Monday, July 12, 2010

A Severed Head - Iris Murdoch

In some ways I was expecting a kind of thriller or horror story, or for some reason a series of short stories when I picked up this title.


I had remembered that a couple of years ago Robyn C. had read this and raved about it.

I did it as an audio book narrated by Derek Jacoby, and he did a wonderful job fully capturing the exasperation of the protagonist Martin who is a wealthy wine merchant and hasn’t much to worry about but loving his much older wife and satisfying his mistress.

One day though, things fall apart in the most desperate manner when Martin’s wife announces that she is in love with their mutual best friend and wants a divorce. Martin is then embroiled in a roller coaster ride of lust, adultery and incest.

A wonderful farce, written just prior to the sexual revolution, that really made me laugh the way it was narrated. This is my first Murdoch and she was most certainly a woman ahead of her time, and a wonderful writer.

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