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Read The Time Of The Angels (1988)

The Time of the Angels (1988)

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Rating
3.85 of 5 Votes: 3
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ISBN
014002848X (ISBN13: 9780140028485)
Language
English
Publisher
penguin books ltd

The Time Of The Angels (1988) - Plot & Excerpts

I read the book on the plane. Rather disturbed by it. The plot as usual explores the theme of the existence of God, faith, human conditions, love. Yet the story diverges from Iris Murdoch’s usual. It weaves around Carel, a pastor who had lost his faith. Carel very rarely appeared in the book but his presence was much felt and talked about in every scene. Carel exerted some form of emotional and psychological hold on the characters. Muriel, Elizabeth, his daughters, Pattie, his housekeeper and Marcus, his brother, who held Carel in revere. It’s puzzling and makes no sense to me as Carel comes across as loathsome, morally deficient, deceitful and tyrannical. It could be that he was a servant of God and the rest of the characters themselves suffered from some form of self loathing, weak core of identity. Muriel and Elizabeth had lived with him and had only known him as the only role model of life. Pattie had only been with one man and that was Carel. The pathos of the characters were not clearly defined and the intents of their acts as they regressed only conjure a sickened feeling of an alternative universe of no rhyme or reason. There were betrayals, lies, incest, suicides… If the book was to shake the reader’s belief of the usual formulae of Iris Murdoch, it certainly has done its job. The characters were fully indulged in giving in to their emotions and desires. The story development and the revelation revealed near the end of the book did not restore the equilibrium. It’s an Iris I do not care for.

Murdoch is clever no doubt, but there was most definitely something that was….how should I say this? Either too much, or too little. First of all, the symbolism and subject matter is engaging: religion, faith, sexuality, love, a pressure cooker of supressed desire, it's all there. However, so are phrases like "almost inaudibly," "almost imperceptibly," "almost ….etc." So I can best say that I almost liked the read. In the end I had style issues with the novel rather than plot issues, but I still worked my way through it. Pushed on by a desire to find out what happens to the vapid Elizabeth and the cliche prudish Muriel. So the necessary plot driving devices are there, albeit stifled between descriptive prose that are attempting to be so rich that it was difficult to finish the cake. Also, I read the Vintage Classics edition and found quite a few typos and editorial mistakes? Curious.

What do You think about The Time Of The Angels (1988)?

I'd been planing to read something of hers for a while (The Sea, the Sea, Under the Net are on my TBR list), but I bought this one very very cheap (and old, it decomposed as I read it) in Hye-on-Wye (aprox. 9 months ago) and I haven't read it until now.I thought it would be difficult and weird but it turns out it's difficult and weird and also incredibly engaging. I'm quite aware some of the philosophy escaped me, but I still devoured it and enjoyed it, and I guess that what I made of it is what matters. It was brilliant and quotable and I will definitely keep reading her books. (I apologise for this no-review, I mostly write notes to my future self to know what I thought of what I think)
—Marina

Iris Murdoch writes well. She digs into the human soul and creates striking characters. This novel “Time of the Angels” focuses on a rector who lost his belief and question the good and the bad, to believe, not to believe and wishing to believe, morality and immorality as well as his complicated relationships with other people and incest theme. His discussions on morality and God with his brother Marcus are the significant parts of the book. Carel draws attention to the irrelevance between believing God and doing good in life and makes you think on and on. He is so manipulative on the other hand, he makes all the relationships more complicated.We read the novel from the points of view of Carel’s brother Marcus, Carel’s daughter Muriel, his servant Patti and Russian emigre Peshkov. My favorite parts are the ones focusing Muriel and Patti. Peshkov’s deceitful son Leo and his actions remind me the saying, “Not knowing to do bad and not wanting to do it are two different things.” Patti and Peshkov are also the symbols of alienation in a foreign country.Climax of the events in this striking novel is another point of discussion. You still feel the ambiguity and you may think what if some events were told in Elizabeth’s point of view, the beautiful invalid and mysterious sister of Muriel. The uncanny behind the untold and unseen is told so skilfully by Iris Murdoch, Time of the Angels becomes my second favorite novel from the writer. (My number one is Black Prince.)
—Sera

This is the 10th of Murdoch's 26 novels, from 1966, though it seems to be set in a London of at least a decade earlier, amid coal smog and unreconstructed half-bombed buildings. One of the latter, the remnants of a church with a house for the rector's family but no place for any parishioners to gather, has proved to be a good place for the local bishop to warehouse an eccentric, verging on rogue, priest, along with his young female relatives (daughter and niece), his mulatto household servant (who is also his concubine), plus an old Russian emigre caretaker and his sociopathic son who come with the parish house. Part of the setting is an absence - the mother of every character died when they were young. The priest's younger brother, continually rebuffed in his attempts to visit, mirrors a common Murdoch theme of 'academic on sabbatical failing to progress on projected book' as life undercuts it at every turn. In this case, the officially agnostic younger brother clings somewhat to the comfort of religion by attempting to write a book titled "Morality in a World without God", while his elder brother proves to care about neither. Half the book takes placed during a smog of such thickness and duration, compounded by electrical outages, that the characters physically cannot see half the time. The Gothic setting does not go to waste as madness, suicide and incest become the dominant themes, amid long discussions on the death of God - admirably compact and action-packed however!
—Bob

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