This is one of Iris Murdoch's formalized entertainments shifting
between Bruno's dream and the reality he finds too difficult; also
between the present (when, dying, he is hanging on to life along
with his stamp collection) and the past which is of course more
alluring. In fact almost all of the characters who move across this
crowded stage with all its symbolic props are chained to memories
while Miss Murdoch explores the metaphysics of life before the
final cut-off when "Death contradicts ownership and self." And
there are many others who like Bruno have no firmer foothold: his
son Miles, with a dead wife who is just as dominant as his live
Diana whose attentions now waver; a cavalier and charming
son-in-law, Danby, who also alternates between Adelaide the Maid
and Diana and Diana's sister Lisa; the twins, Nigel and Will
(Adelaide's cousins), a rather nasty pair, etc., etc. The book is a
processional like Going to Jerusalem and the characters go through
endless emotional permutations. You never know which chair will be
vacant since "Love knows no conventions" although it will be
asserted as the life force after a flood washes away the past as
well as Bruno's stamps. . . . Miss Murdoch is technically a fine
enough tale and web spinner (spiders are also part of her bag) to
sinuously engage your curiosity even where it may never extend to
any real involvement. The reader, like Bruno, plays a waiting game.
(Kirkus Reviews)
Bruno, dying, obsessed with spiders and preoccupied with death and reconciliation, lies at the center of an intricate spider's web of relationships and passions: Bruno's estranged and grieving son Miles; Danby, Bruno's widowed son-in-law, consoling himself with the Adelaide the maid, one of Murdoch's finest comic creations; creepy Nigel the nurse and his besotted twin Will, fighter of duels.
The flooding Thames bring s about the climax, and all are left changed by love and forgiveness before the old man's death.
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