The Bell

Rating:
Summary: very surprising
Review: Like to think i know the Malvern Hills et al. areas of Glouchestershire pretty well but even so this book completely took me by surprise. The insights and life lessons throughout were unobtrusive and the subtlety of putting all these very different people together and watching the relationships grow was really interesting.

Rating:
Summary: The Preverse Laughter of Nuns
Review: The first fifty or so pages of Iris Murdoch's The Bell chronicle how the terminally confused but kind Dora Greenfield leaves her emotionally sadistic husband only to retun in a still more confused mixture of guilt, fear and love. Murdoch's tone here is gently satarical and distant. In that opening act I found her wit amusing, never involving. Alarmingly it reminded me of highschool, when the Literature was rich, witty and clinical. It reminded me of homework.

It is only in the second act when Dora joins her husband in the religious community of Imber that it becomes clear the author is building to what will ultimatly become one of the most remarkable examinations of faith I've ever read. The novel achieves critical mass with the introduction of Michael Meade, the founder of the community. He has always struggled with his homosexuality, and deep down we sense that in a bizzare way he enjoys the struggle "like the souls in Dante who deliberately remained within the purifying fire". He believes that the struggle is faith, where he gets to define his own morality. By contrast the community's other figure head, the large affable James believes in clear black and white terms "Sodomy is not disgusting its just forbidden", unlike Michael he believes that innoccense and authority are the measure of faith. While this unacknowledged philosophical debate wages on, Imber's cast of characters get into such a tangled web of flirtations, jealousy and mis-understanding so brilliantly weaved by Murdoch that we only upon reflection do we question the character's motivations.

Right across from Imber is the Abbey where a faceless, nameless order of Nuns go about their business. We meet three of these nuns, the powerful Abbess who seems to know everything and is always bearing a smile. Sister Ursula who is her attache, and who also is constantly smiling. Finally there is Sister Clare, and as she saves a woman from drowning, Murdoch takes the time to point out that she too is smiling. The nuns are ever present, watching, mocking these mortals who can not give up the world but sill seek the Hereafter. As Murdoch observes "Violence is born out of the desire to escape oneself". And all these characters are desperatly trying to escape. This is coupled by the much darker suggestion that although God exists and is just, he can also be uncaring. Why would he create homosexuality only to condemn it? Late in the game Michael observes that there is God but he may not believe in Him.

It is clear from The Bell that Murdoch is not only a novelist but a philosopher(and indeed this is confirmed in the sleeve notes). The ideas, reflections and themes are far too complex to discuss here. But there are sequences so perfectly and soulbearingly written that they warrant reading the book more then once. What starts as a gentle satire grows a heart without ever losing its sense of humour or even a sense of whimsy. Although sometimes distant, the novel is never tedious. And if there is a lesson, then its the lesson Michael learns "Love ought to be given without fear of its imperfection".

Rating:
Summary: One of Murdoch's best (and a real page-turner to boot!)
Review: This profound and haunting novel features Murdoch's unique blend of religious preoccupations, sexual politics, and philosophy (or, as she more accurately referred to it elsewhere, "moral psychology")--but, in spite of its many-layered symbolism, it still manages to be surprisingly suspenseful. If you've never read a book by Iris Murdoch and are interested in finding a good place to start, read "The Bell."

A sort of psychological detective novel, the story is told through the eyes a leader of a lay religious community who is haunted by secrets from his past and also from the perspective of two visitors: a carefree woman returning to her boorish husband who is studying at a nearby convent and an innocent youth hoping to be inspired by the community's spiritual atmosphere before he goes to Oxford. The plot revolves around a bell missing for centuries and the community's plans to replace it with a new one, but I will say nothing else that might give it away.

The first half of the book is a very British comedy of manners (and it is at times very funny), but then things get out of hand when the two visitors, both knowingly and unwittingly, set into motion a series of tragic events that shatter the faith and foundations of the group. Although I was constantly surprised by the book's twists and turns, when I finished the novel I felt that all the events were very nearly pre-ordained by the actions and ethics of its characters.

Murdoch's genius is her ability to pose many complicated questions and provide just enough for readers to decide for themselves. Are the visitors responsible for destroying the community's equanimity or were they simply the catalyst that exposed the hypocrisies and self-centeredness of the commune's members? Must a person transcend selfishness in order to influence others for the better? Does it take tragedy to bring out the best in people? Is it ever really possible to wall oneself away from the rest of the world?

It seems almost incidental in this day and age to acknowledge that the novel portrays two gay men in a sympathetic manner astonishing for a book published in 1958--yet another aspect that displays the power and forwardness of Murdoch's thinking.