Detective novel, traveloge, philosophical tract - what is Murdoch's Under the Net

The narrator, Jake, in Iris Murdoch's first novel, Under the Net (1954) springs off to Paris in pursuit of ... what?, I don't even remember, either his French editor or his beloved Anna, it doesn't so much matte, and in a sense that's too bad because this was a certifiably London novel, with visits to numerous neighborhoods and streets known and little known and pubs and other landmarks, so his visit to Paris break one of the unities (place) - but then again, the long chapter in which Jake walks through Paris hoping to find Anna (well, it's a small city, at least central Paris is, but not that small - so come on) would make a great walking tour for a first-time visitor who is indefatigable. So the interlude in this novel is fun, though as noted in previous posts, you might as well give up on trying to follow the plot, which strains credulity at every juncture. Chances of finding someone you're looking for just by wandering the streets of Paris? About zero. Odds that the moment you arrive in Paris you will learn that the barely talented French author you've been translating has just won the top literary prize. Zero. Chances that you (Jake), a struggling writer who is basically homeless (living on a cot in a friend's flat - though it's never explained how he affords all his travel and pub expenses), would turn down a perfectly reasonable offer to write screenplays and adaptations for a film studio. Again, about zero - but the turndown was needed to keep the narrative on course. So what really makes this novel is Murdoch's smart narration and wise observations, some of which touch on various philosophical issues, her unusual creation of a (male) voice in the mode of an American noir detective with a style that is at times literary and even scholarly. Altogether, the novel is fun to read as long as you surrender yourself to the improbabilities and hyperboles, which abound.