Despite clumsy plot elements at conclusion, Murdoch's Sacred and Profane offers great character insights

Iris Murdoch's 1974 novel, The Sacred and Profane Love Machine,stumbles toward its ending, as Murdoch, far more interested in character and in the dynamics of family relationships than in plot development had to bring the novel to some kind of conclusion - a novel about family relationships and their nuances could literally go on forever - and she relies on a really clumsy narrative device, which I won't divulge except to say I was disappointed and didn't buy it for an instant. The ending puts a bit of a pall on then novel for sure, but all said and done it's a novel w/ some great insights, a lot of nuance, and a lot of drinking. Spoilers here: I was kind of surprised that everything worked out so well for the odious protagonist, Blaise, wife conveniently out of the picture and free to marry his younger, less "refined" mistress, Emily. He gets what he wanted, but not what he deserved - and we can only hope that he gets what's coming to him eventually. Hard to believe his new marriage will endure, as both will get tired of each other for sure, and shipping their troubled son off to some boarding school that specializes in helping troubled kids is like putting a tight lid on a can full of explosives. In other words, lots could go wrong - and maybe Murdoch even wrote a sequel, I'm not sure. As noted in earlier posts, her style at time reminds me of Henry James, with the subtle working out of every nuance and degree of interpersonal relationships, through a balance of long narrative observations and lengthy dialogue that often feels like two strangers groping in the dark. Of course this novel is far more open about sexuality than anything James wrote. Murdoch is one of the many really smart, really productive English writers who seem to find a foothold in America but never really become highly popular or best-selling; England then and now has been the last bastion of mid-list authors, and it's doubtful whether an author like Murdoch could have found a commercial publisher in the U.S. Our loss.

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