How to read and enjoy Murdoch's Under the Net

At some point the best strategy for a reader is just to give up on any semblance of a reasonable or credible plot and just go along for the ride, enjoying whatever pleasures and insights the writer may provide along the way. This holds true for much genre fiction (how many crime novels are actually believable?) and, as an aside, almost all the time w/ crime miniseries (such as the one we happen to be immersed in right now, The Tunnel). And it's definitely holds true for Iris Murdoch's debut novel, Under the Net (1954), which, yes, you can follow step by step as the narrator has a series of close encounters and close calls over a several-day span in London, but do they make any sense?, are they in the least believable? No, and no - but that doesn't really matter. Net is a novel in search of a plot that loses the reader's attention along the way but engages us in another manner, as I find myself and so will most readers captivated by the narrator's (Jake's) voice, by his laconic observations that would seem right in place in the world of an American noir crime novel of its time, and by the occasional philosophical observations and asides as the characters grapple w/ ideas (as noted in previous posts, Murdoch was a philosopher before turning to writing fiction). Net is a pub-crawl, drinking novel, and makes about as much sense as most pub crawls: Jake and his friends spend a night drinking in London, ending w/ a swim in the scummy Thames (the best descriptive scene in the novel by far), and in the morning Jake tries to break into the house/flat of a mega-film star whom he knows (obviously this could not happen) and while on her fire escape he, amazingly! overhears her in discussion with a film producer, also one of Jake's buddies, about how to use a purloined copy of one of Jake's manuscripts as the basis for a major motion picture - you figure the chances! Jake then takes off for the producer's flat where he and friend Finn break in again (likely?), fail to find the mss., but kidnap the producer's dog, a film star in his own right. I could go on, but - yes, it's high-jinx comedy and, who knows?, could maybe even be a riotous if pointless film itself, so the best way to read and continue reading this novel is to have a laugh at the entanglements and let it go - this is not exactly Great Gatsby-like plot development.