the little bird book review

You know what? I’ll just come out with it: I thought this book was stupid. I apologize for the harsh judgement, but the characters struck me as overwrought and nearly everyone had a penchant for finding themselves in unbelievable situations: professing their hitherto undetectable at (but, of course, undying) love for other characters, or unleashing extravagant back stories on the reader, involving deceased husbands, foreign countries and illegitimate children, etc. Also, I never did figure out was Jackson’s dilemma was.

There was no discernible dilemma.

In this context, I must explain my strange relationship with Iris Murdoch. I was introduced to her by the same person who introduced me to such fine, now-favorite authors as Wallace Stegner, Ian McEwan and Vladamir Nabakov, and so I jumped gleefully in, beginning with The Book and the Brotherhood, which sadly, for some of the reasons mentioned in the opening paragraph, I did not care for.

Shortly afterward, free copies of both JACKSON and Under the Net found their way into my possession, so I gave Murdoch a second chance with Under the Net - and I loved it. Her wit was sharp and unflagging, the story ridiculous but believable (and un-fraught with love triangles! Oh, joy!), her narrator hilarious and prone to brilliant insights, and every single sentence a work of art.

I loved it. And so I jumped into JACKSON’S DILEMMA expecting more of that sort of story - only to be disappointed when yet another character began to stare, dismally, out their bedroom window, pining for a love that up to that point you, the reader, did not even know existed. Bah.

I hear The Philosopher’s Pupil is really good, so I think I’ll give Murdoch one more shot, but if that doesn’t pan out, I quit.

RATING: 2