Iirc frances said that this book really made her laugh.

First person narration by Edmund, who is an engraver. His brother Otto is stonemason. The Italian girl is latest in a series of au pair type women (all Italian) who’ve helped Edmund's mum Lydia, whose death is what triggers family reunion Very self-obsessed it’s all about his feelings and needs reminds me of black prince. I can't remember if all Murdoch's books are like this but there's certainly a common theme to many of them.

And everything seems to be really dramatic with people exerting power over others and controlling their lives. Rather than muddling through and misunderstandings.

Plot seems typical too with a sort of artists retreat type vibe to the family home : quite a few arty people living what must be expensive lifestyle but no obvious income generation unless Otto is spectacularly well paid

Couple of times Otto talks about dreams, only to be put down pretty smartly, thought this was funny: "I dreamt last night," said Otto, "that there was a huge tiger in the house. It kept prowling from room to room and I kept trying to get to the telephone to ring for help. Then when I did get to the phone I found I couldn’t dial properly because the dial was made of marzipan. And then this tiger -"
"Do you mind," I said. "I do want to catch the train. And there are still various things to be settled."

Tbh I couldn’t really work out what was meant to be going on at the end. There were definite moments of actual drama, e.g. Otto's daughter declaring her pregnancy and then having a termination, and someone dying when part of the family home catches fire - but there was also a lot of "obscure" drama in that the characters did or thought things that seemed to have huge significance for them although to the reader they seemed to come from nowhere. At the end, Otto's wife says she’s leaving Otto to live in Scotland and asks if Edmund would marry her. He says no: there’s someone else. And I’m thinking "I’ve no idea who that is". It turns out to be Italian girl who had secretly loved him all along, although he doesn’t find out until the last chapter.

I think what I liked about murdoch when I first read her was that characters would sometimes say things that were quite profound and Made you think "yes that’s true". I think there were a couple of cases of this sort of thing in this book but they didn’t strike a particular chord

I’d try another of her novels but didn’t really rate this one (or understand it). Maybe I've grown out of her.

Completed : 18-Jan-2020