuffy and so so British in the worst way. And the unreliability of the narrator just served to exacerbate the read.

I think that my main problem with this novel was the fact that it mixed a story with long ramblings on art and philosophy. I am sort of reminded by what little I read of Ayn Rand, which is never a good thing. The thing is: if you are going to have a story told by an asshole, why should I give any merit to what he says about art and life? I feel like it was supposed to be all deep and meaningful (and in a different setting perhaps it would be), but the teller made it seem pretentious and navel-gazing, which added even further to the feeling of boredom and disgust this novel left me with.

Should I have read The Sea, The Sea instead? I have no desire to read anything else by this woman, but I hate the feeling of having no idea why other people who I totally respect as readers absolutely love her works.

I did have fun with the actual physical process of reading this book though. I had bought an old used thoroughly battered copy (one of those mass market paperbacks I love so much, the paper is rough and familiar and you can hold it open with one hand!) and fairly soon the cover ripped off. I would have been disturbed if I had been enjoying the story but I didn't much care. Then when I took it to work I realized it was still too big to carry around in my uniform (man I love my Nook even more now) so I ripped away the pages I had already read, and just started ripping them off as I read them. I felt like Cheryl Strayed in Wild when she was ripping the pages as she went to lessen the load she had to carry on the trail and fed them to the fire. I would have liked to burn these pages, seeing as they were so infuriatingly boring. ...more

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Mar 16, 2014 Kristel rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books, book-about-books, 1001-challenge, british-literature, thriller

First of all, let me say, I do not understand why people dislike this book.

That being said, let me say that I enjoyed this book and thought it was a great work. The reference book for 1001 calls it a literary thriller and I think that is accurate. It is a book of “what is the truth”. Yes, all the characters are flawed. I enjoyed so much how the author presents the story as a story being told by the main character Bradley Pearson, an older man with writer’s block. He tells us he is trustworthy b First of all, let me say, I do not understand why people dislike this book.

That being said, let me say that I enjoyed this book and thought it was a great work. The reference book for 1001 calls it a literary thriller and I think that is accurate. It is a book of “what is the truth”. Yes, all the characters are flawed. I enjoyed so much how the author presents the story as a story being told by the main character Bradley Pearson, an older man with writer’s block. He tells us he is trustworthy but the reader soon realizes that he is unreliable and not trustworthy.
Other characters:
Arnold Baffin, a successful author, somewhat younger man. Arnold Baffin is untrustworthy, too.
Rachel Baffin, wife of Arnold, depicted as plump woman who is in the shadow of her successful husband who also is abusive and cheats on her. The only feminine female.
Christian, Bradley’s exwife (masculine name)
Francis, brother to Christian, gay, a doctor who has lost his license (feminine name)
Julian: only daughter of the Baffin’s (masculine name)

It is really a question throughout the book of where the title of the book comes from. The story is built around Shakespeare’s Hamlet, yet the black prince is not in that play. There is a murder, but then there is the question of who really is the killer. We have what the author (Bradley) tells us and then we have points of views by Christian, Rachel, Francis and Julian. I found it fun to try to form my own idea from what we are given. I believe that in general, Bradley has told the story close to the truth. I think Christian is way off the mark, I think Rachel is calculating in her response, I think Francis is the next who is closest to the truth and I think in what Julian has to say, you can surmise that there was something between Bradley and Julian from the fact that she repeats much of what Bradley has said and she never really says anything because she has learned that art is secret. It is very interesting that even though these people make Bradley into a unlikeable, awkward, unsuccessful man, they all claim that he loved them.

The novel is also unique for its structure. The central story is bookended by forewords and post-scripts by characters within the story. I think the differences in the various post scripts does represent a fact that reality varies from person to person. I think I liked this part the most but without the main story, it would not have worked. The themes of homosexuality along with Freud and phallic symbols and philosophy of truth, art are all a part of this story with a twist. I liked it, but it isn’t an easy or fast read but well worth it unless you have to have likable characters.
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Jan 22, 2016 Beverly rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-bymrbyd

One of the 1001 books you must read before you die and this actually turned out to be an extremely interesting read. Ms. Murdoch has written a complex and intelligent story revolving around Bradley Pearson, an author in his late fifties who has recently retired and wants to get away from it all and try to do some writing in a quieter atmosphere. I wish couldn't be further from his reality. As he makes plans to travel his ex-brother-in-law (Francis) shows up to announce that his ex-wife's husband ...more

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Feb 02, 2016 Pip rated it really liked it

Shelves: 1001-books-challenge

I have read other responses and cannot agree that Murdoch is anything like Bellow! She is much more clever and subtle. It is not an easy ready, granted, but rating a book because you like or dislike the protagonist is surely shallow? Murdoch illuminates truth and deception, both in the storytelling and in how characters justify themselves. It was not an easy read but I give it four stars.

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