I found this book so difficult to read. I literally squirm at the slightest hint of anybody doing something socially embarrassing or something self-interested to the point of harming other people, and this book is FULL of that, full of otherwise excellent people doing appalling things, the narrator more than anyone - but the book is excellent. I recommend it unreservedly. The writing is excellent, both in how it grips you through the most difficult scenes and how it describes the variety of the sea in all weathers, something that resonated as I grew up and live by the coast.
This must seem so vague so far but I don’t want to spoil anything. It is a very plot-heavy book, though the story is lightly told, entirely from the perspective of the narrator, a retired theatre director in his sixties who is a walking definition of an unreliable narrator. He’s cruel, obtuse and wrong but remains endearing in his own peculiar way.
It’s a love story too, or a story about a concept of love vs the perception of another couple’s practice of love, and how that can twist your perspective and permit you to think whatever you most need to think…
It’s so sad in parts, but also so oddly content at the end, post-action, when Murdoch blessedly continues the story so you don’t have to say goodbye to the characters sooner than you’d like.
It’s a very well-regarded book: it won the Booker in 1978, when it was first published, and has been adapted into radio plays twice by the BBC. The 2019 re-issue comes with an introduction, though it’s one of those introductions far better read after finishing the main book than before. I far prefer the 2019 edition to the 1978 one, which featured a portion of Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa. That’s a great piece of art but comes with a lot of associations that don’t quite fit the book (presumably it wasn’t quite as widely known in 1978).
I might update this when I’ve not had three glasses of wine. But I had to pen it down - please, give The Sea, The Sea a try.
