Will I love Under the Net?

Iris Murdoch’s first novel makes the pubs of 1950s London key characters as a down-at-heel writer roams the city from a shabby Earl’s Court base, trying to square philosophy, political ideas, and reality.

It brings to life a London where people without money could live in the center, and social life was all about who you ran into. This was a place that was still as much a village as a global city.  

Kicked out of his lodging, losing his way in life and work, Jake Donaghue, a struggling young writer, appeals to old friends for practical and moral support. A brilliant philosopher tells him: "All theorizing is flight. We must be ruled by the situation itself.” (This was my introduction to Existentialism!) On a visit to his beloved Paris, Jake begins to find his way, starts a new book, and finds a new lover.

A grown-up Holden Caulfield, Jake set me an example of someone who breaks free of habit and constraint and finds his own way. So I went to Paris… show more.