Sunday 1 June 2008

The Sandcastle: Iris Murdoch

The Sandcastle is a quintessentially English novel, and it is crafted by one of the finest of 20th Century English Novelists, Iris Murdoch.

The story revolves around the troubled marriage of a Teacher Bill Mor and his wife Nan, and the effect of the appearance in their daily routine of a young painter, Rain Carter. Rain is being commissioned to paint a portrait of the retired senior master, Demoyte, but she has an increasingly troublesome effect on Mor, his wife and their children Donald and Felicity.

The novel glides through towards its apotheosis in great style and is one of those books that you are happy to have read, and put down with a contented sigh.

1 comment:

zilcha said...

Sorry to have to correct you here JD but Iris Murdoch was in fact born in Dublin into a Protestant/Presbyterian family, and therefore could be deemed Irish. I will concede that her nationality is a moot point as she would have had the choice of taking either Irish or Brtitish citizenship, or indeed both. if she had been of that persuasion, she would have been entitled to play for the Irish football team.

I do agree that she was a very fine novelist - sad end to her days