Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Exceptional and unsettling, December 21, 2007
This is an exceptional book, although one whose audience, at least here in the States, probably is rather limited, consisting primarily of fans of Iris Murdoch's novels, students of literary biography, and a few cultural groupies who will relish gossipy tidbits about various notables of the British intellectual elite circa 1960-1990.
By no means is this a conventional literary biography. It is more informal, along the lines of what the title indicates -- Iris Murdoch as the author knew her, which was for the last thirty years of her life, from 1969 to 1999. There is, however, a lengthy chapter covering the standard biographical facts of Murdoch's life from before the author (A.N. Wilson) first became acquainted with her and her husband (John Bayley) while a student at Oxford.
All in all, the book is quite successful at bringing Iris Murdoch to life (including her sexual promiscuity and other peccadilloes and her sometimes rude and squalid behavior as she sank into the dementia of Alzheimer's) and in assessing her status and work as a novelist. As to the latter, Wilson is an unabashed admirer, calling some of her novels (or perhaps, to be more precise, some parts of most of her novels) the best writing to come out of England in his lifetime. Her great theme, he states, is "the chaos of the human heart in its quest for sacred and profane love." Her novels "are a coruscating analysis of the human capacity to turn love into power-games; the most uncompromising scrutiny of what takes place in the tyrant's cage which masquerades as a happy marriage."
That last sentence also comprehends Murdoch's own marriage, to John Bayley, a marriage that is perhaps even more starkly and memorably portrayed in this book than is Iris Murdoch the writer. ("The Bayleys As I Knew Them" would have been a more apt, if less commercial, title for the book.) And it is primarily the stark portrayal of that marriage that makes the book unsettling, as well as exceptional. At times, IRIS MURDOCH AS I KNEW HER seems to go beyond the bounds of decency in exposing to public scrutiny such dark, dank, and dirty -- and quintessentially private -- aspects of her and of her marriage. The transgressor, however, is not so much the author of this book, A.N. Wilson, as Murdoch's husband, John Bayley, who profited off her death and dementia with two earlier books (one of which served as the basis for the film "Iris) about Murdoch in her sorry decrepitude. Indeed, Wilson, with considerable justification, can hold out his book as a corrective to the picture of Iris Murdoch given us by her husband. Still, the feeling persists that no biographical subject other than the true monsters of the world (the Hitlers, Stalins, and Pol Pots) deserves to be exposed as pitilessly as has Iris Murdoch, even if the writer looks on his subject with as much obvious respect and affection as Wilson does Murdoch.
Wilson sprinkles the book with worthwhile comments about various and sundry matters, such as the art of biography, the psychology and creativity of a novelist, religion, politics, philosophy (especially existentialism), and noteworthy literary figures little-known on this side of the Atlantic (for example, Elizabeth Bowen, Barbara Pym, John Cowper Powys, and J.I.M. Stewart). There also is some name-dropping -- Wilson is not quite as modest and unassuming as he probably likes to think of himself - and many anecdotes and much gossip about British literary luminaries of the latter half of the 20th Century.
As I said at the outset, the audience for IRIS MURDOCH AS I KNEW HER probably is rather small, but for that audience it can be highly recommended.
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
useful antidote to John Bayley's "Iris", May 14, 2007
Wilson rightly holds that Bayley's Iris and the movie made from it belittle Iris Murdoch by reducing her to a few schoolgirl trysts and a frumpy, doddering, confused old woman. To Iris, her novels and her philosophy were who she was. There is almost none of this in Bayley's book. Wilson felt that Bayley had opened "a Pandora's box of which he quite clearly lost control. The resentment, envy, poisonously strong misogyny and outright hatred of his wife which seemed to me to come from the books, ..., were things of which he probably had only a hazy consciousness." (p. 9) Wilson was not the only one among Iris's friends to have this reaction.
Wilson was acquainted with Iris and John for the last 30 years of her life, from 1969 to 1999. His biography includes a long chapter giving you the facts of Iris's life. The rest of the book gives you Iris the person. It makes lively and informal reading. Wilson also gives you glimpses of some of the important people Iris knew such as Elizabeth Bowen.
The book also corrects a number of things. Iris with tears in her eyes told Wilson she would like to have had children. Bayley hated children but claimed (with the same sweet smile as always) that they wanted them but that Iris was past child-bearing. Since Iris was only 36, this was a lie. "Like a spoilt child, JOB reacts petulantly to the presence of other, real children invading his space or claiming the attention of his Protectress." (p. 15).
John Bayley became more and more of a "sweet poison" person as the years went on and, while playing the faithful dog, got gradually more of the upper hand. He resented Iris's earlier sleeping with other men, even though he claimed to her that he accepted this and accepted her as she was. As she grew old and her meetings with men were merely for philosophical discussions, Bayley's jealousy grew more open and demanding; and any such meetings he found out about, he put a stop to (p. 57). Bayley was also jealous of the fact that Iris was brighter than he was and infinitely more famous. "Why this pair, [although wealthy], did not employ a cleaner, or a nurse, and why John Bayley needed to be King of this particular castle ... was a mystery." (p. 6)
Iris had a strong belief in education as the way to eliminate inequality. She was therefore opposed to the new education system in Britain of "mixed-abilities classes." "they wouldn't choose a mixed-ability football team," she said. (p. 36).
Toward the end, when Iris was totally out of it from Altzheimer's, Bayley went around with a woman friend named "Audi" in Iris's presence. He also exploited her illness and death in two "memoirs" and in a novel. He inherited the over 2 million pounds of wealth which had accrued to Iris through her books.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Memoir: "My Years with the Bayleys", August 7, 2009
As another reviewer pointed out, the book is just as much about John Bayley as about Iris Murdoch. It also includes some of Wilson's memories that really only have to do with himself (or people he knew that are just too interesting to leave out, like Hugh Grant, or J. B. Priestley).
It is misleading to refer to this as a refutation of Bayley's books and the movie. Opening & closing chapters do slam Bayley and try to "set the record straight" a bit. However, in the rest of the book, Bayley, just as much as Iris, is clearly admired by the author, whose main desire is that people know Iris Murdoch as novelist & thinker, not Alzheimers poster child.
The bulk of the book describes the author's relationship with Bayley & Iris, recounting various stories about them and trying to put these into a context showing how real people and situations in her life may have shown up in her books.
Wilson probably wrote the adoring content as Iris' official biographer; although he never wrote the biography he was certainly taking notes and thinking about it for years. I'm guessing that with the new interest in her from Bayley's books and the movie, Wilson was moved to sandwich his basically already-written memoir-ish chapters in between the two newer, more vituperative ones.
Very interesting regarding philosophy, literature, religion, love & marriage, Oxford, English culture & literati, etc.
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